2023 Big 12 football head coach rankings: Who holds the top spot? Chris Klieman or Sonny Dykes
It’s that time of the year again. Offseason coaching rankings!
Over the next six weeks, I’ll release rankings for each Power 5 conference and the Top 10 Group of 5 coaches before a final Top 25 coaches in all of football.
I kickstarted the series with the 2023 SEC football head coach rankings. Then we released the 2023 Big Ten head coach rankings, the 2023 Pac-12 head coach rankings and the 2023 ACC head coach rankings.
Plenty of debates ensued.
Remember, this is a fun exercise and even if your favorite coach is ranked near the bottom of his conference’s list: A) He’s still considered a damn good football coach to have said job and B) That doesn’t mean I hate your team!
With that, this list is totally subjective. It’s my rankings. Some might weigh the overall body of work for a head coach. I take that into account, but college football has become the ultimate what-have-you-done-for-me-lately-business with the carousel constantly spinning.
The job of a head coach has changed in recent years, too. So for my rankings, I take into account recent performance, recruiting chops, hiring quality assistants, sending players to the NFL, working the transfer portal, etc.
To date, the Big 12 has been the toughest conference to rank, as the new-look league features a mishmash of old-heads, a couple trending has-beens, two coaches at blue-bloods looking to breakthrough and one of the fall’s biggest hot seat candidates.
1. Chris Klieman, Kansas State
Chris Klieman has positioned Kansas State as the annual spoiler in the Big 12, upsetting TCU in the conference championship to take home the title in 2022. The Wildcats have embraced Klieman’s blue-collar attitude, playing toughed-nose defense with a creative, coming-at-you offense.
He led K-State to its first 10-win season in a decade and also has four FCS national championships on his resume as the head coach at North Dakota State.
2. Sonny Dykes, TCU
Sonny Dykes ruined expectations for future first-year coaches, as he inherited a sub .500 team and took the Horned Frogs to the national championship in Year 1. It was easily the best season of Dykes’ career, who had just two prior 9+ win seasons at Louisiana Tech, Cal and SMU in 12 years.
3. Lance Leipold, Kansas
Two years ago, Lance Leipold took over a moribund Kansas program and he led the Jayhawks to their first bowl game in 14 seasons last autumn. Kansas won three Big 12 games in 2022 — as many as it had won the last six years combined.
Leipold is considered a miracle worker by many in the industry, winning a pair of MAC division titles at Buffalo (where he was also a two-time coach of the year) and six D-III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
4. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
The elder statesman of the conference, Mike Gundy has been a consistent winner at Oklahoma State — although the returns are trending downward over the last few seasons. Outside of an outlier 12-2 season in 2021, the Pokes haven’t won more than eight games since 2017.
With turnover on both the roster and coaching staff this offseason, the Cowboys are entering a transition phase of their program, so this fall could determine how long Gundy opts to stick around Stillwater for the long haul or finally seek a new start elsewhere.
5. Gus Malzahn, UCF
Gus Malzahn was among the more difficult coaches to rank, as the former Auburn head coach led the Tigers to the national championship in his first season as a head coach in 2013 — and yet the results since then have been mostly meh.
Malzahn did win nine games each in his first two seasons at UCF, and he’s positioned the Knights to be — at worst — a frisky team in the Big 12 during the program’s initial transition.
6. Kalani Sitake, BYU
Three years ago, Kalani Sitake was on the hot seat at BYU, then he ripped off three winning seasons in Provo — going 11-1, 10-3 and 8-5.
The Cougars’ schedule will obviously toughen up as they join the Big 12, but Sitake has recruited and developed a team more than capable of being respectful in a Power 5 conference.
7. Matt Campbell, Iowa State
While Matt Campbell‘s Q-rating has trended downward the last two years (4-8 in 2022), he’s still the best Iowa State head coach in the last 45 years — at a program that’s damn hard to succeed at. Campbell had the Cyclones in the Big 12 Championship in 2020 and he’s considered one of the better program builders and talent developers in the nation.
