When you want to be a closet fan of a group, you have to be careful. You have to be careful because when you decide to tell someone your secret, you want to make sure you're not judged.
You want to come out of the closet but which closet are you coming out of? Is it the closet that is where the suits and shirts are neatly arranged and organized? Is it the crowded broom closet where if you opened it, everything would come spilling out?
But in this new society, judging is not allowed. It's peace and acceptance and whatever flowery terminology you can come up with. However, since we're among friends here, the RJB doesn't mind sharing that we're big closet fans of The Clash.
The British Punk Rock band was very influential between the late 1970s and mid-1980s. Disappointment was that they stayed together for only 10 years. You would have thought their shelf life would be similar to that of The Rolling Stones or The Cure. Nope! Actually, they are considered one of the most 100 influential groups of all time, according to Rolling Stone.
Admittedly, "Rock the Casbah" was a bit cheesy. Still, we won't hold that against them. We like this one.
Right now, the New York Stock Exchange is reaching all-time highs. There's a lot of optimism built into corporations and the United State's economy potential to expand. You want to buy stocks that have the potential to get on the same path.
We're not going to compete with the incredibly hot Janet Yellen (please note that's sarcasm for the sitting chair of the Federal Reserve) about economic policy and what that means to your economic bottom line. And we're pretty sure Mrs. Yellen is not going to tell us the whole schmere about football.
Here's where I'm going with this. Baylor football 2017 is a volatile stock. It's all over the place. If you're thinking short term of making a quick buck, these Bears are not for your portfolio.
But if you're willing to buy low - and right now the Bears are a pretty cheap buy - and sit there and ride it out over the long term, you're probably going to make some money. It may be next year. It may be in 2019. It may be in 2020.
As your fictitious broker, my advice is to hang in there through the troughs when the Bears fall below what you bought for them. There will come a time when they climb above that price and stay above it.
The record is ugly. Baylor is going to have to win six of its final eight games in order to become bowl eligible for the eighth consecutive season. That's a pretty tall order.
Consider what you have seen in the last two weeks at Duke and Saturday night against Oklahoma. What were the themes coming off the Duke week? This offense stinks and the defense is getting the hang of it. Misery, frustration, bewilderment and smelling some foul things ruled the thinking.
What are the themes coming out of this week? This offense is amazing and about to blow up and the defense isn't deep enough and it's still getting lit up by big plays. Excitement, optimism, pride and looking ahead with eagerness rules the thinking now.
Is that a 180 or what?
This is what a first season for a new head coach and the cast of thousands of followers experience. You know Nick Saban's first year at Alabama was pretty icky by Alabama standards. He lost AT HOME to Louisiana-Monroe and he lost to Auburn, which was the sixth consecutive loss by the Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl series. Alabama went 7-6 that season.
Want to know something else? That Alabama team began 3-0. So do the math before the bowl game. Alabama lost six of its last nine. What do you think The Tide fans were thinking about the start? Great hire. We'll be back on top in no time.
What do you think they were thinking for the last nine weeks? Sure, Saban had great success at LSU, but can he really do it, here? Well, he has to get his players to fit what he wants to do.
Those recycled conversations at any place in America that is going through its first year with a new coach are what is going on here. Matt Rhule was pretty much a pariah in certain factions of the community. Now, a courageous performance against the No. 3 team in the country that resulted in a one-score loss has the band wagon expanding.
That's why I go back to what I briefly touched on in Saturday's analysis. If you're not going to follow a championship season, the most entertaining year for a program is the first one.
The record doesn't matter. If it's a surprising championship campaign, it's a great story because lightning was caught in a bottle. If it's somewhere in the middle, it's a great story because you can see how close the team is and you can also see how far away it is. If it's a non-bowl season or maybe a 3-win season or less, you can see the demands and energies that will be needed to get the program back in the right direction.
