Power 5 Questions: Can Texas, Iowa State dethrone Oklahoma?

TheScore's preview of the major conferences in college football rolls on to the Big 12, in which Oklahoma goes for its fifth consecutive conference title while everyone else chases the reigning champions:

Another transfer, another Big 12 title for Oklahoma?

Jalen Hurts stood on the sidelines seven months ago and celebrated an Orange Bowl victory that sent Alabama to the national championship, eliminating Oklahoma in the process.

Though Hurts was, at that point, a backup quarterback, it marked the third time in as many seasons he would play on the final day of the college football season.

It's a destination Oklahoma hasn't reached since 2008.

So, is a Hurts-OU partnership the stuff of fantasy? We're about to find out.

In two seasons with Lincoln Riley in charge, Oklahoma has turned two transfers (Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray) into Heisman Trophy winners. Both were selected No. 1 overall in the NFL draft.

Oklahoma became an overwhelming favorite to win its fifth consecutive Big 12 title when Hurts decided to join the Sooners. Though he hasn't started since Tua Tagovailoa took his place at halftime of the 2017 national championship game, Hurts still brings a pedigree of success to Norman, Okla.

He completed 62.9 percent of his throws with a four-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio for the Crimson Tide.

Those numbers should only improve in Riley's system.

Oklahoma's offensive line lost four starters, but Hurts is surrounded by playmakers, including receiver Ceedee Lamb and tight end Grant Calcaterra.

The defense? Well, that's for another day.

But take this quote from Riley at Big 12 media days as an indication of his confidence in Hurts: "We don't plan on the offense dipping."

Can Texas close the gap on its rival?

Before Texas won 10 games, including a Sugar Bowl, the Longhorns opened last season with a turnover-filled loss to a Maryland team led by an interim coach.

It serves as a reminder that Texas' return to the upper tier of the Big 12 was rapid.

In the span of a few months, Sam Ehlinger graduated from a quarterback trading touchdowns for interceptions to one who could will his team to wins.

Ehlinger threw nine picks in his first 10 games at UT - the 10th being the Maryland loss. He tossed 23 touchdowns to three interceptions for the rest of the campaign.

His 314 passing yards and 72 rushing helped Texas down Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. But the Longhorns couldn't keep OU out of the playoff, falling 39-27 in the Big 12 Championship.

Those 12 points represent the gap Texas is trying to close in 2019.

On offense, Ehlinger loses Lil'Jordan Humphrey as a receiving target, but 6-foot-6 Collin Johnson is a matchup nightmare. The combination of Keaontay Ingram and Jordan Whittington at running back could be one of the Big 12's most potent ground attacks.

On defense, sophomore safety Caden Sterns might be the best defensive back in the conference.

The Longhorns get their crack at Oklahoma on Oct. 12, but we'll learn plenty about them before that date when they host LSU on Sept. 7 and Oklahoma State on Sept. 21.

Will Brock Purdy and Iowa State crash the party?

Iowa State owns five victories over Associated Press Top 25 teams in the last two seasons, including three against teams ranked in the top 10.

Prior to Matt Campbell's arrival in Ames, Iowa, the program won a total of three games over top-10 teams in 30 years.

After back-to-back eight-win seasons, it feels as though Iowa State is here to stay as long as Campbell remains with the program.

Unlike in years past, the Cyclones enter 2019 as one of the hunted. They're picked third in the Big 12 behind Oklahoma and Texas. That means the media believe Iowa State has the best chance of squeezing one of the conference's premier programs out of the title game.

"I will say this about the expectation, first and foremost, I don't mean this to be negative in any stretch of the imagination, but if we worried about what the expectations of our football program were outside of our walls, the first three years, I think we would have crumbled really fast," Campbell said at Big 12 media days. "So what we've been able to do is handle our own expectations and making our own expectations way loftier than anything that could be said outside of our walls."

The optimism is warranted. Not only do the Cyclones return 16 starters, but they also have one of the league's most dynamic quarterbacks.

