It’s always ranking season somewhere, and as we barrel toward the 2025 Big 12 football slate, two of 247Sports’ sharpest minds—Bud Elliott and Smoke Dixon—have dropped their early top-five quarterbacks in the league.
Start with Sam Leavitt, the redshirt freshman who shocked the league by not only winning the Arizona State job early but leading the Sun Devils to an 11–3 finish and a Big 12 title. He threw for 2,885 yards and 24 touchdowns while adding 443 rushing yards and five more scores on the ground. His 150.1 passer rating was fourth in the conference, and while he didn’t play in an Air Raid system like some of his peers, his knack for big moments—like that four-touchdown day in the Big 12 Championship—made him the obvious pick for both analysts.
Sawyer Robertson came into his own after a shaky September at Baylor, ultimately throwing for 3,071 yards and 28 touchdowns against just eight picks. His QBR (83.7) led all Big 12 starters, and he closed the season on a six-game win streak that saved Dave Aranda’s job. He’s a gunslinger, no doubt, but his improved accuracy down the stretch (67.9% completion over the final five games) might be the biggest reason Baylor is a dark horse heading into the fall.
Josh Hoover doesn’t get the same love from NFL Draft folks, but he produced like a star in Fort Worth. He led the conference with 3,949 passing yards and finished second in total touchdowns (27), operating Kendal Briles’ offense with the kind of consistency that had TCU back in the postseason picture. His final regular season performance—a four-touchdown performance in 45-17 rout of Kansas—was one of the best games of his career, as he completed 74.2% of his attempts and had full command of the offense.
After that, things get more subjective.
Avery Johnson didn’t light the world on fire statistically, but Kansas State found a future cornerstone with him in the run-pass option game. Johnson threw for 2,712 yards and 25 touchdowns but was also K-State’s most dynamic rusher with 605 yards and seven scores. His 58.3% completion rate shows he still has room to grow as a passer, but his ceiling is as high as anyone’s on this list.
Rocco Becht, meanwhile, was the most stable presence in the league. Iowa State’s sophomore threw for 3,505 yards and 25 touchdowns, ran for eight more, and closed the season by leading the Cyclones to the Big 12 title game and an iconic Pop-Tarts Bowl win over Miami. His performance in that game—where he earned MVP honors—cemented him as a top-five quarterback going into 2025.
So what do we make of the order?
Elliott and Dixon both nailed the top three—Leavitt, Robertson, and Hoover—in that order. That part’s hard to argue. But after that, they split. Bud has Avery Johnson at No. 4 and Rocco Becht at No. 5, while Smoke flips the two. Honestly, it comes down to how much you value high-end explosiveness versus week-to-week consistency. Johnson’s upside is enormous, but Becht’s full-season résumé is harder to poke holes in.
Both lists are defensible—and in a year where there’s no telling who will come out on top of the league, that kind of QB debate is exactly what makes the Big 12 worth watching.