As inspiring as the Oklahoma performance was, what's really going to be must-see watching is how Baylor will be playing in November. Even if the Bears are not a bowl team, this is a program where the players recognize that it's about reps, execution and ensuring that they really understand how to play under Rhule.
If you're still seeing blown assignments, countless and mindless penalties and organization issues, then you could be worried. But if you're seeing the opposite, then that's a good thing. There is nothing less than finding your way playing against other people. That's the barometer. I would be surprised if we're not witnessing a better brand -- maybe not a winning brand -- after Halloween.
This journey with Rhule is a marathon not a sprint. Saturday afternoon at Kansas State carries more intrigue than any other game this year. Players are saying the right things. Rhule is saying the right things. Confidence is growing. The climb is a fun thing to watch.
Just know that when it comes to a young team, there's typically one step forward, two steps back. The Bears took one step forward against Oklahoma. They could easily take two steps back in Manhattan, KS. They're playing a team that had high expectations for 2017 only to see those take a severe blow in a loss Sept. 16 at Vanderbilt. That team also had a bye on Saturday.
Now, if the Bears steal a win up there, then momentum is starting. It hasn't started yet because OU was one game. Baylor lost. If they play another tight one and lose, you're still feeling the same way you felt after Oklahoma. If they get blown out, it's part of the deal.
I love these seasons. There's such a human element to it because you are all-in and consume every piece of information connected to this team, you can feel what they are feeling.
This is a reality series with no artificially enhanced script by the producers.
Other thoughts
>It was a nice touch for Baylor to honor 2016 interim head coach Jim Grobe this past Saturday. If you missed it, Grobe was recognized in the first quarter.
His final record will be 7-6. But it was more than that. He said yes to walking into a unique, unprecedented and impossible situation. Grobe was asked to guide a program through the unsettling aftermath of the shakeup within the football program and the athletic department in the middle of the sexual assault scandal.
If he went 0-12, I would not have held it against him. But he split the difference and added a bowl game appearance.
>Baylor has not scheduled any official visits yet for this fall. I'm not sure if it will do that or wait until after the season. That appears to be fluid. By now, you saw the posting of the offer to JUCO quarterback Jerry Wilson.
I don't find that to be a reflection of what Baylor thinks of its chances with Earle (AR) quarterback Gerry Bohanon. What I find it to be is Baylor being a little more proactive about its QB board because it doesn't have any other choice.
I've said this numerous times. If you look at their known QB offers, these were made to players who had been committed to other programs for quite some time and their hopes of potentially luring one away were pretty slim.
They had their camps and saw some QBs that caught their attention but not enough to offer. That included Grapevine's Alan Bowman who committed to Texas Tech and Frisco Lone Star's M.J. Rivers who recently committed to Illinois. That's their right, of course. It's not a great year for QBs in Texas.
However, I think their QB board is pretty uh oh after Bohanon. I wasn't writing Bohanon or Bust to be negative against the summer campaign of "Bohanon to Baylor". I wrote it because there was nothing to suggest there was a strong No. 2 or No. 3 option they were seriously considering. Be assured they're not sitting around. They're evaluating and looking at candidates. That's why this offer to Wilson surfaced.
Wilson is four games into his season at Garden City. He's completing 59 percent of his passes for 917 yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. Garden City coaches are letting him put it up. He's averaging 35 attempts per game.
Wilson's situation at Oregon could be similar to what current players on Baylor's roster are experiencing now. He may not have been a fit. If he gets that far with Baylor, maybe he can be a fit.
Right now, Baylor needs a solid Plan B just in case it doesn't work out with Bohanon. This coaching staff needs to make sure it isn't caught without a chair when the music stops.
This class needs a quarterback. Anu Solomon is gone after this year. You're down to Zach Smith and Charlie Brewer (keep your fingers crossed that his redshirt isn't burned). Personally, I think a program should have four QBs on scholarship. But it's too late for that here in my opinion. They can deal with one for the 2018 class. But they have to get one in 2019.
