Big 12 Sports Articles

HCS Mailbag: The Most Overrated Big 12 Coach, Win Totals and Iowa State Repeat

By Derek Duke

Posted on June 8, 2021

Welcome back to the HCS Big 12 mailbag! This mailbag is for all you football junkies out there who root for a Big 12 school who not only have questions about your team, but other teams in the conference as well. So, join me, grab a cold brew or your favorite drink and relax as I answer all your Big 12 questions in my mailbag. For those interested, I will send out a tweet (@Derekduke25) every Monday at noon until last call (No, not 2 AM) at 8 PM CT for you to send in your questions to be answered every Tuesday right here at Heartland College Sports. With football not too far away, I decided to bring the mailbag back and it’s here to stay until December! 

Also, I want to thank each one of you who submitted a question this week and for those reading, I am glad you could join me. I am doing this on Monday evening and of course this mailbag wouldn’t be nearly as fun without a beverage right next to me. Tonight’s drink of choice? A Love Street by Karbach Brewing. Cheers!

@bob66668047 asks: Most overrated coach in the Big 12?

Duke: This one is tough for me. It would be hard for me to sit here and say that a certain coach in the Big 12 is overrated. Some may say Matt Campbell out of spite or Gary Patterson as TCU has had a few mediocre seasons, but I would go with Steve Sarkisian at Texas. It really doesn’t have much to do with Sark himself but the program he is coaching at. By the time Big 12 media days roll around, his Longhorns will be the darling of the event because each and every year we expect something out of Texas that doesn’t happen. 

@Schmitty27 asks: Win total for all teams that means a successful year and win total that means the year was a letdown?

Duke: I know you followed up to include the postseason, but I am going to stick with the regular twelve game schedule. So, I am going to list two records for each team. Obviously, the better record would be a successful season and the worse record will be the let down one. 

@DBSportsYT asks: Who is the coach under the most pressure to succeed this year?

Duke: To me, it is without a doubt Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells. In his two seasons in Lubbock, he has an overall record of 8-14 and a 5-13 Big 12 record. In Kliff Kingsbury’s last two seasons at Tech, he went 11-14 and had a Big 12 record of 6-12 before being shown the door. To this day, I don’t agree with letting go of Kliff, but AD Kirby Hocutt made the move, and you can make an argument that the football program hasn’t changed at all since Kliff was let go. If Matt Wells posts another 4-8 type of season, or fails to reach a bowl game, then I expect something to change.

@Mike_pIowa asks: Will Iowa State football get the monkey off their back and dominate the Big 12 this year?

Duke: Well, I think they did that last year right? I mean they went 8-1 in the Big 12 during the regular season with their lone conference loss to Oklahoma State. They even made a Big 12 title appearance so I would say that last year was fantastic for Iowa State football. Obviously, the Clones want to take home a Big 12 title and they have a great shot to do that this season with nearly everyone returning from last year’s team. However, Oklahoma still stands in the way, and it is going to take a monumental effort to take down the Sooners this season. With all that said, I still think Iowa State makes it back to Jerry World come December but please do the conference a favor and beat Iowa this year. 

@ColeConverseIA asks: Which is more likely to happen in 2021?

1. Kansas Wins 2 Big 12 games
2. Kansas State beats Oklahoma and Iowa State
3. Iowa State goes undefeated in the regular season
4. Texas Makes the CFB Playoff

Duke: Those are some very intriguing scenarios, but I don’t see Kansas winning two Big 12 games. I don’t think Texas even makes the conference title game so no way they get into the playoffs. As for Kansas State, I could maybe see them beat either Oklahoma or Iowa State in an upset game, but I have a hard time seeing them beat both of them. So, I would probably go with option “C” because of what the Cyclones bring back. Right now, I have them finishing second in the Big 12 but if they knock off the Sooners in Norman this year, then it is very possible they will be undefeated heading into conference championship weekend. Of course, like I mentioned in the previous question, they need to beat Iowa first.  

Mailbag Winner

Congrats to @Schmitty27 on Twitter for being this week’s mailbag winner!