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Big 12 Notes – Postseason
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January 7th
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Big 12 Coaches Grades: Coach Prime gets an “A” for 2024; Three get “F’s”
From Heartland College Sports … With the Big 12 football season in the books, it is time to go back and review how the head coaches performed throughout the 2024 season.
I was never much of a student myself, but I am familiar with how grading works.
Instead of being the student, I will be the one handing out grades this year. Let’s get started.
- Kenny Dillingham – Arizona State … A+
- Matt Campbell – Iowa State … A+
- Kalani Sitake – BYU … A
- Deion Sanders – Colorado … A … In 2022, Deion Sanders took over one of the worst Power Four programs in college football. Now, in just his second season in Boulder, the man won nine games in the regular season. I am not saying that Deion is capable of working miracles, but what he has already proven he can do isn’t far off.
- Dave Aranda – Baylor … B+
- Sonny Dykes – TCU … B+
- Joey McGuire – Texas Tech … B
- Chris Klieman – Kansas State … B-
- Willie Fritz – Houston … B-
- Neal Brown – West Virginia … C+
- Lance Leipold – Kansas … C-
- Scott Satterfield – Cincinnati … C-
- Kyle Whittingham – Utah … C-
- Brent Brennan – Arizona … F … I am not going to lie; I was not a fan of the Brent Brennan hire. This past season didn’t make me feel any better about it. This team had arguably the best quarterback/wide receiver combination in the entire conference, and it was completely wasted due to the lack of talent surrounding those two.
- Gus Malzahn – UCF … F … It’s probably wrong to give a grade like this to a man who left, but going 4-8 at a place like UCF, which has many great resources, is entirely unacceptable. While Malzahn may have been an elite recruiter, he just had a hard time turning talent into wins. Have fun at Florida State, Gus.
- Mike Gundy – Oklahoma State … F … Do I really need to say anything here? This team was supposed to compete for a Big 12 title with all the returning starters they had coming back, and instead, they completely crapped down their leg. Mike Gundy finished with his worst record as a head coach, and it was the first time Oklahoma State had gone winless in conference play since 1993.
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January 2nd
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ASU head coach Dillingham receives contract extension
From 247 Sports … Kenny Dillinghamwill celebrate the new year with a better contract at Arizona State after he agreed to a deal that will make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the Big 12 over at least the next five seasons.
State law prevents employment contracts of more than five years but the Sun Devils creatively structured the agreement such that incentives could trigger automatic extensions of up to five more years, people familiar with the plan told Sun Devil Source.
ASU also made commitments to increase its scholarship allotment by 20 to the new cap of 105 and be competitive with peers in revenue sharing next season as the FBS model shifts to allow schools to pay their players in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement.
“We want Kenny to be a Sun Devil for life and he’s expressed that he wants to be a Sun Devil for life,” Rossini said of the Big 12’s Coach of the Year. “This was a special season and he’s done a remarkable job leading the team. So we are focused on having those conversations now” about his contract.
Dillingham, the youngest Power Four coach in the country at just 34, made clear to Sun Devil Source after ASU’s win over the Cyclones that his preference was to continue leading the program long into the future.
“I love ASU. I’ve been a fan of ASU my entire life,” Dillingham said. “I grew up saying this is my dream job, this is a place that I think can compete for championships and I think we proved that today.”
Dillingham’s existing contract, which called for him to receive $3.95 million this year, was already extended to add one more year due to ASU’s 2023 postseason ban caused by recruiting infractions by the school’s prior staff. He had automatic increases of $100,000 per year built into the agreement, though his remarkable turnaround in Tempe made him a potentially in-demand coach across the country.
… Continue reading story here …
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January 1st
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Ratings: ABC dominates college football; CU dominates the Big 12
From the San Jose Mercury News … Here’s our look at the best and worst of the year …
Biggest story: ABC’s domination
Disney added the SEC’s Game of the Week to its existing SEC inventory, moved all the major matchups onto ABC and absolutely crushed the competition, often using double- and triple-headers as the vehicle. Of the 21 highest-rated games of the season listed on the SportsMediaWatch website, including conference championships, 14 were on ABC while only four aired on Fox. (CBS had two, including Army-Navy, and NBC had one.) The season could not have gone better for Disney and its over-the-air network.
