Football
All-Big 12 Honors Notebook:
Ollie Gordon II is the third Cowboy to capture Offensive Player of the Year, joining Chuba Hubbard (2019) and Justin Blackmon (2010)—all three of whom were honored in their sophomore season. This is the fourth time a running back has won the award in five seasons, joining Hubbard and Breece Hall (ISU, 2020 and 2021).
T’Vondre Sweat is the sixth Longhorn recipient of Defensive Player of the Year, and the first since Malik Jefferson in 2017. Sweat is the second consecutive defensive lineman to win the award after K-State’s Felix Anudike-Uzomah a year ago. Casey Hampton (2000), Derrick Johnson (2004), Brian Orakpo (2007) and Jackson Jeffcoat (2013) represent the other Texas winners of the award.
Wide receiver Adonai Mitchell becomes the first Texas player to be voted as Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year.
Defensive lineman Austin Booker is the second Jayhawk to be named Defensive Newcomer of the Year, and the first since Isaiah Johnson in 2013.
Rocco Becht joins Mike Warren (2015) as Iowa State players to be named Offensive Freshman of the Year. Becht is the first quarterback winner of the award since 2019.
Anthony Hill Jr. is the eighth Texas winner of Defensive Freshman of the Year and the first since 2018. He joins Cory Redding (1999), Derrick Johnson (2001), Rodrique Wright (2002), Brian Orakpo (2005), Quandre Diggs (2011), Malik Jefferson (2015) and Caden Sterns (2018) as Longhorns to win the award.
Ben Roberts is the second Texas Tech player to be honored as Defensive Freshman of the Year, joining Brock Stratton in 2003.
Austin McNamara is the first Texas Tech player to garner Special Teams Player of the Year since the award’s inception in 2005. He is the first punter since 2018 to earn the honor.
Cooper Beebe becomes the fifth back-to-back winner of Offensive Lineman of the Year, after capturing the award last season. Beebe is the first K-State offensive lineman to be honored twice, as B.J. Finney (2014) and Dalton Risner (2018) were named as the league’s best once apiece.
Byron Murphy II is the fourth Texas player to earn Defensive Lineman of the Year, and the first since Charles Omenihu in 2018. Brian Orakpo (2008) and Poona Foord (2017) have also captured the award for the Longhorns.
Mike Gundy has been named Chuck Neinas Big 12 Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons. In addition to 2021 and 2023, he won the award in 2010. He joins Matt Campbell (Iowa State), Bill Snyder (Kansas State) and Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) as three-time winners of the award.
Oklahoma has won the most individual awards in the 28-year history of the Big 12 with 48. K-State is second (38), followed by Texas (36), Oklahoma State (27), Baylor (23), Iowa State (23), TCU (14), Texas Tech (10), West Virginia (10) and Kansas (9).
The full list of honors can be found here.