>I guess I will have to file 2017 taxes next year. Yep, that Christian Numerologist guy said the world was ending on Sept. 23. Well, we're rolling into the final week of September. Apparently, this wasn't the first time he predicted was. My question is why do people like this always draw the media offsides?
>The funeral for the Rangers 2017 season is under way.
Now, a look at other Baylor sports
>Baylor men’s tennis juniors Will Little and Jimmy Bendeck closed out their first fall tournament at the Ivy-Plus Invitational with a couple of wins Sunday morning at the Lenz Tennis Center in Princeton, N.J.
In their final doubles match, Little and Bendeck secured an 8-6 win over South Carolina’s Yancy Dennis and Thomas Mayronne. The junior duo finishes 2-1 at the event.
Along with five other teammates, Little and Bendeck will play at the ITA All-American Championships Sept. 30-Oct. 9 in Tulsa, Okla.
>No. 5 Baylor equestrian (1-0) opened its 2017-18 season with a commanding 18-2 win over West Texas A&M (0-1) on Friday morning at the Willis Family Equestrian Center, setting a new program record for most points scored in a single contest.
Big 12 play begins Oct. 7 at Oklahoma State.
>Baylor soccer (7-2-1, 1-1-0) picked up its first Big 12 victory in 2017, knocking off Iowa State, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
The Bears kept up its dominant defensive form, outshooting the Cyclones (2-8-1, 0-2-0), 17-6, including a 6-2 advantage in shots on goal and 6-3 edge in corners. Baylor heads on the road this weekend with matches Friday at Oklahoma and Sunday at Oklahoma State.
>Baylor volleyball (12-3, 2-0 Big 12) earned a 3-0 sweep over TCU Saturday afternoon inside the Rickel of the University Recreation Center in Fort Worth, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23.
Saturday’s win was the first win in Ft. Worth since Nov. 14, 2012 – a match where the Bears also swept TCU (8-5, 0-2).
Baylor plays at Texas at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The match can be seen on FSN.
Let's make it a great week!
You want to come out of the closet but which closet are you coming out of? Is it the closet that is where the suits and shirts are neatly arranged and organized? Is it the crowded broom closet where if you opened it, everything would come spilling out?
But in this new society, judging is not allowed. It's peace and acceptance and whatever flowery terminology you can come up with. However, since we're among friends here, the RJB doesn't mind sharing that we're big closet fans of The Clash.
The British Punk Rock band was very influential between the late 1970s and mid-1980s. Disappointment was that they stayed together for only 10 years. You would have thought their shelf life would be similar to that of The Rolling Stones or The Cure. Nope! Actually, they are considered one of the most 100 influential groups of all time, according to Rolling Stone.
Admittedly, "Rock the Casbah" was a bit cheesy. Still, we won't hold that against them. We like this one.
Right now, the New York Stock Exchange is reaching all-time highs. There's a lot of optimism built into corporations and the United State's economy potential to expand. You want to buy stocks that have the potential to get on the same path.
We're not going to compete with the incredibly hot Janet Yellen (please note that's sarcasm for the sitting chair of the Federal Reserve) about economic policy and what that means to your economic bottom line. And we're pretty sure Mrs. Yellen is not going to tell us the whole schmere about football.
Here's where I'm going with this. Baylor football 2017 is a volatile stock. It's all over the place. If you're thinking short term of making a quick buck, these Bears are not for your portfolio.
But if you're willing to buy low - and right now the Bears are a pretty cheap buy - and sit there and ride it out over the long term, you're probably going to make some money. It may be next year. It may be in 2019. It may be in 2020.
As your fictitious broker, my advice is to hang in there through the troughs when the Bears fall below what you bought for them. There will come a time when they climb above that price and stay above it.
The record is ugly. Baylor is going to have to win six of its final eight games in order to become bowl eligible for the eighth consecutive season. That's a pretty tall order.
