Big 12 Quarterback Tier List: Get to Know the League’s Quarterback Situations

Now that the dust has settled on teams’ spring practices, it’s time to take a look at the most important position in football: quarterback.

The Big 12 has gone through quite the quarterback refresh entering 2026 with a little more than half the league handing its offense’s reigns over to a new passer.

To make this a little more fun, we’ve broken this list up into different tiers.

Proven Ballers

Noah Fifita (Arizona): Fifita has thrown for at least 2,800 yards the past three seasons, including a career-high 3,328 and a career-high 29 touchdowns in 2025. OSU fans need to look no further than Fifita’s 376 yards and five touchdowns against the Cowboys last season in Tucson to see why he’s in this section.

Drew Mestemaker (Oklahoma State): You could certainly argue that Mestemaker belongs in the “Transfers Stepping Up” or “Sophomore Surge” sections later in this post, but while he might not be Big 12-proven, leading the country in passing yards as a redshirt freshman has to count for something, right?

Mestemaker threw for 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns at North Texas last season. Two of his top three targets from last season are now with him in Stillwater along with Chris Barnes and Justin Bowick, who OSU fans are rather excited about.

Devon Dampier (Utah): I struggled with where to put Dampier, but the more I looked into it, I think this is where he goes.

His 2,490 passing yards last season ranked 10th in the conference, but that comes with the caveat that Dampier threw 24 touchdown passes, which ranked sixth in the league. Meanwhile, his five INTs were a Big 12-low among starters. Then on top of that, Dampier ran for another 835 yards and 10 touchdowns. So, 34 total TDs, limited INTs and the Utes won 11 games last season? It’s time for me to stop sleeping on Dampier.

Sophomore Surge

Bear Bachmeier (BYU): For a lot of the same reasons Dampier is in “Proven Ballers,” you could argue that’s where Bachmeier belongs, as well, but I think he better fits here.

As a true freshman, Bachmeier threw for 3,033 yards (fourth in the Big 12), but his touchdown-to-interception ratio could use a bit of work, throwing 15 TDs to seven picks. But he’s also a threat to run, scooting for 11 more TDs.

It was an outstanding freshman season, but what should be exciting for BYU fans is that he’ll likely only get better.

Julian Lewis (Colorado): Lewis was a Top 50 recruit in the 2025 class but had an up-and-down first four games in Boulder. It looked as if he might take the starting job from the jump, but Kaidon Salter ended up emerging as the Buffs’ starter.

In four games (two starts), Lewis threw for 589 yards and four touchdowns to no interceptions. Colorado wasn’t quite OSU bad last year, but the Buffaloes went 3-9. It’s hard to put too much of that on a true freshman who played in only four games, but it goes to show that not everything around Lewis was working properly.

If Colorado can clean some other things up, look for Lewis to take a step forward given his talent and the fact that he has a better idea of what college football is all about.

Prove-It Year

DJ Lagway (Baylor): It’s hard to deny the ability DJ Lagway has, but it never quite came all the way together in his two seasons as Florida’s starter.

In those two seasons, Lagway threw for 4,179 yards and 28 touchdowns to 23 interceptions. He also ran for 237 yards and another score.

He’s closer to home at Baylor, where his father Derek was a running back for the Bears in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Lagway is also just a true junior, so north of 4,000 yards and nearly 30 TDs as an underclassman isn’t too bad a resume. Still, given some of the expectation of being Florida’s starting quarterback, it didn’t exactly go to plan, but he has all the potential to breakout in the Big 12.

Avery Johnson (Kansas State): The Avery Johnson hype train lost some steam in 2025, but there’s reason to believe it could pick back up in 2026.

Johnson threw for 2,385 yards and ran for 477 last season — a drop of 455 total yards from his standout 2024 sophomore season. On top of that, the Wildcats went from going 9-4 in 2024 to 6-6 in 2025.

New head coach/play caller Collin Klein should help unlock Johnson after Klein returned to his alma mater following two seasons being the OC at Texas A&M.

If Johnson could be a more consistent version of the breakout sophomore he was back in 2024, look out.

