<
>

Breaking down Steele's All-Big 12 teams

Phil Steele, the guru of preseason college football prognostication, has released his preseason All-Big 12 teams. As usual, he went four teams deep to break down the conference's top talent.

You can find the full list here. A recap of his first-team All-Big 12 selections:

QB Bryce Petty, Baylor

RB Malcolm Brown, Texas

RB Shock Linwood, Baylor

WR Antwan Goodley, Baylor

WR Tyler Lockett, Kansas State

WR Jakeem Grant, Texas Tech

TE E.J. Bibbs, Iowa State

C BJ Finney, Kansas State

OG Cody Whitehair, Kansas State

OG Quinton Spain, West Virginia

OT Le'Raven Clark, Texas Tech

OT Spencer Drango, Baylor

DL Cedric Reed, Texas

DL Chucky Hunter, TCU

DL Devonte Fields, TCU

DL Ryan Mueller, Kansas State

LB Bryce Hager, Baylor

LB Frank Shannon, Oklahoma

LB Ben Heeney, Kansas

LB Eric Striker, Oklahoma

CB Quandre Diggs, Texas

CB Zack Sanchez, Oklahoma

S Sam Carter, TCU

S Chris Hackett, TCU

K Michael Hunnicutt, Oklahoma

P Nick O'Toole, West Virginia

KR B.J. Catalon, TCU

PR Levi Norwood, Baylor

A few takeaways from the four teams Steele put together:

  • Baylor led the way in first-team honors with six players. In terms of which school had the most players honored over the four teams, Oklahoma led with 19. Baylor and Texas are tied for second behind OU with 14, with TCU (13) and Kansas State (12) rounding out the top five. Iowa State (six) and Oklahoma State (seven) had the fewest players selected, and OSU is the only program with no players on the All-Big 12 first team.

  • You're sure to get some disagreement from folks in Lubbock over these quarterback choices. Davis Webb is the fourth-team QB after Petty, Jake Waters and Trevor Knight were slotted ahead of him. No disagreement on Petty, of course, but realistically you could come up with any combination for those No. 2-3-4 QB spots and have a fair argument.

  • Steele does show some love for Big 12 newcomers. Kansas WR Nick Harwell, a Miami (Ohio) transfer, has yet to play a game for KU but earned a second-team slot. Same goes for RB Rushel Shell, the Pitt transfer now at West Virginia, who made third-team All-Big 12. Kansas State junior college transfer DT Terrell Clinkscales was a fourth-team selection, and that's probably a good call. Not so sure on Harwell and Shell just yet, but the hype is justified.

  • The Sooners had the most offensive selections (eight) and the most defensive selections (10) for the four teams. Baylor had the second-most offensive players with seven, and eight Texas defenders made the list.

  • The Big 12 units most disrespected by Steele's list? Iowa State's defense had only one player honored (Cory Morrissey), and he was a fourth-team selection. The Texas Tech defense also had just two selections, and both made the fourth team. On offense, TCU did not have any players on the first, second or third team.

Anything else stand out to you? What about significant snubs? Offer up your answers in the comments below. For the record, the official All-Big 12 preseason team will be released next month prior to the conference media days in Dallas.