It is time.

There are around three weeks until college football returns in full force, with contenders and pretenders alike putting it all on the line every week for a win.

The Big 12 promises to be one of the deeper conferences in the country, though there are certainly tiers. The general media consensus is that Oklahoma and Texas stand at the top (with the Sooners being the favorite) while a group of dark horses consisting of Iowa State, TCU, Baylor, and Oklahoma State could run the table if they get hot, and will at the very least be potential road blocks for the favorites to have to handle.

There are also certainly tiers to the quarterback position, and various questions to be answered from each one of them.

The following is my best attempt to rank the probable starting quarterbacks of the Big 12 based on general tiers. So here it is, The Food Chain of the Big 12 QB:

Tier 1: The Top

1. Sam Ehlinger – Texas

In the span of less than one year, the junior from Westlake has gone from hearing calls to be replaced by Shane Buechele after an 0-1 start to being the clear QB face of the Big 12, in much the same way Colt McCoy came to be seen in the late aughts. His stranglehold on that spot would be even tighter if his now Bradford-esque counterpart Jalen Hurts hadn’t decided to transfer to Oklahoma. Still, accounting for 41 touchdowns last year in addition to a Big 12 Championship appearance makes him the clear cut “guy” atop the conference.

He has been unwilling to let anything bother him this offseason, stressing to reporters that it really is simple to ignore controversy and criticism online, while not going offline altogether. With a ground game that will still be as good as last year’s, as the team adds Jordan Whittington in the backfield and lineman Parker Braun from Georgia Tech, there’s not much defensive coordinators can do to pressure Ehlinger in a new way.

For the first time in his career, the QB job is his and his alone, but once again, all eyes are on Ehlinger, though now it is the entire country watching to see if he can rise up to the Heisman and College Football Playoff hype that the media has built around him. Still, until there is regression, this is Ehlinger’s conference, and we’re just living in it.

2. Jalen Hurts – Oklahoma

Dread it. Run from it. Oklahoma’s new Heisman winning transfer quarterback arrives all the same.

The Sooners shot Kyler Murray to the Cardinals as the No. 1 overall pick and are reloading the clip with a Heisman-caliber quarterback that has everything on a typical college QB legend resume minus being replaced by Tagovailoa in the middle of the 2018 National Championship Game.

Hurts is the complete package, with the ability to take off in a similar vein to his Longhorn counterpart, and has more championship experience than any QB in the conference by far.

Still, it’s a new conference for Hurts to get adjusted to in terms of pace of play, and even more importantly, a new team and system. However, Hurts played a relatively similar type of ball at Alabama, and as one of the smartest and adaptable QBs in all of college football, there will be no trouble adjusting.

Not counting the opener against Houston, there isn’t a potentially formidable challenge for the Sooners until Texas Tech in Week 4, followed by Kansas before this year’s Red River Showdown, so Oklahoma and Hurts have plenty of time to get warmed up before making their annual push for a Big 12 title and a Playoff appearance.

Tier 2: The Pretty Solid

3. Brock Purdy – Iowa State

The Cyclones went 7-2 with the then-rookie QB Purdy at the helm, capped off by an Alamo Bowl victory.

David Montgomery and Hakeem Butler – two of the best players in Iowa State history – are gone now, but year 4 of Matt Campbell brings just as much hope as there was around this time last year, when the Cyclones were coming off an 8-5 campaign.

Hopefully this year won’t dash those hopes as quickly as last year, when the team from Ames started 0-2.

Purdy’s game management surprised many in the Big 12, and despite the fact that teams will now have film on his tendencies, he has proven himself to be reliable through a near-complete season and will continue to be a developing weapon, likely in the same vein as his Big 12 counterpart Ehlinger.

4. Charlie Brewer – Baylor

College football teams’ ceilings are – like it or not – ultimately determined by the adeptness of their quarterback to guide them. As such, it would be grossly unfair to discount Brewer, who oversaw the now-contender Bears’ rise from a 1-11, 2017 campaign to a 7-6 season finishing with a Texas Bowl win over Vanderbilt.

