Spring football has come to an end for programs across the nation. Of course, now, the spring is also a time when player movement occurs in an unprecedented way with the advent of the spring portal window.
This year, players were able to put their names in the portal beginning on April 16 and ending on April 30. Now, that the window has closed, only graduate transfers can enter the portal. Also, in the unlikely event that a coach leaves a program after April, a 30-day portal window opens for the players at that university.
While the players in the portal may not make their ultimate decisions as to where they will play next season for days or even weeks after the window's closing, we now have a better idea of what each team's roster might look like this fall. So let's make a way-too-early power ranking of the Big 12 football programs now that the portal window has closed.
Willie Fritz takes over as head coach of the Cougars after the tumultuous Dana Holgorsen era. Fritz could be a nice hire in Houston after leading Tulane to 23 combined wins over the past two seasons.
However, he's inherited quite the mess in H-Town. What's more, he will likely be asking his team to change its style of play, which means that he may not have the personnel to run the ball as much as he did at Tulane given that Houston has been operating an "Air Raid" system for the past few seasons.
Houston hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since 2014 and there aren't any obvious choices to end that run on the current roster. Might the Cougars go portal shopping for a running back this summer?
On defense, the Cougars return their 2023 secondary but the front seven is a mixture of transfers and backups from a defense that gave up 35 or more points in half of last season's games. Ultimately, Houston needs a rebuild on the field, and in terms of culture and Fritz, for as good as he may be, won't be able to pull that off in his first season on campus.