West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen says Big 12 quarterbacks could rival league’s pass-happy era

In Big 12 football history, no quarterback crop can compare to the collection that led teams from 2007-09. Six of the top eight leaders in career passing yards played in least one of those seasons, and one who didn’t, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, won the 2008 Heisman Trophy.

Others in that era included the Sooners’ Landry Jones, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell, Texas’ Colt McCoy, Missouri’s Chase Daniel, Kansas’ Todd Reesing and Iowa State’s Bret Meyer.

West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, who saw many of those quarterbacks as Tech’s offensive coordinator in 2007, says this year’s group could approach that era.

“This reminds me of some of those years, where we had a lot of guys who were returning guys,” Holgorsen said.

Among the holdovers are Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, who finished fourth in last season’s Heisman voting, Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph, Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes and the Mountaineers’ Skyler Howard.

Those seasons produced some incredible offensive numbers. The Sooners led the nation in scoring in 2008 at 51.1 points per game. In 2007, Tech averaged 470.3 passing yards per game. Also in 2007, Nebraska surrendered 76 points to Kansas one weekend and scored 73 on Kansas State the next.

The Big 12 is back to putting up crazy numbers. Last season, TCU averaged 39 points per game, and that was good for fifth in the conference.

“You’ve got to score points because there is so many good quarterbacks and so much good skill and great offensive minds in this league that 35 points a game isn’t going to get it done all the time,” Holgorsen said.

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 4:26 PM with the headline "West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen says Big 12 quarterbacks could rival league’s pass-happy era."