Big 12 football: Ranking every HC heading into the 2023 season

Ahead of the 2023 college football season, our Big 12 head coach power rankings break down the best in the conference. From those primed to lead their team to greatness, to those battling the dreaded "hot seat", who sits atop one of the most intriguing conferences in the nation?

Big 12 Head Coach Rankings

1) Chris Klieman | Kansas State

Taking over from a legendary coach like Bill Snyder is never an easy task, but under Chris Klieman Kansas State has become a model of consistency in the Big 12. Winning a Big 12 Championship in just his fourth season in charge was a remarkable feat, especially given the level of talented teams around them in the conference. Let's not forget, the Wildcats knocked off a TCU team that went on to finish as the national championship runner-up to life that conference crown.

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Klieman's .600 record as an FBS head coach is one of the best in the Big 12, but that only tells a small portion of his journey to the top of our Big 12 head coach power rankings. Championship success is engrained within his fiber, with the Wildcats' Big 12 triumph last fall his sixth overall conference title. Klieman boasts five MVFC titles from his time as head coach at North Dakota State. Meanwhile, he led the Bison to a remarkable four FCS national titles. Incredible success.

2) Lance Leipold | Kansas

Four coaches have come and gone without getting within a sniff of bowl eligibility since the last time the Kansas Jayhawks finished with an overall record above .500. It took Lance Leipold just two seasons to bring postseason football back to Lawrence. His placing second overall in our Big 12 head coach power rankings is more than just about wins and losses, it's about leadership, direction, and returning a sense of pride in Jayhawk football that simply didn't exist until this season.

The measure of a head coach is how he builds a program, and Kansas is the second program he's made football relevant since becoming an FBS head coach in 2015. Leipold turned Buffalo into a consistent threat in the Mid-American Conference and secured two MAC Coach of the Year awards as a result. He also helped both teams break years-long droughts of being ranked in the AP Poll Top 25. Forget his .474 career win record, Leipold is a born leader and winner.

3) Sonny Dykes | TCU

Search the Internet for Big 12 head coach power rankings and there's a good chance that you'll see Sonny Dykes sitting atop several of them. As the 2022 Big 12 Coach of the Year, alongside a total of seven national awards, it's easy to annoint him the best coach in the conference ahead of the 2023 season. What he did in turning around a 5-7 program in 2021 to take them on a rollercoaster ride to the National Championship Game was simply sensational and worthy of acclaim.

How Dykes follows that up will be integral to how his coaching legacy is viewed. He led SMU to a 10-3 record in 2019 but never reached that level of success again during his time with the Mustangs. An eight-win season at Cal came sandwiched between two five-win seasons that triggered the end of his time with the Golden Bears. He heads into the 2023 campaign with a .564 overall win record and a 2011 WAC Championship on his résumé, but finding repeat success in 2023 is key.

4) Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State

In some respects, Mike Gundy is Big 12 football. A quarterback at Oklahoma State in the late 1980s, he's been a near-constant presence on the Cowboys -- give or take a four-year stint split between Baylor and Maryland -- for over 35 years. Since taking over as head coach in 2005, he's been the most consistent coach in the conference, presiding over winning season after winning season. After going 4-7 in his inaugural season, Oklahoma State hasn't had a losing season since.

Gundy has a legitimate stake at the top table of our Big 12 head coach power rankings. No coach in the conference can match his 0.675 career record. He's a twice Big 12 Coach of the Year and helped lead the program to a conference title in 2011. That said, the Cowboys have had losing seasons in the conference in two of the past five seasons, and after a difficult 2022, they could be looking at a first overall losing year since 2005. Some off-field incidents also temper his ranking.

5) Joey McGuire | Texas Tech

It takes something special for a first-year head coach to truly assert himself amongst his peers, and it certainly feels like Joey McGuire is building something special in Lubbock. The Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach slides in at number five on our Big 12 head coach power rankings following a 2022 campaign that returned the Red Raiders to relevance in the conference. His appearance ahead of the 2023 season is also predicated on something more than wins and losses.

