NOTE: The content on the Baylor Blitz is solely meant for the subscribers of SicEmSports. Let's all please make sure that whatever is written here stays here. We appreciate you all helping us with this. Now, let's all take a look at Baylor recruiting and what else is going on involving the Bears.
Anderson planning visit
The 2015 running back class in Texas is pretty spectacular. And while we've paid a lot of attention toward Rockwall's Chris Warren, Plano West's Soso Jamabo and Longview's JaMycal Hasty, that doesn't list them all.
One prospect not to be overlooked is Katy's Rodney Anderson. The low-key 6-0, 203-pound star has spent a mostly quiet summer focusing on preparing for the 2013 season. He said he did not attend any camps. Meanwhile he recently added offers from Texas and LSU.
However, the Baylor connection remains strong so much so that Anderson is planning on coming to Waco to watch the Bears go through practice. A date hasn't been set but it's possible that he will come the week of Aug. 5. Katy begins falls workouts Aug. 12. It would be his first visit since attending a spring practice.
"I want to see how the coaches interact with the running backs,'' Anderson said. "I want to see how they run the ball even more than what I saw [in the spring]. The other thing I want to know is how I would be a fit in their offense. But I do think I could be one.''
Anderson had his 40-yard dash time updated in spring workouts to 4.43. His goal is to play this fall between 200-205 pounds. He played at 195 last fall. Without question, he feels like he will be a stronger back this season.
"I feel stronger, and I feel like a more all-around back,'' he said. "I just want to be a mixture of power and elusiveness.''
-Kevin Lonnquist
Has Baylor unearthed a hidden gem?
Just when you thought Baylor was finished recruiting offensive linemen, a mystery recruit emerges. And Stefan Beard is the definition of a mystery recruit. Even his potential head coach at Austin Westlake, Darren Allman, doesn't know too much about him.
"He's not an eligible player for us right now, he's not in our program," Allman told me Thursday morning. "They're just now moving and getting him registered in school. He still has some hurdles to cross, like any kid would that's moving from out of state. He hasn't been declared eligible yet, so until that happens, we won't spend a lot of time with him or talking about him. I don't want to jeopardize anything on his behalf."
Allman went as far as to tell me he's yet to speak with Beard. But he could confirm two things about Beard, who I've left messages with through social media but have yet to hear back.
Beard appears to be coming from Chicago, at least according to a Facebook account.
"I believe that's correct," Allman said.
Beard also attended a Baylor camp about a week ago, and reports are that Baylor offered him.
"I heard that second hand," Allman told me.
Obviously, it appears Beard has a lot of potential. Since Baylor has five offensive linemen committed to the 2014 class, the staff isn't going to offer just anyone.
It seems Allman recognizes that potential. And so he doesn't want anyone to believe he's recruiting Beard. He's just waiting for the process to play itself out. When it does, he expects to have a new addition to the Westlake football team.
"Within the next week or so, hopefully he's got his stuff resolved," Allman said. "It's one of those things that there's guardianship issues that have to be sorted out. He'll be fine, but to be eligible to participate in athletics, he has to cross some hurdles and things will have to be approved.
"I've been careful to not even have conversations with him," Allman continued, "because I'm hoping -- it's my understanding -- that he's moving here to get out of a situation that will help him in life. I want to avoid anything that would make it look like (I'm recruiting him)."
Allman told me as soon as it's resolved, he'll get in touch with me. In the meantime, I'll keep trying to track down this mystery recruit to get as much information as possible.
-Jake Shaw
Hogg wonders about Baylor
Plano West 2015 small forward D.J. Hogg (6-7, 195) has room to grow -- literally. As slender as he is, he knows he has to be thicker when the 2013-14 season begins.
"I want to try and played at 210,'' he said. "I think that would be a good weight for me.''
Hogg just finished the AAU season with Texas Titans at the Great American Shootout last week in Duncanville. The Titans lost in the championship game.
But the offers he's fielded - Arizona, SMU, TCU, Iowa, Houston, Kansas State, Notre Dame and Texas - demonstrate what the projections think. There has been some but not a lot of contact with Baylor at this point.
"They texted with me during the live period, but I haven't talked a lot to them,'' Hogg said. "I think they're a good program. We'll see what happens.''
