Newcomer History: Getting to Know the Big 12’s Four Newcomers

The start of July saw four new teams officially join the Big 12 in Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, but I’ve come to realize over recent weeks that I don’t know a ton about any of those schools outside of their recent histories.

So, as Big 12 Media Days looms next week, I thought it’d be a good time to dive into Sports Reference and learn up on the newcomers. Here are some of my findings for each program.

Arizona

Passing Leader: Super Bowl winner Nick Foles is the only player in program history to throw for more than 10,000 yards. He threw for 10,011 from 2009 to 2011 to go with 67 touchdowns (tied for a school record) and 33 interceptions.

Rushing Leader: Ka’Deem Carey ran for 4,239 yards between 2011 and 2013 to go with his program-best 48 rushing touchdowns. He has run for 15 more touchdowns than anyone else in program history.

Coaching Leader: Dick Tomey coached the ‘Cats from 1987 to 2000, earning 95 career wins — 47 more than any other coach in program history. Tomey was 95-64-4 in his 14 seasons in Tucson. He also spent 10 years at Hawaii and another five at San Jose State. He died in 2019.

Best Season: The Wildcats went 12-1 in 1998, finishing No. 4 in the AP Poll and winning the Holiday Bowl. Arizona came second to UCLA in the Pac-10 standings that season. The Wildcats had a trio of ranked wins that year, beating No. 20 Washington, No. 12 Oregon and No. 14 Nebraska. Keith Smith and Ortege Jenkins each played 12 games at quarterback for Arizona that season, throwing for a combined 2,743 yards and 18 touchdowns. Their premier targets were Dennis Northcutt and Jeremy McDaniel, who combined for 1,838 receiving yards.

Arizona State

Passing Leader: Andrew Walter narrowly tops Rudy Carpenter as the Sun Devils’ all-time leading passer. Walter played from 2001-2004, where he threw for 10,617 yards and a program-best 85 touchdowns. He eclipsed 3,000 passing yards in three seasons at Arizona State before the Oakland Raiders took him in the Third Round of the 2005 NFL Draft.

Rushing Leader: Woody Green is the Sun Devils’ all-time leading rusher, running for 4,188 yards in just three seasons at ASU. The Sun Devils won the Fiesta Bowl in all three of those seasons before the Kansas City Chiefs took Green in the First Round of the 1974 NFL Draft. Green was eighth in Heisman voting in 1973, his final year with the Sun Devils.

Coaching Leader: Frank Kush is the Sun Devils’ best coach in program history, and statistically, it isn’t particularly close. Kush coached at ASU from 1958 to 1979, amassing a 176-54-1 record. That’s 118 more wins than Bruce Snyder, who has the second-most wins in program history. Kush led the Sun Devils to six double-digit win seasons and four Fiesta Bowl trophies. ASU named its field Frank Kush Field in 1996, and he has a statue outside of Mountain America Stadium. Kush died in 2017 at 88 years old.

Best Season: The Sun Devils went unbeaten in 1975, finishing at No. 2 in the AP Poll and winning the Fiesta Bowl against Nebraska. Running back Freddie Williams was the star of that team, running for 1,316 yards and nine touchdowns. A member of the WAC that year, Arizona State outscored its opponents a combined 347-127.

Colorado

Passing Leader: Sefo Liufau is the program’s leader in passing yards with 9,763 — a mark he put up between 2013 and 2016. Liufau is actually third in passing touchdowns, however, with 60 behind Steven Montez (2016-19) and Cody Hawkins (2007-10), who each had 63.

Rushing Leader: Eric Bieniemy might now be best known as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2022, but he is also the Buffaloes’ all-time leading rusher with 3,940 yards and 41 touchdowns from 1987 to 1990. Bieniemy’s best year came as a senior in the Big Eight in 1990, where he ran for 1,628 yards and 17 touchdowns. The San Diego Chargers took Bieniemy in the Second Round of the 1991 NFL Draft.

Coaching Leader: Bill McCartney was a college head coach for 13 years — all of which came in Boulder. McCartney had a 93-55-5 record with CU from 1982 to 1994. He led the Buffs to a national title in 1990 and finished with 11 wins three times (the only times CU has ever had that many wins in a season). McCartney led CU to wins in the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Aloha Bowl.

Best Season: Speaking of, CU’s best season ever came in 1990 when the Buffaloes won a national title and the Orange Bowl. Colorado went into the year at No. 5 in the AP Poll before starting the season 1-1-1. The Buffaloes tied No. 8 Tennessee at 31 to start the year before edging out a four-point win against an unranked Stanford squad and then losing to No. 21 Illinois. But from then on out, Colorado started rolling, picking up wins against No. 22 Texas, No. 12 Washington, No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 3 Nebraska and No. 5 Notre Dame as part of the Buffaloes’ 11-1-1 season.

Utah

Passing Leader: Scott Mitchell is the Utes’ all-time passing leader as things stand with 8,981 yards between 1987 and 1989. The Miami Dolphins took Mitchell in the Fourth Round of the 1990 NFL Draft. He’d end up spending 11 seasons in the NFL, throwing for 15,692 yards and 95 touchdowns. His 69 touchdown passes at Utah is also a program record.

Rushing Leader: Zack Moss is the program’s lone 4,000-yard rusher, running for 4,067 yards and 38 touchdowns (also a program-record) from 2016 to 2019. He was the Pac-12’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2019 after rushing for a career-best 1,416 yards and 15 touchdowns. The Buffalo Bills took Moss in the Third Round of the 2020 NFL Draft

Coaching Leader: Similar to Oklahoma State, Utah’s coaching legend is currently running the ship. Kyle Whittingham took over at Utah in 2004 and has led the Utes to a 162-79 record since. He has earned wins in a Fiesta Bowl, a Sugar Bowl, a Sun Bowl and other bowls over that time. Whittingham is actually one of two Ute coaches with triple-digit wins, though, as Ike Armstrong (1925 to 1949) accumulated a 141-55-15 record.

Best Season: Since the turn of the century, Utah has two unbeaten seasons — first in 2004 under Urban Meyer (then Whittingham at the end) and then again in 2008. Both of those campaigns came in the Mountain West. Utah finished 13-0 in 2008 — the most wins in program history — and the Utes finished at No. 2 in the AP Poll. Brian Johnson led the way for Utah that season, throwing for 2,972 yards and 27 touchdowns. The Utes had three ranked wins — against No. 11 TCU, No. 16 BYU and No. 4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.