I was so tempted to repeat the Random Juke Box selection from last week. Given how the Minnesota Vikings won the NFC North in Green Bay Sunday Night (It feels so good to beat the Packers in their building). However, I didn’t feel it would be fair to the gallery to whip you with that song again.
So after going off course for the last month with Christmas carols and whatnot, we have restored order and thought it would be great to ease back into the daily grind with a country tune we can all appreciate. This is from the late and great Waylon Jennings.
By this time next week, Baylor will have 20 percent of its 2016 commitment class on its campus. That would be Grandview quarterback Zach Smith, Navasota wide receiver Tren’Davian Dickson. Garden City (KS) Community College defensive tackle Jeremy Faulk and Coffeyville Community College offensive tackle Branton Autry. The spring semester begins Jan. 11.
With spring football coming up -- nothing’s definite but I’m hearing you’re looking at it starting in late February and running through early April like we saw in 2015 – it’s a good time for those four to get going with the rest of the roster and blend. Time will tell what it will mean for them and how they will fit into the 2016 fall season. They may figure quite a bit. They may just be there for depth. Let them get on campus first and then we’ll go from there.
We’ll also be through the high school all-star games between Under Armour, Semper Fi and U.S. Army. Smith, Lancaster safety Kenan Ivy, Silsbee offensive lineman Patrick Hudson and Sachse wide receiver Devin Duvernay.
And before you know it, we’re going to turn around and National Signing Day on Feb. 3 will have come and gone. You can’t be more pleased for these five players to earn this kind national recognition to be named to these all-star teams. They get to spend the week with some of the nation’s top players and compete against them and develop a little rapport.
It’s a tremendous opportunity for the Rivals regional and national analysts to meet up with some of the uncommitted players and get a sense as to where they are. Of course, we learned from Hudson that Texas A&M is not out of the picture (the only time I would be concerned about his chances of signing with Baylor is if he actually takes an official visit to College Station. I don’t think Texas is much of a factor here.).
But these games are pretty tough watch. There’s no atmosphere in the building. The game plans have to be very simple. The athletes are trying to decide how hard they want to go all out and at the same time keep from getting hurt.
If you didn’t know anything about Smith and watched him for the first time Sunday night at the Semper Fi game, you would have come away shrugging your shoulders. I watched him for a couple of series and there were some bad throws. But the plays he was given were ridiculous by his coaching staff. On a possession where the West kicked a field goal, Smith threw a wide receiver screen that went nowhere. Then he had to change course and make a throw across the field and on the run without being able to set his feet. The ball one-hopped the receiver who I believe slipped in the end zone. Later, I saw another attempt where he’s throwing across his body from one side of the field to the other. Same thing. The ball was a worm burner. My only thought was the heck is that coaching staff doing? These are not normal throws for QBs. Those are throws when you’re trying to deceive the defense. If he took a vertical or a mid-range ball, I missed it. I can assure you that you won’t see those throws when he’s wearing a Baylor uniform.
And before we get caught up in being worried whether their performance will impact their ratings, don’t. Most of that evaluation came during the practice week where the Rivals staff could see these players like Smith go through rep after rep and evaluate his mechanics other intangibles. These games are so disjointed that it’s really hard to say something made a difference. There’s going to be a play or two where you see something special. But for players like Smith, Ivy, Duvernay, Hudson and Dickson or for those who are making announcements, it’s not make a break. The games are important for those who are trying to show programs they can play.
Dickson plays this Saturday at the U.S. Army All-American bowl in San Antonio.
*****
The football offseason is barely one week old but it’s never too soon to talk about the roster. After all, football is becoming a 365-day sport. For me, there are several issues this coaching staff is going to have to address before spring starts. So let’s take a look at several of those issues.
>First, the debate of moving Davion Hall from wide receiver to safety should be talked about earnestly and honestly. After two seasons, it’s pretty clear that Hall is a tremendous who needs to move. At 6-2, 200, he would be a tremendous fit in the secondary that that’s losing Terrell Burt. Now, Chance Waz got the majority of the playing time back toward the end of the season. And he did fine. I just think Hall, whose instincts of playing the ball are exceptional, would change the perception of the secondary and give it a real hawk back there to protect the corners. I think he’s that good.