Matt Rhule brought in excitement and a resume of bringing unprecedented success to football programs (e.g. Temple’s back-to-back 10-win seasons). Baylor’s climb in the win column has mirrored Rhule’s time at Temple thus far (2013: 2-10, 2014: 6-6), and Bears fans are hoping for the next step, which the Owls took during Rhule’s third year when they went 10-4.

The first half of the Bears’ schedule looks like a cakewalk, and if Brewer can guide his team to a couple of key wins in the back half (perhaps against Oklahoma State or TCU), then Baylor could perhaps take another step forward towards being a contender for the conference title.

Although this probably isn’t Baylor’s year to make big noise, Brewer could make some noise in Waco and prepare for a potential door-bursting Big 12 season in 2020.

5. Alan Bowman – Texas Tech

The only thing keeping Bowman from being considered one of the conference’s surprise standouts from last year was his injury troubles that finally forced him out during the game against Oklahoma.

Bowman flat-out shined against Houston last year, with 605 yards passing and 5 TDs in a 63-49 shootout with D’Eriq King.

The then-freshman led the Red Raiders to a win on the road against Oklahoma State, suffered a partially-collapsed lung versus West Virginia, had a 3-interception showing in a winnable game against Iowa State, and put the Red Raiders closer to beating Oklahoma than expected.

Now, Lubbock welcomes Utah State success story Matt Wells and his crew, and with Bowman at the helm and an ever-talented roster, the Red Raiders have nowhere to go but up.

However, having the Longhorns and Sooners on the road won’t help matters, though Kansas State, TCU, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State will have to make the daunting trip to West Texas. The Red Raiders could surprise people if Bowman has a standout season, which seems to be a 50-50 shot.

Even if that doesn’t happen, if Bowman can remain healthy, this Red Raider team will be a force to be reckoned with in the next year or two.

At this point, Bowman – when healthy – could be the second coming of Red Raider legend Graham Harrell.

Tier 3: The Relatively Unproven

6. Skylar Thompson – Kansas State

The inclusion of Thompson here is probably the toughest for me. No one would be at complete fault for including him in the above tier. However, I don’t personally think that a 14 total TD-5 interception ratio along with a 5-7 record that only boasts notable wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech does enough to prove a spot in the Solid Tier.

Thompson could take steps forward, but as a whole the Wildcats don’t seem to be a legitimate dark horse, and contending with the dark horses will be harder this year (i.e. no easy wins against Oklahoma State or Texas Tech), and a road trip to Mississippi State still looms.

7. Austin Kendall – West Virginia

The Mountaineers had it all set up last year for a big run, so an 8-4 finish was relatively disappointing. New coach Neal Brown enters after three 10-win seasons at Troy, and a rebuild would seem in order.

But enter in Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall, hungry for his first taste at leading a team – following transfers in Norman that thwarted his previous opportunities at every turn – and this team dynamic gets a lot more interesting.

His status for Week 1’s matchup versus James Madison is in the air due to plantar fasciitis, but barring injury, Kendall brings potentially huge upside for the Mountaineers. His ranking here is only due to the nature of his not having been the consistent starter for a team in his collegiate career.

8. Alex Delton – TCU

The Horned Frogs bring in a Kansas State transfer looking to give it one last shot as a senior. Delton has a limited amount of stats for his time in Manhattan, but he’ll be helped along by a solid TCU team that gives him an insane target in Jalen Reagor to throw to.

He should make positive strides, and if playable, can make the Horned Frogs a shot in the dark to run the table.

9. Dru Brown/Spencer Sanders – Oklahoma State

As much as 2 QB systems could work, it is very hard to rank a guy higher than pure starters if they have not even won the complete faith of their own head coach.

10. Thomas MacVittie/Carter Sanders – Kansas

Same logic here, but the tiebreaker is that while the Pokes could be a dark horse in the Big 12 this year and will for sure steal a game, the Jayhawks will be in the cellar of the conference. Whoever wins this contest will simply be playing less relevant football than Brown and Sanders could potentially be playing late in the season.

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