But let's start there. McGuire, alongside the coaching staff he assembled, led Texas Tech to their first eight-win season since 2013 and first winning record in the Big 12 since 2009. They finished with four consecutive wins, including a Texas Bowl win over SEC foe Ole Miss. Momentum is with them, but McGuire is also helping the program to be a force in recruiting. A recent news article compared the program under him to Alabama under Saban. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but Tech is trending up because of their head coach.

6) Matt Campbell | Iowa State

There was a time when Iowa State's Matt Campbell would have been a slam dunk number one in the Big 12 head coach power rankings. He's a four-time conference coach of the year, with three of those coming in the Big 12. He inspired a turnaround at Iowa State, that sadly never produced a conference title for the Cyclones. Once courted intensely by the NFL, a 2022 campaign where the program slumped to its worst record since 2016 has hurt Cambell's stock.

7) Kalani Sitake | BYU

Of all the coaches new to the Big 12, Kalani Sitake is arguably the one who boasts the most impressive head coaching résumé to date. His .622 winning record is one of the highest in these Big 12 head coach power rankings. While people may point to BYU's standing as an FBS Independent, he's consistently led teams to wins over Power Five opposition -- including over now-conference foe Baylor last fall. Siake has placed the Cougars in the AP Top 25 in the last three seasons while overcoming the roster implications of players serving LDS missions.

8) Steve Sarkisian | Texas

The architect of some of the most potent Alabama offenses of recent times much was expected of former Washington and USC head coach Steve Sarkisian when he arrived in Austin in 2021. That had to be quickly tempered in 2021 with a 5-7 season.

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Although there were shoots of improvement last season, an 8-5 campaign doesn't match up to the level of expectation at the Texas Longhorns -- an expectation which is at a fever pitch ahead of the 2023 college football campaign.

9) Dave Aranda | Baylor

A renowned defensive savant, Dave Aranda made a name for himself as the leader of the 2019 LSU defense that helped the program to a national title. He asserted his defensive prowess on the Baylor Bears when he was made head coach in 2020, and for the past two seasons, they've been one of the stingier units in college football. Although he was named conference coach of the year after landing a title in 2021, inconsistency thwarts his rise up our Big 12 head coach power rankings.

10) Scott Satterfield | Cincinnati

There are only two protagonists in these Big 12 head coach power rankings who can better new Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield's .643 winning record ahead of the 2023 season. The offense-orientated head coach rose to fame after leading Appalachian State to three Sun Belt titles from 2016-2018, while in his first season as a Power Five head coach, he was named ACC Coach of the Year. However, Satterfield hasn't led a team to double-digit wins since that 2019 success.

11) Gus Malzahn, UCF

Gus Malzahn sits just behind Oklahoma State's Gundy for the best winning record amongst all Big 12 coaches in 2023. He's also been consistent since arriving at UCF in 2021, delivering consecutive nine-win seasons that might not meet the heady days of the Scott Frost/early Josh Heupel era but solidified the Knights at the top of the AAC. He underwhelmed at times in his previous Power Five stint, and that factors into his initial spot in our Big 12 head coach power rankings.

12) Dana Holgorsen | Houston

Whatever you do, don't call Dana Holgorsen "on the hot seat" unless you want an expletive-laden response from the Houston head coach. The fact that he's answering those questions ahead of the 2023 college football season tells you everything you need to know about his position in our Big 12 head coach power rankings. He's led teams to double-digit win seasons at West Virginia and Houston, but there's been just as many teams below .500 under his tutelage.

13) Brent Venables | Oklahoma

If there is one coach who can elevate himself substantially up our Big 12 head coach power rankings, it's Oklahoma's Brent Venables. The former Clemson defensive coordinator has proven he can orchestrate destructive, dominant, defenses. Now, he needs to apply it to both sides of the ball.

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The Sooners underwhelmed last season -- his first as a head coach -- leading to his initial low ranking. With great expectations this season, his stock is tied firmly to results.

14) Neal Brown | West Virginia

Neal Brown led Troy to three consecutive double-digit win seasons, netting a 2017 Sun Belt Coach of the Year award along the way. His transition to being a Power Five head coach hasn't been as smooth sailing, and the leader of the West Virginia Mountaineers could be singing "Take me home, county roads" with a box of possessions under his arm as one of the early "hot seat" candidates. WVU has failed to go to a bowl game twice in four seasons for the first time since 2001.