Purdy was a relative unknown a year ago when Campbell inserted him into a game at Oklahoma State in October. The Cyclones were 1-3 at the time and in danger of losing the momentum they created in 2017.

The signal-caller went to work. He threw for 318 yards and added another 84 on the ground. Iowa State outscored Oklahoma State 48-42 and won its next four games.

Purdy ended the year with a 66.4 percent completion rate, third in the Big 12 to only Murray and Will Grier.

The combination of a more experienced Purdy with a stout defense - Iowa State ranked second in the Big 12 in yards allowed per play - has some believing the Cyclones could play for a conference title.

How will four new head coaches change the league?

The bottom four teams in the Big 12's preseason poll share one thing in common: all are led by new head coaches.

Forty percent of the league's coaches turned over last season.

Texas Tech fired Kliff Kingsbury and replaced him with Utah State's Matt Wells
Kansas fired David Beaty and hired former LSU coach Les Miles
Bill Snyder retired from Kansas State and the Wildcats tabbed North Dakota State's Chris Klieman to replace him
West Virginia hired Neal Brown from Troy to replace Dana Holgorsen, who took the head job at Houston

Miles owns an FBS national championship while Klieman has four championships at the FCS level, and both Wells and Brown enjoyed immense success at Group of 5 schools.

Will they change the complexion of a league known only for its offense in recent years? That remains to be seen.

They'll all have their work cut out for them in Year 1.

From a quarterback standpoint, Wells has the most to work with. Alan Bowman had a superb freshman season for Texas Tech before a frightening lung injury sidelined him.

Brown enters camp with an interesting situation, as Austin Kendall transferred in-conference from Oklahoma.

Klieman was confident enough in returning starter Skylar Thompson to make him one of two quarterbacks in attendance at Big 12 media days (Ehlinger was the other).

Miles, meanwhile, has the toughest task and the most doubters. At 65, he must prove he can adapt to the modern game, something he didn't do at LSU. He also is in charge of a program that hasn't won more than three games in a season since 2009.

What will a new offensive coordinator, quarterback mean for Oklahoma State?

After Oklahoma, Texas, and Iowa State, the middle of the Big 12 is impossibly hard to project.

It might be best to simply put TCU, Baylor, and Oklahoma State in a hat and choose the order at random.

Of the three, Oklahoma State might have the widest range of outcomes for the 2019 campaign.

Mike Gundy's team went 7-6 last year, a down season for a program that has reached 13 consecutive bowl games. The Cowboys lost starting quarterback Taylor Cornelius after one season and running back Justice Hill to the NFL.

Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich also departed for Ohio State after the Liberty Bowl.

That's a lot of change for a program known for offensive efficiency and explosiveness over the last decade.

Six years after Gundy turned to Division II Shippensburg (Pa.) to hire Yurcich, he went to Princeton to make Sean Gleeson his next offensive coordinator.

Gleeson was known as an innovator at Princeton, though Gundy has indicated the offense won't change dramatically.

When it comes to the quarterback position, Oklahoma State has a high ceiling and a low floor.

The floor is low because no quarterback on the roster has thrown a pass in a Cowboy uniform. However, it does include a former Gatorade Player of the Year in Texas.

Spencer Sanders, a 6-foot-2 redshirt freshman, is the odds-on favorite to start this season, though he's competing with Hawaii graduate transfer Dru Brown (and Gundy hasn't ruled out playing both).

A four-star recruit, Sanders threw for 3,845 yards, ran for 1,380, and accounted for 70 total touchdowns as a senior in high school.

He'll have one of the country's best receivers (Tylan Wallace) and a dynamic running back (Chuba Hubbard) to work with.

If he can show he's the future for OSU at quarterback, expect the Cowboys to play a role in deciding the Big 12 champion, too.

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Mark Cooper is theScore's NCAA writer. You can find him on Twitter @mark_cooperjr.