Estimated reading time: 6-7 minutes
ARLINGTON, Texas – BYU will make its first visit to the Lone Star State this week as one of four new members, so we thought it might help to have a guide to the new landscape. .
Fortunately, we only know the man.
Berry Tramel is seen as something of an elder statesman in the Big 12 media, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame sportswriter who has covered the conference since the original Big 8 merged with the remnants of the old Southwest Conference.
He’s been around since… well, a little earlier than that, too.
“The first Oklahoma football game I covered was OU played Iowa, and the Hawkeyes had a redshirt freshman named Bob Stoops trying to tackle Billy Sims,” Trammell said on ESPN Radio in Utah County, referring to the former longtime Oklahoma official. Coach. “It was 1979. This would be my 44th season of football.”
Trammell will be the voice of the Patriots at Big 12 media days Wednesday and Thursday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and has also seen several new programs before BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. So which one will make the biggest impression in the 14-team league?
This will be one of the storylines of the upcoming 2023 football season as coaches and players open the “talking season” with every word broadcast live on ESPNU and ESPN+.
Here’s a few things to watch at Jerry World as BYU takes off in what Trammell calls a “kooky league.”
Is Texas back?
The Longhorns beat preseason favorites to win the league in their final year before joining the Southeastern Conference.
Texas returns an experienced group with 16 starters from last year’s 8-5 campaign — who threw for 2,177 yards and 15 touchdowns as a freshman before joining senior recruit Arch Manning in 2022 in burnt orange.
Can former BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian, who is 59-47 in 10 years as head coach and 13-12 in two years in Austin, finally lead UT to its first conference title since 2009?
Trammell didn’t hold his breath.
“If Texas doesn’t win this year, they never win,” he said. “They’ve been such an underperforming program since 2009, and it’s not like they tore up the conference before that. … Can they get up and win on the way out?”
Which Big 12 newcomer will have the most success?
Of the league’s four newcomers, only one team was projected to finish in the top eight in the Big 12 media poll, and it wasn’t BYU, Cincinnati or Houston.
UCF collected 463 votes in the first preseason Big 12 poll, and the Cavaliers are looking up after going 18-9 in two seasons under Gus Malzahn.
Ole Miss transfer John Rhys Plumlee is one of the top transfer quarterbacks in the Big 12 (more on that in a moment) and while many don’t expect him to win the league, his 63% passing percentage from a year ago should be enough. Keep UCF near the top half of the standings, which may be more than other newcomers can claim.
“I think they had a really good talent base, and they did a great job at the portal,” Trammell said. “Gus Malzahn brought in eight transfers from Power Five schools. And UCF is not the UCF we saw the last 3-4 years under Scott Frost and Josh Heupel. Both are rebuilding after Cincinnati was hit by the departure of Luke Fickell.”
How does BYU fit into the Power Five?
Considering the Cougars are off to a 2-0 start against FBS newcomers Sam Houston State and FCS foe Southern Utah, BYU should be in strong contention to make a bowl game in its first year in the league, according to many projections.
The Cougars were picked to finish 11th in the conference in their first season, but the honorable mention writers think that projection is too low.
How low is it? It has to be decided.
“To me, BYU is kind of a mystery team,” Trammell said. “They were picked 11th in the conference. I think that’s too low; the Cougars would have been higher, but I think Brigham Young will have the least transition to Big 12 football. The Cougars have been playing 5-6 power. Five opponents a year, the Pac-12. They are half done (most years); I don’t think they have a big adjustment period.
“It’s going to be new to them, and Kalani and his staff are a little curious about what it’s going to take and how it’s going to match up. Brigham Young has a long, proud, consistent history, so they’re not really upset. A lot.”
Which new QB is most Big 12 ready?
Kedon Slovis will spend his final season at BYU as a fifth-year graduate transfer after stops at USC and Pitt. But the 10,000-yard rusher isn’t the only transfer quarterback in the Big 12.
Far from it.
Ewers and Kansas’ Jalon Daniels are two of the most experienced returners in the league, along with former UCF signal caller Dillon Gabriel (now at Oklahoma), one-time OU quarterback Chandler Morris (now at TCU) and West Virginia’s Garrett Greene, who lead the last-place-picked Mounties.
But the league has settled on new names, from Slovis at BYU to Florida/Arizona State’s Emory Jones in Cincinnati to Oklahoma State’s Allen Bowman, who reportedly transferred from Texas Tech (via Michigan).
The portal can be a double-edged sword, but the positives are just as common as the negatives.
“I think it’s very important to find the right people,” Slovis said. “Are they a good fit for what you’re doing, do they fit the culture, do they work hard, are they team players? I’ve seen it work both ways. … I think you can do it well, it can also hurt you.”
Is the Big 12 expanding?
Conference expansion will turn heads from coast to coast this year, but the league, recently rocked by Texas and Oklahoma’s moves to the SEC, will have plenty to say about its next move.
Ever since Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark declared the league open for business during his first summer as the league’s chairman, his conference has been seen as the scapegoat in the increasingly popular college football musical chairs after securing future media rights. on ESPN and FOX by the end of the decade.
That won’t change Wednesday, as Yormark is set to make a conference call after announcing “exploratory” discussions with several schools, from UConn in the Northeast to San Diego State on the West Coast to Gonzaga, among others – a member of the football team.
And of course, Yormark’s stated conference goal is the top prize for the so-called Four Corners schools of the four time zones: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
“It’s a never-ending story here, and I’m sure it’s even more so in a place like Salt Lake,” Trammell said.
The latest BYU football stories
More stories you might want
[ad_2]