Big 12 football coach rankings 2024: Does Mike Gundy or Kyle Whittingham take top spot?
Joe MussattoThe Oklahoman
Les Miles and Urban Meyer arrived in the SEC at the same time.
After the 2004 season, Miles left Oklahoma State for Louisiana State, and Meyer went from Utah to Florida. Both were home run hires. Meyer led the Gators to national championships in 2006 and 2008. Between those came LSU’s 2007 national title, orchestrated by the Mad Hatter himself.
The hirings of Miles and Meyer were sliding doors moments — not only for LSU and Florida, but also for Oklahoma State and Utah, which filled their head coaching vacancies from within.
Kyle Whittingham was named Meyer’s successor at Utah. Twenty-six days later, Mike Gundy was named head coach at OSU.
Almost 20 years later, Gundy and Whittingham are still in those jobs.
With Utah’s entry into the Big 12, the second-and third-longest tenured coaches in college football are now in the same conference. Only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, entering his 26th season, has held the same head coaching job for longer than Gundy and Whittingham — both of whom are in Year 20.
Today we’re ranking the best head coaches in the Big 12, and, spoiler alert, Gundy and Whittingham occupy the top-two spots. No other coach is close to matching their combined records of longevity and success.
Here are The Oklahoman’s rankings of Big 12 coaches from 16 to 1:
16. Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State
- FBS head coaching record: 3-9
- Record at Arizona State: 3-9 (2-7 Big 12)
Dillingham is the youngest coach in college football, but he’s been an offensive coordinator under a few of the top minds in the game. Dillingham coached under Mike Norvell at Memphis and Florida State, under Gus Malzahn at Auburn, and most recently, under Dan Lanning at Oregon before getting the head job at his alma mater, Arizona State.
After going 3-9 last season, the Sun Devils were picked to finish last in what will be their Big 12 debut.
15. Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
- FBS head coaching record: 75-49
- Record at Cincinnati: 3-9 (1-8, Big 12)
Since leaving the peaks of Boone, North Carolina, Satterfield is 28-33 as a head coach.
After four mediocre seasons at Louisville, Satterfield fled to Cincinnati before the Cardinals could fire him. Good business on Satterfield’s part, but what was Cincinnati thinking?
The Bearcats were picked in the Big 12 preseason poll to finish 14th. That bad of a finish could be the end of Satterfield at UC.
14. Brent Brennan, Arizona
- FBS head coaching record: 34-48
- Record at Arizona: 0-0
Brennan had the Spartans on an upward trajectory, with three bowl appearances in their last four seasons.
It’s hard to judge Brennan the coach, but it’s easy to understand Brennan the hire.
He’s a West Coast lifer, and spent one season at Arizona as a graduate assistant in 2000.
13. Dave Aranda, Baylor
- FBS head coaching record: 23-25
- Record at Baylor: 23-25 (15-21, Big 12)
The shine of that one magical season has worn off. Aranda has had a losing record in each of his other three seasons in Waco.
It’s OK that Aranda doesn’t win press conferences, but not winning football games? He’ll get shown the door for that.
12. Deion Sanders, Colorado
- FBS head coaching record: 4-8
- Record at Colorado: 4-8 (1-7, Pac-12)
Sanders can clearly coach. He went 27-6 at FCS Jackson State. And winning four games in his first season at Colorado was no small feat.
Coach Prime’s biggest win is making college football fans across the country care about Colorado. How long that lasts, time will tell.
11. Neal Brown, West Virginia
- FBS head coaching record: 66-45
- Record at West Virginia: 31-29 (20-24, Big 12)
The Mountaineers went 9-4 (6-3, Big 12), capped by a win against North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Nothing like a mayonnaise bath to celebrate a job well done.
Brown won 10-plus games in three of his four seasons at Troy, and West Virginia would have reached 10 wins had the Mountaineers not been on the wrong side of a Hail Mary at Houston.
10. Kalani Sitake, BYU
- FBS head coaching record: 61-41
- Record at BYU: 61-41 (2-7, Big 12)
Sitake is in no danger of losing his job — the former Cougar fullback is BYU through and through — but Sitake hasn’t matched the success of his predecessor, Bronco Mendenhall.
Mendenhall had a .697 winning percentage in 11 seasons at BYU. Sitake has a .598 winning percentage in eight seasons. Mendenhall led the Cougars to a bowl game in each of his 11 seasons. Sitake is 6 for 8 in leading the Cougars to bowl games.
9. Joey McGuire, Texas Tech
- FBS head coaching record: 15-11
- Record at Texas Tech: 15-11 (10-8, Big 12)
Big whoop, right? But until McGuire came along, not since the Mike Leach days had the Red Raiders finished above .500 in conference play — much less do so in back-to-back seasons.
Matt Wells, Kliff Kingsbury and Tommy Tuberville? Twelve seasons among them. Twelve seasons of losing records in Big 12 play.
McGuire was an out-of-the-box hire who has so far paid off.