Now, I understand that when Baylor convinced Hall to come to Waco, it promised him a chance to play wide receiver. But look at the glut on the roster at that position. There’s K.D. Cannon, Ishmael Zamora, Chris Platt, Lynx Hawthorne (he’s graduated so we’ll see if sticks around or goes somewhere else for that last year of eligibility), Quan Jones (that’s a young man that really needs to get it going), Devontre Stricklin is coming off his redshirt and then you have Dickson, Duvernay, Jared Atkinson and Denzel Mims. Now, there’s not a lot of experience with that group so you could say you need the battle tested receivers to stay. That’s where the proponents for having Hall stay could make their case. But if Hall wants to play in the NFL, I think his ticket is going to the secondary. The images I saw in 2013 in Marshall at Baylor’s camp still burn in my mind. He would bring such a presence back there. When Baylor has a safety playing over the top, it would really have one.
>Quarterback always dominates the thinking. It would help that Seth Russell (broken neck) and Jarrett Stidham (ankle fracture) will be ready or close to ready. With Russell, the timetable for his return is six months. Since he had the surgery in November, I wouldn’t think he could go. Even if he did, it would be so limited. If you looked at the way he was moving his neck when he was on the sidelines for the Russell Athletic Bowl -- remember the scars -- you know there’s a long way to go. If there’s no Russell, then that means more snaps for Smith and Chris Johnson. Stidham should be fully recovered by then. There was some outside hope he would return for the bowl game. You would be looking at a little more than three months before he returned.
>Wholesale changes in the offensive and defensive lines are here. So this is a time for the likes of Ishmael Wilson, Mo Porter and Rami Hammad to step up. They were either running second team or being redshirted so this is the time for them to prepare carefully because this is their chance.
We can discuss more issues with this program as we get closer to the start. But I wanted to whet your whistle.
****
As much as you may have zero love for TCU, you really have to admire how that team came back from 31-0 against Oregon in the Alamo Bowl and find a way to win that game, 47-41 in triple overtime. Now, the Ducks contributed by losing starting quarterback Vernon Adams and their center which created snap chaos. But you still have to score. The one thing about Gary Patterson teams is that they will always play for 60 minutes. They don’t stop. How many times have we watched games with the Horned Frogs when they were down by double digits and came back to win? This was even more impressive with Trevone Boykin suspended.
Credit Arizona State coach Todd Graham with the game ball in the Cactus Bowl against West Virginia. You go up 41-36 and kick the PAT. So you’ve just asked West Virginia to score and kick an extra point. That’s what happened. West Virginia won, 43-42.
Good thing TCU and West Virginia won to salvage the Big 12 bowl season – the league went 3-4 – because it was looking pretty bad. I thought Oklahoma played with no urgency when it fell behind Clemson 30-17 in its national semifinal in the Orange Bowl. Texas Tech was ridiculous against LSU. Leonard Fournette made the nation’s worst tackling defense look pitiful at the Texas Bowl. Arkansas ran over Kansas State (Arkansas’s Alex Collins may be the best running back you don’t know about) in the Liberty Bowl. Ole Miss toyed with Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl. Baylor’s performance was the most impressive of any of the league’s bowl teams. If the Bears were healthy, they probably could have been in the national semifinals. But there’s no use in recycling that topic. We’re way past that.
****
Other thoughts…
>Wasn’t that interesting when RGIII’s parents were wearing Cowboys jerseys in Washington’s regular season finale Sunday at AT&T. The reports came out a couple of weeks ago the Redskins are going to release him once their season has finished. Wherever he ends up on his next stop, it’s probably his last chance to make something of his professional career.
>No surprise that Cowboys coach Jason Garrett will survive Black Monday. When the starting QB is out there for only 3 ½ games, it changes your season. But the Cowboys were their usual September-December comedy of errors. Jerry Jones has built a billion dollar franchise that produces $10 results.
>Very cool to see the Houston Texans get into the playoffs. The AFC South champions play host to Kansas City Saturday afternoon. Brandon Weeden does get the last laugh. He’s still playing. Good luck to them. I’m not a huge NFL fan (except for the Vikings). I’m a casual observer of it for the most part. But I do like the Wild Card and Divisional Playoff rounds. There’s just something about those weekends that carry more appeal to me than the championship games. The league looks so balanced. I have no idea on who will get to Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco.
>Just a brutal Saturday afternoon at Kansas for Scott Drew’s team. What concerns me is how poorly this team has played on the road. And I think teams may be taking the approach of isolating Taurean Prince and daring the rest of the roster to beat them. He was pretty much not a factor at Texas A&M and at Kansas. We’ll see what Oklahoma State does with him on Tuesday. I’m hopeful the crowd at the Ferrell Center will be solid. This team really needs a lift. The Bears really haven’t played well for two weeks.
>The New Year’s Eve national semifinals were not a good idea. Those games needed to be on New Year’s Day. I realize that it would have messed with the fabric of the NYD traditions of the Rose and Fiesta. By the way, I was just not into the bowl season. Outside of Baylor, I paid very little attention to most of the games. Too many of them? Just too much going on in my life? I’m sure that all figured into it.