Consider what you have seen in the last two weeks at Duke and Saturday night against Oklahoma. What were the themes coming off the Duke week? This offense stinks and the defense is getting the hang of it. Misery, frustration, bewilderment and smelling some foul things ruled the thinking.
What are the themes coming out of this week? This offense is amazing and about to blow up and the defense isn't deep enough and it's still getting lit up by big plays. Excitement, optimism, pride and looking ahead with eagerness rules the thinking now.
Is that a 180 or what?
This is what a first season for a new head coach and the cast of thousands of followers experience. You know Nick Saban's first year at Alabama was pretty icky by Alabama standards. He lost AT HOME to Louisiana-Monroe and he lost to Auburn, which was the sixth consecutive loss by the Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl series. Alabama went 7-6 that season.
Want to know something else? That Alabama team began 3-0. So do the math before the bowl game. Alabama lost six of its last nine. What do you think The Tide fans were thinking about the start? Great hire. We'll be back on top in no time.
What do you think they were thinking for the last nine weeks? Sure, Saban had great success at LSU, but can he really do it, here? Well, he has to get his players to fit what he wants to do.
Those recycled conversations at any place in America that is going through its first year with a new coach are what is going on here. Matt Rhule was pretty much a pariah in certain factions of the community. Now, a courageous performance against the No. 3 team in the country that resulted in a one-score loss has the band wagon expanding.
That's why I go back to what I briefly touched on in Saturday's analysis. If you're not going to follow a championship season, the most entertaining year for a program is the first one.
The record doesn't matter. If it's a surprising championship campaign, it's a great story because lightning was caught in a bottle. If it's somewhere in the middle, it's a great story because you can see how close the team is and you can also see how far away it is. If it's a non-bowl season or maybe a 3-win season or less, you can see the demands and energies that will be needed to get the program back in the right direction.
As inspiring as the Oklahoma performance was, what's really going to be must-see watching is how Baylor will be playing in November. Even if the Bears are not a bowl team, this is a program where the players recognize that it's about reps, execution and ensuring that they really understand how to play under Rhule.
If you're still seeing blown assignments, countless and mindless penalties and organization issues, then you could be worried. But if you're seeing the opposite, then that's a good thing. There is nothing less than finding your way playing against other people. That's the barometer. I would be surprised if we're not witnessing a better brand -- maybe not a winning brand -- after Halloween.
This journey with Rhule is a marathon not a sprint. Saturday afternoon at Kansas State carries more intrigue than any other game this year. Players are saying the right things. Rhule is saying the right things. Confidence is growing. The climb is a fun thing to watch.
Just know that when it comes to a young team, there's typically one step forward, two steps back. The Bears took one step forward against Oklahoma. They could easily take two steps back in Manhattan, KS. They're playing a team that had high expectations for 2017 only to see those take a severe blow in a loss Sept. 16 at Vanderbilt. That team also had a bye on Saturday.
Now, if the Bears steal a win up there, then momentum is starting. It hasn't started yet because OU was one game. Baylor lost. If they play another tight one and lose, you're still feeling the same way you felt after Oklahoma. If they get blown out, it's part of the deal.
I love these seasons. There's such a human element to it because you are all-in and consume every piece of information connected to this team, you can feel what they are feeling.
This is a reality series with no artificially enhanced script by the producers.
Other thoughts
>It was a nice touch for Baylor to honor 2016 interim head coach Jim Grobe this past Saturday. If you missed it, Grobe was recognized in the first quarter.
His final record will be 7-6. But it was more than that. He said yes to walking into a unique, unprecedented and impossible situation. Grobe was asked to guide a program through the unsettling aftermath of the shakeup within the football program and the athletic department in the middle of the sexual assault scandal.
If he went 0-12, I would not have held it against him. But he split the difference and added a bowl game appearance.
>Baylor has not scheduled any official visits yet for this fall. I'm not sure if it will do that or wait until after the season. That appears to be fluid. By now, you saw the posting of the offer to JUCO quarterback Jerry Wilson.
