Season Preview: One Player You Need to Know From Each Big 12 Team

College football starts in less than a week. (!!!)

To get you ready for the upcoming Big 12 season, here is a player from each team you should familiarize yourselves with.

Baylor: Denzel Mims, WR, Junior 

Denzel Mims enters the season as a preseason All-Big 12 selection after being the Bears’ leading receiver in 2017 where he caught 61 passes for 1,087 yards and eight touchdowns.

Mims was a second-team All-Big 12 selection in 2017 and enters this season on the Biletnikoff preseason watch list.

Iowa State: David Montgomery, RB, Junior

David Montgomery was vital to the Cyclones’ impressive 8-5 record in 2017. Montgomery made the All-Big 12 first team after finishing with 1,146 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns as a sophomore.

I didn’t even know people kept this stat, but apparently, Montgomery led the nation in forced missed tackles with 109 in 2017. The folks at Pro Football Focus are high on him, as he was named to the site’s All-American first team last year.

Kansas: Perry Ellis, PF, Senior Joe Dineen Jr., LB, Senior

If you asked me who led the nation in tackles per game in 2017, Kansas might be the last place I looked. Nonetheless, Joe Dineen Jr. is that man.

Dineen was a part of 137 tackles last season and also led the conference in tackles for loss with 25, a KU single season record.

Kansas State: Alex Barnes, RB, Junior

I wrote our schedule preview for Kansas State a few days ago, where I talked a little more in depth about the Wildcats’ quarterback battle and returners in the secondary, but nowhere in it did I mention Alex Barnes.

Entering this season, Barnes’ 6.2 yards per carry ranks first in K-State’s history. His total yardage numbers aren’t crazy, at 819 in 2017, but in his 202 collegiate carries, this guy will get you a first down every two carries.

Oklahoma: Rodney Anderson, RB, Redshirt Junior

It really is the year of the running back, huh? The Sooners enter this season with some question marks at quarterback, but one guy they will be able to count on is Rodney Anderson.

Named to the All-Big 12 second team in 2017, Anderson played in all 14 of OU’s games, but started only seven. He had 1,166 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 189 carries and added to that with 281 receiving yards and five more touchdowns.

Oklahoma State: Justice Hill, RB, Junior

I thought about pulling out a dark horse for Oklahoma State, given how much we’ve mentioned Justice Hill throughout his first two seasons, but in the end I thought it would’ve been odd to put anyone else on this list.

Hill enters his first season as the face of the program after racking up 2,609 rushing yard and 21 touchdowns in his first two seasons. He led the conference in carries, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and average yards per game in 2017 on his was to first team All-Big 12 honors.

Gundy has said this preseason he wants to keep Hill around 15 carries a game this season with the depth the Cowboys have at the position. He averaged about 21 a carries a game in 2017.

TCU: Ben Banogu, DE, Senior

In his first season in the Big 12 in 2017, Ben Banogu was a first-team all-conference member, recording 49 tackles, three forced fumbles and 8.5 sacks, the second most in the Big 12.

Banogu enters this season as the Big 12’s preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

Texas: Sam Ehlinger, QB, Sophomore

Is Texas football back? I don’t know, but a guy who will play a big part in answering that question is recently named starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

Ehlinger led the Longhorns in rushing and passing yards in 2017, despite playing in only nine games. He had 13 total touchdowns (11 passing and two rushing), but he also threw seven interceptions.

Texas Tech: Dakota Allen, LB, Senior

I’d like to preface this by saying, if you haven’t seen Netflix’s “Last Chance U,” you need to.

Allen finished seventh in the Big 12 last season with 101 tackles and is on the preseason All-Big 12 team. He is in his second stint at Texas Tech after he spent the 2016 season at East Mississippi Community College. Upon his return, Allen was voted as a team captain before the 2017 season started.

West Virginia: Will Grier, QB, Senior

 

OSU fans might have a hard time believing that Will Grier is a preseason All-American after he tossed four interceptions in his meeting with the Cowboys last season, but Grier and teammate David Sills are the only Big 12 players who made the lists.

In 2017, Grier completed 250 passes for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns, and his team enters the season as a dark horse to win the Big 12.