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The Week 10 slate kicked off with heroics from Noah Fifita late Friday night in Arizona's 29-28 win against TCU. The Wildcats stormed from eight points back to win in the final two minutes of regulation thanks in part to a horrific special teams blunder by the Horned Fro.
The final score in the Holy War may have been 28-20, but the quarterback performances were polar opposites. One quarterback was responsible for all four of his team's touchdowns while the other was responsible for four interceptions.
The late night battle between Thomas Castellanos and Michael Hawkins Jr. lived up to its billing in Texas Tech's 53-48 survival of West Virginia. The offenses combined 68 points in the first half, and in addition to showing off on the ground, both signal-callers threw for over 300 yards on the opposing defense.
The back end of the Big 12's Week 11 slate is where the best quarterback duels reside.
Kansas at West Virginia should be a fantastic matchup between mobile quarterbacks. Michael Hawkins Jr. has run all over opposing defenses through the Mountaineers' first nine games while Isaiah Marshall has eclipsed 100 yards rushing in two of his last three games.
The league's two ranked matchups pit stylistically different quarterbacks against one another.
No. 2 Utah fields one of the nation's most dynamic dual-threat signal-callers in Devon Dampier while No. 23 Arizona boasts a pass-first, multi-season starter in Noah Fifita. Elsewhere, No. 12 Texas Tech looks to run all over No. 25 Oklahoma State with Thomas Castellanos and slow down Drew Mestemaker and a red-hot Cowboy offense.
Below we rank the Big 12's eight best quarterbacks entering Week 11 of the 2026 college football season.
Lagway utilized his legs more than ever in Baylor’s 42-31 over Iowa State. In addition to the pair of touchdowns he threw to Tony Livingston and Taz Williams, he ran for 119 yards and a touchdown and could have had another score if he didn’t fumble as he crossed the goal line at the end of the first half.
The Bears are at No. 10 BYU for an afternoon kickoff (3:30 p.m. EST, Fox). Quarterback play from Utah behooved it in its defeat of the Cougars last weekend, but Lagway is nowhere near as dangerous with his feet as Devon Dampier.
Bachmeier won’t slide out of our rankings because of one bad day, but his performance in the Holy War was nothing short of disastrous. After BYU took a 20-14 lead, he proceeded to double his interception total for the year, throwing four in the final three quarters. Not all of these were off unlucky tips either; the second and third picks were thrown directly at Utah defenders.
The Cougars are back at home for a matchup with Baylor this week (3:30 p.m. EST, Fox). The Bears have forced at least one turnover in each of their first nine games, though they are coming off one of their worst defensive performances of the year in their win over Iowa State.
Texas Tech’s offense was explosive for a second consecutive week with Castellanos as its signal-caller. He threw for 362 yards, a myriad of deep completions and five touchdowns while adding 102 rush yards in a spectacular offensive night for the Red Raiders against West Virginia.
The Red Raiders travel to No. 25 Oklahoma State in Week 11 (9:30 p.m EST, ESPN). The Cowboys have allowed no fewer than three touchdowns to opposing offenses through six Big 12 games.
Hawkins Jr. went for over 300 yards in the air for the second time this season against Texas Tech, connecting with TaRon Francis, Prince Strachan and Ryan Ward on deep passes throughout the night. Per usual, he was a threat to run on the Red Raiders with 88 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
The Mountaineers are back at home to face Kansas in Week 11 (5:30 p.m. EST, ESPNU). The Jayhawks have defended the run respectably over the last three weeks, but they allowed both Kansas State and Utah to run for over 275 yards against them in mid-October.
Weigman finished Houston’s 31-24 win over Cincinnati 17-of-24 passing for 227 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 30 yards and the Cougars’ third touchdown. He hit on several impressive downfield strikes, but his most difficult completion was on an eight-yard touchdown off his back foot to Amare Thomas.
The Cougars travel to Colorado for a late Friday night matchup (10:15 p.m. EST, ESPN). Both of the last two offenses the Buffaloes faced were starting third-string quarterbacks.
Dampier was responsible for all four of Utah’s touchdowns in the Holy War. He found Braden Pegan for two touchdown passes: one in tight coverage in the middle of the field for 46 yards, the other in the corner of the end zone for 14 yards. Dampier ran for 89 yards and two touchdowns, and he caught a 29-yard pass from Creed Whittemore on a fourth down.
Utah heads south for a ranked road matchup at No. 23 Arizona (7:30 p.m. EST, Fox). The last comparable quarterback-running back duo the Wildcats saw to the Utes' was Thomas Castellanos and J'Koby Williams, who combined for 292 rush yards on them.
Fifita threw a pick six that stuck Arizona in a halftime hole to TCU, but he helped dig the Wildcats out. He scampered for a nine-yard touchdown in the third quarter to help Arizona temporarily regain the lead, and he later helped it tighten a deficit with a contested touchdown pass to Quincy Craig in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats stay at home to take on unbeaten No. 2 Utah (7:30 p.m. EST, Fox). The Utes have forced turnovers in each of their previous six Big 12 games, which includes a four-interception outing against BYU.
Few quarterbacks across college football had a better weekend than Mestemaker in Week 10. He threw for 313 yards and four touchdowns, ran for a touchdown and caught a touchdown in the fourth quarter of Oklahoma State’s 66-28 win at Kansas State. He threw a pick six in the second quarter, but it was inconsequential given the Cowboys’ 28-14 lead.
The Cowboys host No. 12 Texas Tech in a ranked matchup this week (9:30 p.m. EST, ESPN). The Red Raiders have struggled the last three weeks on defense, and they allowed 582 total yards in their win over West Virginia last week.
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