I don't find that to be a reflection of what Baylor thinks of its chances with Earle (AR) quarterback Gerry Bohanon. What I find it to be is Baylor being a little more proactive about its QB board because it doesn't have any other choice.
I've said this numerous times. If you look at their known QB offers, these were made to players who had been committed to other programs for quite some time and their hopes of potentially luring one away were pretty slim.
They had their camps and saw some QBs that caught their attention but not enough to offer. That included Grapevine's Alan Bowman who committed to Texas Tech and Frisco Lone Star's M.J. Rivers who recently committed to Illinois. That's their right, of course. It's not a great year for QBs in Texas.
However, I think their QB board is pretty uh oh after Bohanon. I wasn't writing Bohanon or Bust to be negative against the summer campaign of "Bohanon to Baylor". I wrote it because there was nothing to suggest there was a strong No. 2 or No. 3 option they were seriously considering. Be assured they're not sitting around. They're evaluating and looking at candidates. That's why this offer to Wilson surfaced.
Wilson is four games into his season at Garden City. He's completing 59 percent of his passes for 917 yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. Garden City coaches are letting him put it up. He's averaging 35 attempts per game.
Wilson's situation at Oregon could be similar to what current players on Baylor's roster are experiencing now. He may not have been a fit. If he gets that far with Baylor, maybe he can be a fit.
Right now, Baylor needs a solid Plan B just in case it doesn't work out with Bohanon. This coaching staff needs to make sure it isn't caught without a chair when the music stops.
This class needs a quarterback. Anu Solomon is gone after this year. You're down to Zach Smith and Charlie Brewer (keep your fingers crossed that his redshirt isn't burned). Personally, I think a program should have four QBs on scholarship. But it's too late for that here in my opinion. They can deal with one for the 2018 class. But they have to get one in 2019.
>I guess I will have to file 2017 taxes next year. Yep, that Christian Numerologist guy said the world was ending on Sept. 23. Well, we're rolling into the final week of September. Apparently, this wasn't the first time he predicted was. My question is why do people like this always draw the media offsides?
>The funeral for the Rangers 2017 season is under way.
Now, a look at other Baylor sports
>Baylor men’s tennis juniors Will Little and Jimmy Bendeck closed out their first fall tournament at the Ivy-Plus Invitational with a couple of wins Sunday morning at the Lenz Tennis Center in Princeton, N.J.
In their final doubles match, Little and Bendeck secured an 8-6 win over South Carolina’s Yancy Dennis and Thomas Mayronne. The junior duo finishes 2-1 at the event.
Along with five other teammates, Little and Bendeck will play at the ITA All-American Championships Sept. 30-Oct. 9 in Tulsa, Okla.
>No. 5 Baylor equestrian (1-0) opened its 2017-18 season with a commanding 18-2 win over West Texas A&M (0-1) on Friday morning at the Willis Family Equestrian Center, setting a new program record for most points scored in a single contest.
Big 12 play begins Oct. 7 at Oklahoma State.
>Baylor soccer (7-2-1, 1-1-0) picked up its first Big 12 victory in 2017, knocking off Iowa State, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
The Bears kept up its dominant defensive form, outshooting the Cyclones (2-8-1, 0-2-0), 17-6, including a 6-2 advantage in shots on goal and 6-3 edge in corners. Baylor heads on the road this weekend with matches Friday at Oklahoma and Sunday at Oklahoma State.
>Baylor volleyball (12-3, 2-0 Big 12) earned a 3-0 sweep over TCU Saturday afternoon inside the Rickel of the University Recreation Center in Fort Worth, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23.
Saturday’s win was the first win in Ft. Worth since Nov. 14, 2012 – a match where the Bears also swept TCU (8-5, 0-2).
Baylor plays at Texas at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The match can be seen on FSN.
Let's make it a great week!
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