Big 12 Media Days are in the books, and now the talk turns from podium answers to the kind of pressure that shows up once the games start. With all 16 coaches having taken their turn in Frisco, Texas, a few situations stand out as especially uneasy heading toward 2026.
Dave Aranda is one of them at Baylor. He opened his Tuesday session by taking responsibility for what happened last season, when the Bears finished 5-7 and missed a bowl game.
Aranda is no longer calling defensive plays, either. He’s handed that job to Joe Klanderman, who came over from Kansas State, and the defense is moving to a new scheme with Aranda stepping back and letting Klanderman run it.
When Aranda talked about fall workouts, he focused on getting McLane Stadium full. He also described the scoreboard as “a distraction” when asked about what Baylor needs to do in the fourth quarter after losing three one-score games last year.
Aranda is already on the hot seat, and nothing from his media day appearance suggested that 2026 will be any easier.
Deion Sanders is in a different kind of spot at Colorado, but the tension is real there too. He’s entering his fourth season, and the program is coming off a 3-9 year, which makes all the talk about energy and personality land differently than it did when the Buffaloes were winning close to 10 games and flirting with a Big 12 title game run.
Sanders did come across as more locked in than he did a year ago, and he referenced beating cancer as part of that shift. Still, his time at the podium often felt more like a show than a season preview.
When asked why he’s not in the EA video game, he said, “If I’m not in the game, that mean they weren’t paying enough.” And when asked what might surprise outsiders about his team this year, he answered, “Well, we better win.
That’s going to be the surprise.” He also skipped his breakout session.
Sanders was more revealing in one-on-one interviews with national media, but Colorado’s situation has another layer now that Rick George, the man who hired him, is retired and Fernando Lovo is the new athletic director. Another 3-9 season would crank up the pressure quickly, and the jokes won’t cover that.
Utah’s Morgan Scalley might be the most uncertain case of the bunch. He’s never coached outside the state of Utah, he played at Utah, and now he’s taking over for Kyle Whittingham, whose exit was not exactly smooth.
That leaves the Utes with a fork in the road. One path is obvious: Scalley steps in and keeps Utah in the Big 12 race right away.
The team won 11 games last season, came close to the conference title game, and has Devon Dampier back at quarterback. The other path is much harsher: Scalley looks overwhelmed, the roster turnover - with just five returning starters - drags the Utes down, and the program slides back to .500 or worse.
His media day session didn’t make it any clearer which direction this is headed. One could make a similar argument about Kansas State’s Collin Klein, but Scalley has more riding on an average or below-average season than Klein does.
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