Evolving story: CFP ratings
The numbers are official for the first-ever opening round of the College Football Playoff. The prime-time broadcasts on ABC and ESPN performed well, with Ohio State-Tennessee on Saturday drawing an average of 14.3 million viewers, the second-largest audience of the season behind only the SEC championship game. Notre Dame’s victory over Indiana on Friday averaged 13.4 million. Not surprisingly, the two Saturday games on Turner networks (TBS and TNT), which faced direct competition from the NFL, drew smaller audiences: The Clemson-Texas matchup averaged 8.6 million viewers while SMU-Penn State drew 6.4 million.
Best strategic move: Fox College Football Fridays
This season marked the debut of Fox’s Friday package of Big Ten games, with the West Coast schools providing much of the inventory. The approach worked well, with some Friday games drawing in excess of 2 million viewers. While that number compares poorly to the major Saturday games, it’s approximately the same audience that previously watched the ‘Friday Night Smackdown’ wrestling broadcasts. And it allowed Fox to promote its Saturday football package, particularly the ‘Big Noon’ game.
Greatest single-school dominance: Colorado
Excluding the conference championship, the Big 12 generated 10 games with at least 3 million viewers. The Buffaloes were involved in all 10. Without them — and more specifically, without Deion Sanders, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter — the conference’s ratings would be low enough to be a story.
… Continue reading story here …
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December 26th
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How did former Buffs fare in 2024 at their new schools?
From ColoradoBuffaloesWire.usatoday.com … Take a player-by-player look at how notable Colorado transfers performed with their new teams in 2024:
— QB Kasen Weisman (Florida Atlantic) … 416 passing yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions
— WR Tar’Varish Dawson (Jacksonville State) … One reception for 16 yards
— RB Anthony Hankerson (Oregon State) … 232 carries for 1,082 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns
— RB Dylan Edwards (Kansas State) … 56 carries for 350 yards and three touchdowns, one punt return touchdown
— RB Sy’veon Wilkerson (Georgia State) … 23 carries for 97 yards
— RB Alton McCaskill IV (Arizona State) … Seven carries for 17 rushing yards
… Also … Offensive linemen Van Wells (Oregon State) … Gerad Christian-Lictenhan (Oregon State) … Jack Bailey (Northwestern) … Savion Washington (Syracuse) …
— TE Chamon Metayer (Arizona State) … 29 receptions for 290 yards and five touchdowns
— TE Caleb Fauria (Delaware) … 12 catches for 134 yards and one touchdown
— TE Michael Harrison (San Diego State) … 18 receptions for 150 yards
— DL J.J. Hawkins (Marshall) … 22 total tackles, two TFLs, one sack, three pass breakups
— DL Bishop Thomas (Georgia State) … Two total tackles
— EDGE Eric Brantley Jr. (Florida Atlantic) … 13 total tackles, 1.5 TFLs, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery
— EDGE Khairi Manns (James Madison) … 68 total tackles, nine sacks, one forced fumble
— EDGE Deeve Harris (Marshall)… 54 total tackles, 4.5 sacks, one forced fumble
— CB Omarion Cooper (Florida State) … Two total tackles, one pass defended
— CB Cormani McClain (Florida) … Five total tackles, one interception, one pass defended
— CB Kyndrich Breedlove (Purdue) … 40 total tackles, three interceptions, four passes defended
— S Jahquez Robinson (Auburn) … One total tackle, one pass defended
— S Vito Tisdale (Eastern Kentucky) … 33 total tackles, one interception, eight passes defended
… Also … Players who left the team after the 2022 season … Quarterbacks Brendon Lewis and Owen McCown started at Nevada and UTSA, respectively, while wide receiver Jordyn Tyson eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards at Arizona State.
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