8. Dave Aranda, Baylor
Dave Aranda is one of the most respected coaches in the whole industry, but he’s had a strange start to his head coaching career. It’s been a total rollercoaster ride for three seasons.
Aranda had a terrible 2-7 debut during the difficult COVID season, only to rebound by leading the Bears to a Big 12 Championship and a Top 5 finish in 2021 — a terrific 12-2 season with ranked wins over Iowa State, BYU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Ole Miss.
But then Baylor suffered another losing season last fall (6-7), as the preseason pick to repeat in the Big 12 dropped four straight to end the year after a 6-3 start.
9. Joey McGuire, Texas Tech
Outshined by the likes of Sonny Dykes, Lincoln Riley and Kalen DeBoer, Joey McGuire had one of the more impressive Year 1 showings as a head coach in 2022. The Red Raiders beat Texas and Oklahoma in the same season for the first time in school history.
They had their best over record in 13 years (8-5), and McGuire, who was brought to Lubbock because of his deep ties in the state of Texas, signed a Top 25 recruiting class in his first full cycle.
10. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
Steve Sarkisian is a terrific play-caller, schemer and developer of quarterbacks, but he’s consistently underwhelmed as a head coach. Despite stops at three major programs — Washington, USC and Texas — Sark has just a single nine-win season in nine years.
In two seasons at Texas, Sarkisian has recruited some of the best talent in the country (5-star QBs Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning) but his teams have had a propensity to cough up wins late in games. The Longhorns will be the favorites to win the league in 2022, so will that change?
11. Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Similarly to Mario Cristobal at Miami, Brent Venables’ team face-planted in his first season at Oklahoma. The Sooners were a preseason Top 10 team, but after a 3-0 start, they lost five-of-seven — including a 49-0 whipping by Texas.
OU’s defense was a disaster, which led to the program’s worst season in 24 years. Venables has spent the offseason addressing the team’s issues, though, adding six quality transfers and signing a Top 10 recruiting class.
12. Dana Holgerson, Houston
Dana Holgerson has been a head coach for 12 seasons, and his tenure at both West Virginia and Houston has run the gamut of great seasons (three double-digit win campaigns, the most recent coming in 2021 where the Cougars went 12-2 and lost to Cincy in the AAC Championship), so-so seasons (six 7-5 or 8-4 years) and awful seasons (three losing years).
Like his mentor Mike Leach, Holgerson has never been very interested in recruiting, but he’s a brilliant offensive coach. The Cougars went 8-5 in 2022, losing multiple shootouts including one of the highest-scoring games in history (77-63 loss to SMU). Five years ago, Holgerson left WVU because of the school’s inability to compete in the Big 12, and now he’s back in the conference, albeit at a program with more upside.
13. Scott Satterfield, Cincy
Scott Satterfield was a successful head coach for six seasons at Appalachian State (three double-digit win years, three straight Sun Belt titles), but that track record of consistency did not follow him to Louisville.
For four seasons, Satterfield frustrated the Cardinals’ faithful, finishing no better than 8-5 (Year 1) with a pair of losing seasons sandwiched in the middle. Louisville went 7-5 under Satterfield last fall, and he parlayed the unexpected opening at Cincy for a fresh start by resetting his coaching clock were job security will no longer be an issue for several years.
Now he’s tasked with transitioning the Bearcats, the recent king’s of the G5, into the Big 12. Good luck.
14. Neal Brown, West Virginia
Neal Brown has three losing seasons in four years at West Virginia, and the former Troy head coach is “keenly aware” that the 2023 season is a “we need to win” year for the Mountaineers.
WVU fired its athletics director last November, putting more pressure on Brown to show signs of growth within the program next season.
The Mountaineers were awful defensively in 2022, and have been hit hard by the transfer portal the last two seasons. Barring an unexpected turnaround, Brown isn’t likely the long-term answer at WVU.