Big 12 Media Days: Best Coaches' Quotes

The 2023 Big 12 Football Media Days concluded on Thursday with seven teams represented by their head coaches and several players. The seven teams at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Day Two included UCF, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and West Virginia.

Here are some of the best quotes from the head coaches from Kansas State, UCF, and Texas Tech. Quotes from the other coaches will be in Part Two of this article.

Chris Kleiman - Kansas State Wildcats

Opening Statement: "We finished our season at the end of the regular season in the Big 12 Championship game here with a big win that probably gave us a little bit of cache as far as what we're doing is the right way, and our kids believe that what we are doing is the right way, and we’re a playing led team, and our players are the reason why we got to AT&T and had success last year.

But it's a new year, and we've been talking about that since we got back in mid-January, that you need to stay humble. You need to eat crumbs. You need to stay hungry.

What you did yesterday is great, but it pales in comparison to what you can do today. I'm excited about the challenge that we have this year, but I know that our guys are going to learn from the experiences they had last year and continue to fight through the adversity that we know we’re going to have."

Q. Winning the Big 12 Championship game last year and then seeing TCU win their playoff game, how would you describe the parity that's in the Big 12 as well as college football?

KLIEMAN: "Well, there's tremendous parity in the Big 12. You saw that last year with the amount of teams that either won one-score games or knocked people off, and every week you had to have your A game, or you were going to get beat. I think that's what college football is starting to become, as well. Recruiting is never-ending. The transfer portal is never-ending. So there are so many players switching teams, so you're always going to have increased parity."

Q. Can you talk about Will Howard this year compared to where he was this time last year heading in?

KLIEMAN: "Confidence, belief. Those are the two things I think of when I think of Will Howard. He's had an incredible journey at Kansas State, and he's had some ups and downs. But he's always weathered the storm. He always bet on himself and believed in himself.

Most importantly, I would tell you as we come into fall camp, the whole football team believes in Will Howard. The whole football team knows that you can win a Big 12 Championship with Will Howard at quarterback. I’ve just marveled at how he attacks his craft. He's always watching film. He's always breaking things down, and he’s always being a servant leader, which is very unselfish."

Gus Malzahn – UCF Knights

Opening Statement: "First of all, we're extremely excited to be here. This is a huge moment for our program, to be a part of the Big 12. A lot of excitement.

As far as our roster, we've returned six on both sides of the football. We have our kicker and our punter back, and both of those guys were phenomenal last year. We brought in 18 transfers, and most of these guys weren't just starters on their previous teams, but quite a few of them were impact players."

Q. The Big 12 is what UCF has wanted for a long time from a competition standpoint, but how do you view move from a geographic standpoint where you’ll have to travel double the mileage in conference play this year, and there's not really a natural geographic rival within 12 miles driving distance?

MALZAHN: "Well, I think the biggest challenge we have is what you just said. We have five conference road games. The new kid on the block, we expected that. A lot of travel. As far as the prep before the game, it's not going to be that big of a deal. The big challenge will be if you play a night game and you get back, and the sun is coming up, getting prepared for the next week. But that's something we’ll adjust to."

Q. When you look at the past couple of winners that have been here in Arlington, Baylor was the preseason No. 8 in 2021; in 2022, TCU was seventh to finish No. 1. Do you think it's not only the deepest conference but also potentially the most open conference for a chance to come in right away and make an immediate impact?

MALZAHN: "Well, I think it is the deepest, I will say that. Those two examples you just used are a great example of that. As a matter of fact, our first conference game is on the road at Kansas State, and that's no treat. Our first home conference game is Baylor. The last two champions, so that's a huge challenge. But like I said, it's a deep conference. There's no – when you look at your schedule, there's no off weeks. You’ve got to bring you’re a-game every week. That's really what stands out to me coming in as a new kid on the block."

Joey McGuire - Texas Tech Red Raiders

Opening Statement: This last year has been incredible off the field. We had over 1,300 hours of community service. We set back-to-back records in GPA, team GPA, and both semesters going over a 3.0. So really proud of the guys. Excited about this year. We've got 18 starters coming back from the bowl game, so have a lot of experience.

Q. After you beat Texas in overtime at your place, you said everything runs through Lubbock. Do you still stand by that, and do you feel like Tech may be in position to maybe be the flagship program of the Big going forward?

MCGUIRE: "I love that question for so many reasons. For one reason because Pat Clancy is here and he is our storyteller for Texas Tech. I told him after that, I said some things are just for the locker room, and some things are for everybody. He looked at me, and he said, I'm sorry, Coach. And I said, you know what, Pat? There's nothing that comes out of my mouth that I don't truly 100 percent believe. So maybe that was for the locker room, but I still believe it."

Q. Considering how wide open this league has been the last two years and how wrong we've been in predicting the winner, do you see any reason why you guys can't win this league this year considering everything that's coming back?

MCGUIRE: "Well, I don't want to say y'all are wrong, but you know, it is. If you go back and look, K-State and TCU, I don't know where they were picked last year. I heard Sonny

The year before that you had Oklahoma State and Baylor.

I do think it's a wide-open conference. I think for us, we have to stay healthy. I know this is going to be coach-speak, but we really do have to handle the expectations that maybe a lot of guys on our roster have not had before.

We’ve got to stay humble. But we've got a really good opportunity to be a really good football team."

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