Hogg said he believes his 3-point shooting evolved during the AAU season. Range doesn't appear to be an issue. The recruiting process is long, but he's trying to pace himself.
"You just have to be yourself,'' he said. "Right now, I'm trying to get stronger. I don't want anyone to push me around.''
-Kevin Lonnquist
DT starts Baylor learning curve
One thing that's refreshing about Jenks, OK defensive tackle Marquise Overton is that he's not letting the recruiting attention obstruct him.
Baylor offered the 2015 two-year starter toward the end of the 2012-13 school year. The most recent offer -- Texas Tech -- came in a couple of days ago. Overton is a BCS prospect with offers from Baylor, Texas Tech, Illinois, and Oregon State. Tulsa and Toledo have also offered.
"I was hurt my freshman year, but I just worked to get in this position,'' he said. "A lot of people have told me that they like the way I contain double teams, they think I have a high motor and I come off the ball really fast.''
That combination apparently is what caught Baylor's attention, even though Overton said he hasn't spoken with anyone on the Bears coaching staff.
"My coach told me that Baylor offered,'' Overton said. "I'm really not used to this. All of the offers are really great. I started to pay attention to Baylor when RG3 was there. Right now, I'm giving everybody a chance.''
As regarded as he is in the Sooner State, he said he hasn't had significant interest from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State yet.
-Kevin Lonnquist
Boone takes in Baylor[/B]
A week ago today, 2015 Cleburne DT next to nothing about Baylor. That all changed with a visit to Waco to attend a Baylor linemen camp. Consider him impressed.
"I really liked the coaches," he said. "They're real, they're down to earth and they teach you like you're in class. (After the camp) we went to where they have the o-line and d-line meetings. I saw a little bit of their locker rooms. It's really nice."
Boone has yet to receive an offer, but he feels like he made a positive impression on the Baylor staff.
"It went good -- the coaches liked me," he said. "I'd probably give myself a B+. I felt like they noticed my footwork and speed. In the one-on-ones, I lost a couple and won a couple."
Last week, Boone told me he planned to take a trip to Georgia before the summer end. He's since changed his mind and doesn't plan to make anymore visits before his season starts.
Boone's still in the early stages of recruiting, and it appears Baylor is still in the early stages of evaluating 2015 defensive tackles. So far the staff has offered just two DTs, both of them out-of-state prospects, so I'll be in touch with Boone during the season to see if Baylor remains in contact with him.
-Jake Shaw[/B][/B]
On Davion Hall
As we reported in that thread, Texarkana Liberty Eylau 4-star standout Davion Hall has scheduled an official visit to Alabama on Nov. 8. That's a strategic date because the Crimson Tide will be playing host to rival LSU. Those Alabama-LSU games have become some of the better moments in recent college football seasons.
What is making this situation more interesting is that prior to his arrival in Tuscaloosa, Al. last week, Hall was being recruited as a safety.
When he met with Nick Saban, he was then told that Alabama wants him at safety. Hall said he wasn't surprised by that.
You can see where this is going. Still, the Crimson Tide is in the running for six of the nation's top wide receivers but only take four.
Pundits criticized Baylor when the Bears secured Hall's Feb. 2 commitment because the staff told Hall it wanted him at wide receiver. The notion went against Hall's future because many believe a potential NFL career will be at safety.
That may still be the case, but it all goes to show that if you are really talented and people want you, anyone can say anything if it means luring a player's commitment. Nothing in recruiting is certain.
-Kevin Lonnquist
Big 12 Media Day Fallout
Everybody left the Omni Hotel in Dallas Tuesday afternoon but that doesn't mean the news from the two-day odyssey has died out. So here are several of my takes.
>Commissioner Bob Bowlsby's sabre rattling remarks about creating federations for football or trying to hold the NCAA more accountable for its governance is now the newest trend for the power conferences to break away.
Since the ACC school presidents voted for the grant of rights earlier this spring, that stopped realignment in its tracks. So now you have the five conferences ? Big 12, SEC, Big 10, ACC and PAC 12 ? working a new angle to create separation.
I do agree with Bowlsby that a small budget school like a Louisiana-Lafayette shouldn't have equal say as Baylor because the two schools live in different worlds. When Baylor is receiving $22 million in revenue from its latest TV deal, that's possibly three times as much as UL-Lafayette's overall athletic budget. It's at least twice that.
