Prepping for the NFL: How Big 12 coaches compare at developing offensive stars

By Bryan Fischer
Updated Jun 6, 2023 6:02 pm ET

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series on how college coaches fare at developing players for the NFL. Check out previous stories on Pac-12 offensive players, Pac-12 defensive players, Big Ten offensive players and Big Ten defensive players.

Two years ago, the Big 12 had no first-round NFL draft picks for the first time since the conference was formed in 1996. Just a few months later, the league's very existence was threatened once again as it scrambled to deal with the announcement that stalwarts Texas and Oklahoma were departing for the SEC.

The Big 12 persevered, however. Now, on and off the field, it is thriving. Four new members will arrive for 2023 and with them a host of experienced head coaches who have quality track records built up over much of the past decade.

Whether the coaches are new to the league or have been throwing the ball around in the Big 12 for ages, all understand that college football remains mostly driven by the underlying principle of having better players than your opponent. Before you even get to the Xs and Os that are on display each Saturday, having the Jimmys and the Joes tends to be the best prognosticator of success on the field.

But just how good are coaches when it comes to finding all those good players and, well, coaching them up?

Following the 2023 NFL Draft, FOX Sports pulled decades worth of recruiting data and looked into just how productive (or not) each active Power 5 coach was at both recruiting and developing players — and at what positions — when it came to the ultimate eye in the sky of the NFL.

More stories on ‘Prepping for the NFL’

In the fifth part of a series about developing talent in college football, here's a look at how some of the coaches in the new-look Big 12 have fared over the years in terms of best producing offensive talent:

Quarterbacks

The Best: Chris Klieman (Kansas State)
Others of note: Sonny Dykes (TCU), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Kalani Sitake (BYU), Dana Holgorsen (Houston)
Surprisingly disappointing: Gus Malzahn (UCF)

Fueled largely by the ever-productive Texas high school football pipeline, the Big 12 is a conference that has historically produced plenty of prolific signal-callers. Given the head coaches in charge around the league right now, that has continued to be the case even with a high-profile departure or two recently.

Yet it is a defensive-minded coach from the FCS ranks who might well be the one who holds the crown when it comes to the most important position on the field in Kansas State's Chris Klieman. 

The coach of the reigning conference champs has been a head coach for a full decade now and yet has had three signal-callers drafted. That's tied for the most among active Big 12 coaches — all of whom have coached longer overall and in the Power 5 more often. Impressively, all three QBs remain in the league today and the average rating for the group out of high school was a paltry two stars.

Despite such humble starts, the pro-style offense employed at North Dakota State and, to a lesser extent, at KSU, has done wonders for sending guys to the next level. As debated as Carson Wentz is nowadays in NFL circles, he was once an unrated player who eventually rose to become the No. 2 overall selection in 2016. Not long after, his one-time backup Easton Stick was taken early on Day 3 of the draft, and 2022 pick Skylar Thompson even started a playoff game this past season after being taken in the seventh round.

None put up the jaw-dropping numbers that some other Big 12 QBs have in their careers, but there's plenty to be said for putting guys in the right position to succeed. That's just what Klieman has done over the course of his career despite working in jobs that have not had the same robust talent pipeline as others.

Still, it really feels like splitting hairs given the presence of others like Sonny Dykes. The TCU coach just had one of the best redemption stories around after former four-star Max Duggan revived his career under Dykes and wound up being taken by the Los Angeles Chargers on Day 3.

While at Cal, the native Texan also did well in terms of development, turning Davis Webb into a top-100 pick after he was initially a three-star recruit at Texas Tech and producing a No. 1 overall pick in Jared Goff back in 2016.

Depending on how Tanner Mordecai does at Wisconsin in 2023, it's also possible Dykes will have had QBs drafted that played for him at three different schools. As is, his QBs have a median selection position of mid-Day 2 of the draft — still pretty good.

Houston's Dana Holgorsen is not dissimilar in having produced quarterbacks over a number of stops — even if the top end of the bunch does not include a first-rounder. Two of the three he's sent to the league did wind up as top-100 picks during his time at West Virginia — former four-stars Geno Smith and Will Grier. Then this past spring veteran Cougars signal-caller Clayton Tune, who started off as a three-star freshman, wound up going in the fifth round. 

