I’m bullish on the Big 12 quarterbacks heading into the 2026 season, but that might be making it too easy to overlook what the league has at running back.
Caleb Hawkins has become a familiar name in Stillwater, yet he’s hardly the only back in this conference worth circling. As August gets closer, the Big 12’s ground game looks deeper than it’s getting credit for.
At the top, there’s already an early separation. Hawkins, BYU’s LJ Martin and West Virginia’s Cam Cook look like the league’s first tier, at least for now. That could change once the games start, but those three have already built a strong case.
Hawkins and Cook were both named Walter Camp Preseason All-Americans, while Martin earned the Big 12’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year honor. The numbers back up the hype.
Hawkins led the country in touchdowns as a true freshman with 29 and finished fifth nationally with 1,434 rushing yards. Cook paced the nation in rushing at Jacksonville State, piling up 1,659 yards and 16 touchdowns on 295 carries.
Martin led the Big 12 with 1,305 rushing yards, which ranked 11th nationally, and won the league’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
The production goes beyond the box score, too. All three finished in the Top 7 nationally in yards after contact, according to PFF.
They also all landed in the Top 15 nationally in missed tackles forced, and they accounted for three of the Top 4 spots in first downs rushed for. In other words, these aren’t just backs who benefit from clean looks.
They create damage on their own and keep drives alive.
Kansas State may not have one back in that elite group, but the Wildcats have a pair that can really stress a defense. Joe Jackson came to Big 12 Media Days after rushing for 911 yards and eight touchdowns last season, making him the league’s third-leading returning rusher behind Martin and Texas Tech’s Cameron Dickey.
Then there’s Rodney Fields, who was ninth in the Big 12 in rushing as a redshirt freshman. Fields was probably the biggest portal loss for OSU fans after he ran for 614 yards and a touchdown on a rough offense last season.
Put Jackson and Fields together with Avery Johnson’s running ability - 1,378 rushing yards over the past three seasons - and new coach Collin Klein has multiple ways to attack teams on the ground.
One transfer move in the state of Kansas hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention outside the Sunflower State: Dylan Edwards going from Kansas State to Kansas. He left K-State after four games last season, entered the portal and switched from Wildcat purple to Jayhawk blue.
Because he didn’t do much last year, the move has mostly stayed under the radar. But Edwards had already shown what he could do in Manhattan, rushing for 546 yards and five touchdowns on just 74 carries in 2024, good for 7.4 yards per carry.
He also returned a punt for a touchdown that season. That performance put him on the Doak Walker and Maxwell watch lists entering last season.
Edwards also started six games as a freshman at Colorado in 2023.
The league did lose some real production to the transfer portal, though. Raleek Brown, who finished second in the Big 12 in rushing last season, moved from Arizona State to Texas.
Iowa State lost two backs who each topped 700 yards last season - Carson Hansen, who followed Matt Campbell to Penn State, and Abu Sama, who went to Wisconsin. Baylor also saw Bryson Washington leave after he ran for 1,816 yards and 18 touchdowns over the past two seasons before heading to Auburn.
Even with those departures, the Big 12 didn’t exactly sit still.
Arizona State appears to be leaning on what it already has. Kenny Dillingham brought Kyson Brown to Big 12 Media Days earlier this month, and Brown has been with the Sun Devils for all three of his college seasons.
He’s run for 563 yards and two touchdowns in that span, though an ankle injury cost him most of last season. He should also get help from Delaware State transfer Marquis Gillis, a 210-pound back who ran for 1,182 yards and nine touchdowns in 2025, good for 13th in the FCS.
Iowa State’s rebuild has a different feel. Jimmy Rogers brought redshirt sophomore Aiden Flora to Big 12 Media Days, and Flora showed flashes as a redshirt freshman last season with 58 rushing yards and a touchdown on just four carries, plus a punt return score.
The Cyclones also added Cameron Pettaway, who was the MAC Freshman of the Year at Bowling Green last season after rushing for 365 yards on 72 carries. He adds value in the return game, too, with a kick return touchdown, and he caught eight passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
Baylor, meanwhile, kept its room intact after losing Washington. Dave Aranda didn’t make a change there this offseason, and the reasoning is easy to see.
Dawson Pendergrass is back after missing last season with a preseason injury. OSU fans will remember him from the 2024 game in Waco, when he was nearly impossible to bring down.
He turned six carries into 142 yards, averaged 23.7 yards per attempt and scored a touchdown in that game.
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For Murphy, the recognition adds another layer to a quarterback situation that still has some competition around it, even as he looks like the front-runner. Sullivans inclusion is a reminder that Oregon State has more than one player with pro-level attention on the defensive side, and both will be tracking toward a game that is still well down the road, with the bowl set for February 4, 2027, in Arlington, Texas. [Read more 🡒]