What I don't see is where the conferences will restrict themselves to playing each other. They'll want breather - guarantee games - and will find a way to shoehorn those in.
But the NCAA really put itself in a bad position in two areas. First, when it botched the investigation in the Miami (Fla.) case because investigators improperly conducted depositions with an attorney for targeted Nevin Shapiro, that really its credibility. Second, it appeared that football coaches would be granted the same deregulated electronic access to recruits basketball coaches would. But when everything got stopped at meetings in May that probably turned a lot of people off.
Yes high school coaches were outspoken against it, but I didn't buy the argument that kids are going to be overwhelmed by the contact. Heck, they're already getting that in the mediums - twitter, FaceBook and instagram - that the NCAA can't control. Common sense would have worked itself into this process.
>I have no idea what the majority or plurality of the Big 12 media was thinking when it voted for TCU's Casey Pachall as its pre-season all-conference quarterback. Talent wise, Pachall's probably the most talented guy in the conference. But he was rewarded for doing what in 2012? Being suspended in early October for a substance abuse issue and not having any connection to the program until he was reinstated in January? What am I missing?
And here's the kicker. The voters voted for someone who hasn't even been named his team's starter for 2013. TCU coach Gary Patterson was very adamant he wasn't going there until fall workouts. Pachall may have the edge, but I watched TCU in person several times last year with Trevone Boykin. I kind of like Boykin's skill set. He just was thrown into a touch situation without enough prep work.
There's no denying that the Big 12 quarterback position is pretty uncertain this year. Obviously, Texas' David Ash - I voted for him because he actually did something - is the one guy with some skins on the wall. Oklahoma State's QB carousel, made even more uncertain when Wes Lunt transferred, didn't give you much an idea who was really going to take command in Stillwater. Baylor is going to go with an inexperienced Bryce Petty. You get the idea.
>Kansas coach Charlie Weis' electric-filled "pile of crap" comment about his team was great for the cameras and great for the over sensitive. While I understand what he was saying about his 1-11 2012 team - and his former players backed him - he probably should have picked a different way to go with it. Fair or unfair, we're in an era where those types of public comments get scrutinized to where people are suspended or lose their jobs.
>The Big 12 going to an experimental eighth official this year should be interesting and help the tempo of games. Just hope the official doesn't create more traffic than there already is.
>I'm glad several of the Big 12 coaches have said what they said claiming the emperor, the SEC, is nude or not the end-all be all conference that everybody thinks it is. In recent years, I do think the SEC has been more top-heavy with Alabama, LSU, Georgia and South Carolina. But when you get into the depths with Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee etc. how much of a difference are we really talking about between those schools and the likes of (this is from the 2012 Big 12 standings), Baylor, TCU, Iowa State and West Virginia? Now, the Big 12 has to back up the talk when TCU plays LSU and Oklahoma State plays Mississippi State on Aug. 31 and Texas plays host to Ole Miss in September.
-Kevin Lonnquist
Emptying the Notebook
>Checked in with Kyle Fulks earlier this week. He said he is doing very well in his last summer class and said everything is looking toward him passing it. His last day is Aug. 10. It's a core class he's taking. Out of respect to him, we're not disclosing what it is or what his grade is.
>It's looking like Houston Lamar DB teammates John Bonney and John Plattenburg will be coming to Baylor for unofficial visits when the Bears are practicing in August.
> 2015 Troup QB Blake Lynch, who has Baylor at the top along with Mississippi State, attended the July 19th camp in Waco. We tried to get in touch with him, but his mobile phone is blocking incoming calls right now. (We can't blame the kid and wonder why more recruits don't do that but we're glad they don't.)
> After Art Briles received great reviews for his press conference at the Big 12 Media Day, tight end Jordan Najvar tweeted the following: "I told y'all, all it takes is one sit down with coach briles and you'll realize your dreams will become a reality."
>Whitehouse 2015 defensive back Justin Dunning said he is not taking any more visits this summer. He was considering a visit to Baylor. But that's neither good nor bad as far as the Bears recruiting him. There is some time here.
>Pay attention to 2015 Justin Northwest QB Jesse Drummer (6-2, 205). He was in the NISD before moving to Illinois last summer. However, he returned to Northwest this past January. He has attended some Baylor camps.
-SicEmSports
