Joel Klatt Reveals Pick For Best Quarterback In Big 12

The Big 12 is home to star talent at quarterback like Cam Rising for the Utah Utes, Noah Fifita for the Arizona Wildcats, Shedeur Sanders for the Colorado Buffaloes, and Garrett Greene for the West Virginia Mountaineers. Every one of those teams except for Colorado went to a bowl game last season.

Joel Klatt went ahead and named his pick for the best QB that the conference has to offer on a recent episode of " The Joel Klatt Show ." He was talking about the upcoming game between Colorado and the North Dakota State Bison. When picking the best quarterback in the Big 12 Klatt went with Sanders from his alma mater.

Klatt played quarterback for the Buffaloes from 2002-05.

"...If you've listened to this show for the course of this preseason and lead up to the regular season you know that I'm high on Colorado, and it's not because I went there," Klatt said. "I think there's reason to be high on Colorado, namely I think they've got one of if not the best quarterback in their conference in Shedeur Sanders."

Sanders had a solid first season at Colorado in 2023. He had 3,230 passing yards with 27 touchdowns and three interceptions. Sanders also had four rushing touchdowns.

While Sanders had a good year, his team did not. Colorado won three out of its first four games before going 1-7 to end the year.

The Buffaloes struggled running the football in 2023, averaging 68.9 rushing yards per game.

Things were even worse on defense. Colorado allowed the second-most points (34.8), third-most passing yards (276.9), and second-most rushing yards per game (176.4) in the Pac-12 last season.

Colorado opens the year with North Dakota State on Aug. 29. Kickoff is at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Related: Joel Klatt Names Major Big Ten Program That Faces Trap Game In Week 1