CBS Sports ranks the Big 12 head football coaches 1-10

CBS Sports’ writer Shehan Jeyarajah recently ranked every single football coach in the Big 12 conference. Given the number of coaching shakeups in the league over the last year, this year’s rendition of the list looks quite a bit different than the past few years.

WIthout further ado, here were Jeyarajah’s rankings of all TEN Big 12 coaches, with added analysis/background on each.

1. Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State

What a last year for Mike Gundy. The mullet-ed Big 12 veteran gave Lincoln Riley a kick in the rear on his way out the door as his Cowboys upset the rival Sooners to swipe their spot in the Conference Championship game. Then, with Riley gone, Gundy assumed the top spot in the Big 12 coach rankings. It’s all orange and black in Bedlam.

2. Dave Aranda | Baylor

Aranda took the Bears from 2-7 during the COVID campaign and turned them into the Big 12 Champions, New Year’s Six Bowl participants, and Sugar Bowl victors over SEC power Ole Miss. Has there been a bigger one-year turnaround in the history of the sport? Especially for a coach in his second season. Well deserved ranking for Aranda.

3. Matt Campbell | Iowa State

After a rough 3-9 first season, Campbell has had the Cyclones ranked in the AP Poll at some point in all five seasons since. Now, in several of those years, Iowa State got off to a hot start before cooling down with a disappointing finish. But five straight winning seasons, including three with eight or more wins, is an incredible accomplishment in Ames.

4. Chris Klieman | Kansas State

Likewise, Klieman has had Kansas State ranked often — in each of his three seasons in Manhattan, in fact. The pandemic-plagued 2020 season wasn’t great (4-6) but he sandwiched that oddball year with a pair of 8-5 finishes. Among Big 12 teams, that’s doing pretty darn well.

5. Sonny Dykes | TCU

Dykes is one of the veterans of the conference in terms of head coaching tenure. He’s yet to coach a down for the Horned Frogs, but getting SMU into the top-20 during each of the last three seasons he was there is a heck of an achievement. Also finished four games or better above .500 each of those final three years with the Mustangs. Solid hire for the purple.

6. Steve Sarkisian | Texas

Sark has a bit of a checkered coaching resume, including firings from USC and the Atlanta Falcons. But he reshaped his image as the Alabama OC and is entering a crucial year two at Texas following a 5-7 finish. He could soar to the top of these rankings or be without a job altogether depending on how the ’22 season goes.

7. Lance Leipold | Kansas

Leipold had Buffalo as marauders in the MAC before taking on the heftiest challenge in all of power conference football: the Kansas job. The Jayhawks finished in usual position in his first season, however, a win over Texas and a battle to the bitter end with superpower Oklahoma made believers out of many for the Leipold era.

8. Brent Venables | Oklahoma

Sure, Venables has zero head coaching experience. But the Oklahoma coach is eighth? The former Clemson DC spent a decade building a defensive dynasty with Dabo Swinney at Clemson. Transitioning to an offensive-minded program may be tough. But no way he’ll be ranked this low again next season.

9. Neal Brown | West Virginia

Brown may be on thin ice without immediate success in 2022. The former Troy coach and Kentucky OC was one of the hotter young names in the coaching game a few years ago, but failed to go .500 overall in his first three seasons in Morgantown.

10. Joey McGuire | Texas Tech

McGuire was a coaching titan in Texas high school football for nearly 15 years before joining Baylor’s staff, where he served as the associate to the head coach last season. Truly a coaching rookie at the college level, never having run another college team, nor an offense or defense. Big swing by the Red Raiders here.