One other coach who is tracking to potentially join Klieman atop this list might well be a fellow defensive mind in Kalani Sitake. The BYU head coach has produced a pair of QBs across seven seasons in Provo, with a median selection that is third-best in the Big 12 at the position. Both guys (Zach Wilson and Jaren Hall) were three-stars out of high school.

Then there's the former quarterback who doubles as the second-longest tenured head coach in FBS in Mike Gundy. His median selection is within the top 100 and earns high marks for range, from former baseball player Brandon Weeden becoming a first-rounder, to four-star Mason Rudolph being taken in the third round.

Still, maybe one can nitpick that for as good as the Cowboys have been on offense over the past two decades, Gundy's productivity could be a tick better given the length of his tenure. Part of that might come down to recent history, given that Rudolph was his last QB drafted and that was all the way back in 2018.

Similarly, Big 12 newcomer Gus Malzahn — having been around for 11 seasons and at major talent-rich schools like Auburn and UCF — having just one quarterback drafted (four-star Jarrett Stidham going in the fourth round) is mildly disappointing. It doesn't count for the purposes of his track record as a head coach, but guiding Cam Newton to a Heisman, national title and No. 1 overall ranking as an offensive coordinator can still be factored in, though.

Running backs

The Best: Steve Sarkisian (Texas)
Others of note: Gus Malzahn (UCF), Matt Campbell (Iowa State), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State)

For as much as the Big 12 has a reputation for developing quarterbacks and pass catchers, the quality of the tailbacks has been pretty impressive, too.

That starts in Austin, where Steve Sarkisian just had two of them go in the first four rounds and is the only member of the group to have running backs drafted across three different Power 5 schools. The median draft slot for the coach's backs is in the middle of the third round and that's significantly enhanced by having five-star Bijan Robinson live up to his prep billing, becoming the only first-round pick running back out of the Big 12 since Adrian Peterson in 2007 (when Bijan himself was just five years old).

Sark also has found success in developing a four-star in Bishop Sankey and a pair of three-stars like Roschon Johnson into early middle-round picks, too.

Others have a quality case of their own.

Malzahn comes close to averaging a running back drafted every other season he's been a head coach and, like Sarkisian, has a pair of top-100 picks at the position. He's had a little better talent to work with (on average) than some of his peers, but has done well to turn four-stars like Kerryon Johnson and Tre Mason into Day 2 players with obvious upside over the years. He's also managed to get a former two-star fullback drafted, which is an accomplishment in its own right.

In terms of bang for buck though, Iowa State's Matt Campbell is highly regarded for a reason. He's had three running backs taken in the past five years and two of them were top-75 selections in David Montgomery and Breece Hall. Both guys were rated two- and three-stars, respectively, yet have found plenty of success in college and in the NFL. Campbell also did well during his time at Toledo, where he uncovered players like three-star Kareem Hunt, too.

Tight ends

The Best: Sonny Dykes (TCU)
Others of note: Steve Sarkisian (Texas)
Surprisingly disappointing: Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State)

It likely speaks to how prevalent the Air Raid is across the Big 12 that just two coaches have produced multiple draft picks at tight end despite nine head coaches entering 2023 with at least a decade in charge of a program.

Still, an Air Raid guy is one of the two in Dykes — somebody who knows the value of the position better than most, having once recruited Rob Gronkowski to Arizona as a young offensive coordinator back in the day. After taking over in the big chair, three tight ends have wound up in the league under Dykes, including former three-star Richard Rodgers II winding up a third-round, top-100 pick. 

The sheer numbers and loftier draft positions do give the TCU coach a slight edge over Texas' Sarkisian as much as recent relevancy does. Sark hasn't yet had a Longhorns tight end drafted, and you have to stretch back to 2015 before ex-four-star Randall Telfer was taken in the seventh round. He did, however, do a quality job in having former four-star Austin Seferian-Jenkins live up to the standards he was given out of high school by becoming the 38th overall pick back in 2014.

