Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks arrived at Big 12 media days last month in Las Vegas with 250 custom poker chips. They held no monetary value, but each chip featured a picture of Brooks’ face and a QR code directing folks to TahjTime.com. In one of the quirkier examples of NIL’s ubiquity within college sports, Tech plans to promote and update the website all season as its star senior aims to become the Red Raiders’ all-time leading rusher.
Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State’s star running back, didn’t leave Vegas empty-handed, either. He used Alan Bowman, Brooks’ former teammate at Tech and the Cowboys’ starting quarterback, to spark an introduction with Brooks. And nab one of those poker chips.
“Oh yeah, I got one,” Gordon said. “I kept it. Ya know, motivation.”
There should be plenty among Big 12 running backs this season. Gordon and Brooks were two of the best backs in college football last year. Gordon won the Doak Walker Award and led the FBS with 1,732 rushing yards. Brooks was just a few spots behind him, fourth in the country at 1,538 yards, and both are back for their respective teams this fall. In fact, four of the top 10 rushing leaders in college football last year will play in the Big 12 this season, and seven of the top 25. The league boasts eight returning 1,000-yard rushers from 2023 — more than the Big Ten (3) and SEC (2) combined — and only two of those eight are incoming transfers.
Gordon. Brooks. Devin Neal at Kansas. RJ Harvey and Peny Boone at UCF. DJ Giddens at Kansas State. Corey Kiner at Cincinnati. Jacory Croskey-Merritt at Arizona. And that list doesn’t include the backfield duo of CJ Donaldson Jr. and Jahiem White at West Virginia. Or Iowa State’s Abu Sama III, who came on strong down the stretch as a true freshman. Or a handful of other promising prospects.
It’s why 2024 will be the Year of the Running Back in the Big 12.
“The Big 12 is home to the best running backs in the country this season,” commissioner Brett Yormark said.
Or as Brooks framed it: “All the backs in this league are something to be dealt with, respectfully.”
Tahj Brooks finds a hole against Kansas State. (Michael C. Johnson / USA Today)
That reality became a waking nightmare for Big 12 coaches and defenses in 2023. Gordon did his share of the haunting across the league, but even Oklahoma State wasn’t off the hook. Head coach Mike Gundy would meet with his defensive staff on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights to prep for upcoming opponents, and his coaches were consistently warning him about the other team’s tailback.
“We realized what we had with Ollie, but the same thing was happening to me,” said Gundy. “Every week I’m asking if we were ever going to play anyone who doesn’t have a back that we’re scared of.”
It contributed to a broader offensive shift across the new-look, 16-team conference. For so long, the Old Big 12 was defined by air-it-out, high-scoring matchups where defenses were decorative and the running game was a change of pace. Now, numerous offenses are run-focused operations built around a star ball carrier or loaded backfield. There are still the old standbys like Kansas State and newcomer Utah, but also places like Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and West Virginia that have changed their approaches, despite having Air Raid disciples on the headset who were previously known to sling it around with the best of them.
Five current Big 12 teams ran the ball at least 40 times per game last season, and of the league’s 12 returning members from a season ago, seven averaged more rush attempts than pass attempts. Some of that is offenses emphasizing the talent in the backfield, and some of it is a reaction to Big 12 defenses. More and more teams started playing three high safeties and odd defensive fronts over the past decade to combat the Air Raid, so offenses are countering with more two- and three-tight end formations and run-heavy playbooks.
“It’s been a gradual change,” said West Virginia head coach Neal Brown, whose trio of Donaldson, White and quarterback Garrett Greene led an offense that was fourth in the FBS in rushing yards per game in 2023 and best in the Big 12. “Right now it looks like running the ball, stopping the run and being really good on special teams gives you a good chance every week in this league.”
That style change should have a significant impact on the conference title race and College Football Playoff field in 2024. Utah and K-State, the top two vote-getters in the preseason media poll, both topped 40 rushing attempts per game last year. Injury at quarterback fueled some of that imbalance for the Utes, but the program still averaged 40.5 attempts per game over the past five seasons under Kyle Whittingham. And the Wildcats will absolutely look to pound the rock with speedster Avery Johnson at quarterback alongside Giddens and Colorado transfer Dylan Edwards.
Among the other top contenders, Arizona expects to throw it around a healthy amount, but the Pokes have Gordon and Kansas has the thunder-and-lightning duo of Neal and Daniel Hishaw Jr.
Meaning there’s a good chance the Big 12 championship is secured via ground delivery.
“This league used to have 500-, 600-yard passing games. But when you have a talented running back, it’s easy to put the ball in their hand,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said. “And there are a lot of backs in this league that would be the No. 1 back on any team in any league.”
That dynamic has fostered some mutual respect across the Big 12. In addition to linking up with Gordon at media days, Brooks trained with Neal a few times last offseason. Neal got to meet Harvey in Vegas this summer, and the two made plans to train together ahead of next spring’s NFL Draft. And they all seem to have developed an appreciation for each other’s game.
Gordon praised Brooks’ pass-blocking abilities and is working to add that element to his own game, and noted that even though Harvey can beat most defenders with his speed, “he will still run through your face.”
Harvey talked about Neal’s ability to stick his foot in the ground and leave defenders in the dust and how many broken tackles Brooks forces.
Brooks marveled at Gordon’s ability to make defenders miss at his size and Giddens’ low center of gravity.
Neal, who grew up in Lawrence, Kan., before playing for the hometown Jayhawks, has an obvious affection for Giddens, a fellow Kansas native.
“I sent DJ a message a while back,” said Neal. “The fans might not like that, but I have a lot of respect for what he’s doing for his hometown school as a fellow Kansas guy. I have a soft spot for that in my heart.”
DJ Giddens rushed for 151 yards and a touchdown in Kansas State’s win over NC State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. He also caught a touchdown pass. (Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
It’s stoked a competitive dynamic as well. UCF was the only Big 12 defense to hold Gordon under 120 rushing yards last regular season, bottling up the first-team All-American for just 25 yards in a 45-3 blowout victory for the Knights in November.
“There were people saying Ollie was going to run all over our defense, so that group had a chip on their shoulder,” said Harvey, who ran for 206 yards and three touchdowns in that game. “That whole week our defense was pushing me too, telling me they didn’t want him coming into our stadium and rushing for more yards than me.”
Brooks and Gordon said they both try to pick up on tells and tendencies of opposing running backs and will pass those along to their defensive teammates.
“I’ll talk to our linebackers and try to show them how you can sense if the other back is running the ball or pass blocking based on his roaming eyes or where he’s looking,” Gordon said.
Asked how much they measure themselves against their counterparts on a weekly basis, Gordon, Brooks, Neal and Harvey all did well to point to the scoreboard as the most important stat line. UCF has one of deepest crops of running backs among Harvey, Boone — who transferred in from Toledo after rushing for 1,400 yards and winning MAC Offensive Player of the Year last season — and Cincinnati transfer Myles Montgomery. Harvey acknowledged that a winning performance might not always require video-game numbers from him.
“I wanna be the best, but we have a really talented room at UCF, and those guys push me every day to be the best for our team,” Harvey said.
At the same time, there is an understanding that in a wide-open Big 12 where parity is expected to reign, the glut of talent at running back will influence that scoreboard stat line, one way or another.
“Football is a team sport, you can’t do it all by yourself,” Gordon said. “But I know I gotta show up and produce each week, because if I don’t, those other guys will.”
(Top photo of Ollie Gordon II: Brian Bahr / Getty Images)