Michael Hawkins Jr. (West Virginia): Hawkins could still need to get past Scotty Fox to be the Mountaineers starter, but from the outside, it seems like that’s the way things are headed. Hawkins spent the past two seasons at Oklahoma but wasn’t able to take a firm grasp on the Sooners’ starting job.

OU had all sorts of quarterback troubles in 2024, Hawkins’ true freshman season. He played in seven games that year, making four starts and throwing for 783 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. With John Mateer transferring to Norman in 2025, Hawkins was a firm backup, playing in two games where he threw for 167 yards and three scores.

Transfers Stepping Up

Alonza Barnett III (UCF): James Madison won 21 games across the past two seasons as Barnett was the Dukes’ starter. Those two seasons saw Barnett combine the throw for 5,404 yards and 49 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. He ran for another 1,031 yards and 22 scores.

JC French IV (Cincinnati): Playing under Clay Helton, French led Georgia Southern to bowl games the past two seasons. In that stretch French threw for 5,760 yards and 37 touchdowns to 19 picks. He ran for 564 yards and eight more touchdowns in those two seasons.

Jaylen Reynor (Iowa State): Reynor started at Arkansas State the past three seasons, totaling 8,694 passing yards, 52 passing touchdowns, 28 interceptions, 1,183 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns.

Jaden Craig (TCU): Having graduated from Harvard, Craig joins the Horned Frogs after throwing for 6,074 yards and 52 touchdowns in three seasons at the FCS level. How does that experience translate in the Big 12? I guess we’ll find out.

Things Could Get Weird

Houston: Coming off a 10-3 season, Houston football looks to be surging entering Year 4 in the Big 12. It’s in such a good spot, that Willie Fritz and the Cougars landed Keisean Henderson — the No. 1 prospect in all of the 2026 class.

But Conner Weigman is also set to return for his senior season after leading the Cougars to that 10-2 record last season while throwing for 2,705 yards and 25 touchdowns and running for another 700 yards and 11 scores.

It was an outstanding year for Weigman, but the most popular guy on a football team is often the backup quarterback — especially when that backup quarterback is labeled the best high school player from the last class.

I think Houston is legit, but should things start to get rocky for a bit, how loud will the noise be to let the freshman get some run?

Things Already Got Weird

Texas Tech: Unless you live under a rock, you probably already know about the QB situation in Lubbock. The Red Raiders brought in Brendan Sorsby from Cincinnati, but Sorsby has been in the center of a gambling controversy over recent weeks.

Now Sorsby is filing a lawsuit against the NCAA to try to play in 2026. Will it work? I’m not sure. It seems like it shouldn’t, but the NCAA’s record in court of late has been as bad as the Cowboys’ record on the football field.

If Sorsby is unable to go, it looks like the job will fall to sophomore Will Hammond. In the past, Hammond was solid in some spot work for an injured Behren Morton. Hammond played in eight games, throwing for 680 yards and seven TDs to three picks. He tore his ACL late in the year, though. ESPN reported this week that he is expected to be cleared on Aug. 21 — about two weeks before the Red Raiders open their season against Abilene Christian.

Still Battling

Arizona State: Having lost Sam Leavitt to LSU, Kenny Dillingham will break in a new QB in 2026. The two most-likely candidates are probably Kentucky transfer Cutter Boley and Michigan transfer Mikey Keene.

Boley played 11 games at Kentucky last season, throwing for 2,160 yards and 15 touchdowns to 12 INTs. Keene didn’t play in his lone year at Michigan last season but has previously played at UCF and Fresno State. In 39 career games, Keene has thrown for 8,245 yards and 65 touchdowns to 28 INTs.

Kansas: It feels like it’s been a decade sine KU went into a season without Jalon Daniels. Now two of his backups are doing battle to takeover.

It looks like it’ll be either Cole Ballard or Isaiah Marshall taking snaps in Lawrence.

In 15 games across three seasons, Ballard has completed 55% of his passes for 445 yards, three touchdowns and four picks.

In nine games last season, Marshall threw for 28 yards on three attempts while running for 160 yards on 15 attempts.