All things being relative, only having one tight end drafted does not stick out among Gundy's peers, but the fact that he's been the boss in Stillwater as the boss for 18 years and still only had the one does raise an eyebrow — especially considering that one was a former two-star that wound up going in the first round, but there's been nothing since.

Wide receivers

The Best: Dana Holgorsen (Houston)
Others of note: Sonny Dykes (TCU), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Gus Malzahn (UCF)

If there's one position the Big 12 can hang its hat on when it comes to production, it's likely wide receiver.

Houston's Holgorsen, a former wideout who coached the position for years under Hal Mumme and Mike Leach, is naturally closely associated with receivers and just had former two-star Tank Dell become the eighth player drafted over the course of his dozen years in charge. That's the second most by any Big 12 coach and includes notable top-10 picks in Tavon Austin and Kevin White (a former three-star). 

The median draft slot for WRs under Holgorsen is right around the end of Day 2, and he's someone who has equally maximized talent (three four-star WRs recruited as a head coach pairs equally with three former four-stars being drafted at the position under him) as well as he's been able to find some diamonds in the rough like Dell or ex-three-star Gary Jennings Jr. winding up as a fourth-rounder in 2019.

Fellow Leach protégé Dykes is similar in terms of productivity and can claim to be the only member of the active Big 12 coaching fraternity to hit double-digits in terms of drafted wideouts. Only two of the group have wound up as top-100 picks, however, most recently with Quentin Johnston going in the first round to the Chargers. 

Dykes has especially done well with transfer receivers (half of the 10 started their career elsewhere) and has had multiple WRs taken in his last three stops as a head coach. Given the acceptance of the Air Raid in NFL circles over the past few years, both coaches figure to continue to add to the list, too.

While he does come from a different coaching tree, Gundy has also done well in this department, with his vertical offense producing five receivers — three of whom were first- or second-round selections. The pace he's produced them at OSU has ebbed and flowed, but the former Cowboys player has had a nearly 40% hit rate among those tabbed as four-stars coming out of high school at the position and has a knack for finding speed, having recruited the likes of James Washington (a three-star) and Tyreek Hill.

In seven fewer seasons, Malzahn has interestingly equaled his new Big 12 peer when it comes to total overall selections, plus has had 20% of his receivers go in the top-100 picks. Naturally, he too has leaned on speedy guys to take a top off a defense and found continued success in developing four-stars into picks, too.

Offensive line

The Best: Gus Malzahn (UCF)
Others of note: Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Kalani Sitake (BYU)

In contrast to the skill positions, the lack of production in the trenches among active Big 12 coaches is a bit of a blind spot when it comes to player development and stands in stark contrast to some of their Power 5 peers.

Malzahn for example, is one of just three in the league who have had three or more offensive linemen drafted over the years and that is largely the result of recruiting more highly-ranked players and playing in a conference like the SEC that over-indexes on big bodies.

Malzahn has had four offensive tackles and, curiously given his offensive production running the ball, just one interior guard over the years. Still, three members of the group have gone in the first three rounds, and that's included ex-five-stars like Shon Coleman, and former four-star Greg Robinson going second overall, too. 

Gundy has also had four offensive tackles taken, most recently second-rounder Teven Jenkins in 2021. All four at the position were ranked three-stars or lower coming out of high school, and of them, Russell Okung went inside the top 10 over a decade ago, too.

Still, there's limited sample sizes for the most part in the Big 12. Sitake has had two tackles taken inside the first four rounds among his 12 total picks as a head coach to pace many of the others. Meanwhile, Venables is off to the best start of anybody, with a pair of top-100 offensive tackles (including one first-rounder, Anton Harrison) in his very first draft class as a head coach.

Though it's far too early to say given how short his tenure at Oklahoma has been so far, it's worth adding that his best recruiting job since arriving in Norman may have been convincing noted OL coach Bill Bedenbaugh to stick around the program, because the early returns are excellent and would be trending toward the top of this ranking if it weren't for the program's future departure for the waters of the SEC come 2024.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.