Keeping Receipts: Top Five Returning Big 12 Coaches for 2025

Let’s rank the Big 12 Coaches for 2025.

Big 12 Final Standings in 2024

Parody is the word of the day when we talk about the Big 12 in 2024. No team went undefeated. Four had at least two conference losses, including Arizona State, the lone representative in the College Football Playoff. Here is a quick look at the final standings from the 2024 season.

Keeping Receipts: Top Five Returning Big 12 Coaches for 2025

Let’s get to the rankings. In order to find your favorite coach on the list, they had to coach the team in 2024. This makes Rich Rodriguez and Scott Frost ineligible for our list. Rodriguez makes his return to Morgantown after stops at Michigan, Arizona, and Jacksonville State. Rodriguez was a pioneer of the spread offense in his first go-round in West Virginia and will look to return the Mountaineers to glory. Frost returns to the Bounce House in Orlando after Gus Malzahn stepped aside to become the new offensive coordinator at Florida State.

Big 12 Coaches Honorable Mention

We can always use more than five names! Surely, we slighted somebody, and someone will keep receipts for 2025. We hope you’ll like and retweet this to all your friends, how great our list is, or what idiots we are for misranking your coach. We came up with three additional names that were under consideration for the top returning Big 12 coaches in 2025.

Deion Sanders, Colorado Buffaloes
It wouldn’t be a Big 12 list or referencing receipts if we didn’t bring up Coach Prime. Sanders has done an excellent job of bringing respectability back to football in Boulder. Sanders will need to replace his two sons and Travis Hunter in 2025. Buffaloes will have a quarterback competition between two players: Kaidon Salter and Julian Lewis. Salter is a transfer from Liberty and was the 2023 Conference USA Player of the Year. Lewis is considered one of the top quarterback prospects in 2025, proving that Coach Prime’s Louis is made up of both high school recruits as well as transfers. 

Willie Fritz, Houston Cougars
How does a coach who had a losing record in his first year end up on the honorable mention list? (We told you that you might think we were idiots.) Fritz is a great coach and has won everywhere he has been. He had to deal with plenty of roster turnover in Year One in Houston. Look for the Cougars to climb higher up the Big 12 ladder in 2025.

Kyle Whittingham, Utah
Kyle Whittingham was #1 on our list last year for top Big 12 coaches. 2024 was not a memorable year in Salt Lake City. The Utes lost Cam Ringing for good and had a pitiful 2-7 record in conference play. That is just the third time in his 20-year career as head coach that Whittingham has finished a season with a losing record. This will be Whittingham’s final year in Salt Lake City. Can the Utes make one final run for the Gipper?

#5 Joey McGuire, Texas Tech Red Raiders

Sometimes, a good coach can get wins by the “x’s and o’s.” More often than not, though, it’s more about the Jimmys and Joes. Texas Tech has been on a spending spree this offseason. The Red Raiders own the nation’s #1 recruiting class. McGuire has been good in Lubbock, but the boosters want more. It will be expected that the Red Raiders are competing for a Big 12 Championship and CFB Playoff appearance.

#4 Kalani Sitake, BYU Cougars

Kalani Sitake and his staff made a big jump in year two in the Big 12. After some first-year growing pains, Sitake’s group was in the conversation for a Big 12 Championship and CFB Playoff appearance. Sitake has plenty of talent back, but questions around his quarterback’s availability may hinder his plans in 2025. Quartback Jake Retzlaff is accused of sexually assaulting a Salt Lake County woman on Thanksgiving Eve in 2023. Last year, Retzlaff threw for 2,947 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He also rushed for 417 yards and 12 touchdowns.

#3 Matt Campbell, Iowa State Cyclones

Matt Campbell enters his ninth year as head coach of the Cyclones. He has been a model of consistency and a thorn in the side of many of his Big 12 counterparts. Campbell is 65-51 and the all-time wins leader for the program. While 13 wins over .500 may not seem that impressive, we have to take into account how hard the job is in Ames. Campbell is the only coach in school history to lead the Cyclones to five straight winning seasons (2017-2021). 

#2 Chris Klieman, Kansas State Wildcats

Chris Kleimean and Kansas State took a slight step back in 2024. The Wildcats have won at least eight games every year under Klieman. After taking a small step back last year, Kansas State will look to rebound and have another big year from quarterback Avery Johnson. Johnson threw for 2,712 yards and a school record 25 touchdowns, while also adding 605 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. His 605 rushing yards led the Big 12 conference for quarterbacks.

#1  Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State Sun Devils

Kenny Dillingham has brought the party back to Arizona State and sits atop our list of Top Big 12 coaches for 2025. We all knew that Dillingham was one of the sharpest and brightest offensive minds in college football. We just were not sure if he could turn down the Sun Devils, who have usually been known more for the parties than whatever happens on the football field. Arizona State has a special year in 2024 and took Texas to the limit in the College Football Playoff. What was the secret sauce? It was Dillingham’s passion.

We got a glimpse of that as he was interviewed after knocking off Utah at home, with students streaming down onto the field around him. “We fought, man, we competed. That’s what football’s about, competing.” He also shared how he was not much different from the kids celebrating around him.  “I was one of these guys! I was doing this!” It is this energy and passion that could once again fuel Arizona State atop the Big 12 in 2025.

Main Photo: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images