Let’s make it a great week!
So after going off course for the last month with Christmas carols and whatnot, we have restored order and thought it would be great to ease back into the daily grind with a country tune we can all appreciate. This is from the late and great Waylon Jennings.
By this time next week, Baylor will have 20 percent of its 2016 commitment class on its campus. That would be Grandview quarterback Zach Smith, Navasota wide receiver Tren’Davian Dickson. Garden City (KS) Community College defensive tackle Jeremy Faulk and Coffeyville Community College offensive tackle Branton Autry. The spring semester begins Jan. 11.
With spring football coming up -- nothing’s definite but I’m hearing you’re looking at it starting in late February and running through early April like we saw in 2015 – it’s a good time for those four to get going with the rest of the roster and blend. Time will tell what it will mean for them and how they will fit into the 2016 fall season. They may figure quite a bit. They may just be there for depth. Let them get on campus first and then we’ll go from there.
We’ll also be through the high school all-star games between Under Armour, Semper Fi and U.S. Army. Smith, Lancaster safety Kenan Ivy, Silsbee offensive lineman Patrick Hudson and Sachse wide receiver Devin Duvernay.
And before you know it, we’re going to turn around and National Signing Day on Feb. 3 will have come and gone. You can’t be more pleased for these five players to earn this kind national recognition to be named to these all-star teams. They get to spend the week with some of the nation’s top players and compete against them and develop a little rapport.
It’s a tremendous opportunity for the Rivals regional and national analysts to meet up with some of the uncommitted players and get a sense as to where they are. Of course, we learned from Hudson that Texas A&M is not out of the picture (the only time I would be concerned about his chances of signing with Baylor is if he actually takes an official visit to College Station. I don’t think Texas is much of a factor here.).
But these games are pretty tough watch. There’s no atmosphere in the building. The game plans have to be very simple. The athletes are trying to decide how hard they want to go all out and at the same time keep from getting hurt.
If you didn’t know anything about Smith and watched him for the first time Sunday night at the Semper Fi game, you would have come away shrugging your shoulders. I watched him for a couple of series and there were some bad throws. But the plays he was given were ridiculous by his coaching staff. On a possession where the West kicked a field goal, Smith threw a wide receiver screen that went nowhere. Then he had to change course and make a throw across the field and on the run without being able to set his feet. The ball one-hopped the receiver who I believe slipped in the end zone. Later, I saw another attempt where he’s throwing across his body from one side of the field to the other. Same thing. The ball was a worm burner. My only thought was the heck is that coaching staff doing? These are not normal throws for QBs. Those are throws when you’re trying to deceive the defense. If he took a vertical or a mid-range ball, I missed it. I can assure you that you won’t see those throws when he’s wearing a Baylor uniform.
And before we get caught up in being worried whether their performance will impact their ratings, don’t. Most of that evaluation came during the practice week where the Rivals staff could see these players like Smith go through rep after rep and evaluate his mechanics other intangibles. These games are so disjointed that it’s really hard to say something made a difference. There’s going to be a play or two where you see something special. But for players like Smith, Ivy, Duvernay, Hudson and Dickson or for those who are making announcements, it’s not make a break. The games are important for those who are trying to show programs they can play.
Dickson plays this Saturday at the U.S. Army All-American bowl in San Antonio.
*****
The football offseason is barely one week old but it’s never too soon to talk about the roster. After all, football is becoming a 365-day sport. For me, there are several issues this coaching staff is going to have to address before spring starts. So let’s take a look at several of those issues.
>First, the debate of moving Davion Hall from wide receiver to safety should be talked about earnestly and honestly. After two seasons, it’s pretty clear that Hall is a tremendous who needs to move. At 6-2, 200, he would be a tremendous fit in the secondary that that’s losing Terrell Burt. Now, Chance Waz got the majority of the playing time back toward the end of the season. And he did fine. I just think Hall, whose instincts of playing the ball are exceptional, would change the perception of the secondary and give it a real hawk back there to protect the corners. I think he’s that good.
Now, I understand that when Baylor convinced Hall to come to Waco, it promised him a chance to play wide receiver. But look at the glut on the roster at that position. There’s K.D. Cannon, Ishmael Zamora, Chris Platt, Lynx Hawthorne (he’s graduated so we’ll see if sticks around or goes somewhere else for that last year of eligibility), Quan Jones (that’s a young man that really needs to get it going), Devontre Stricklin is coming off his redshirt and then you have Dickson, Duvernay, Jared Atkinson and Denzel Mims. Now, there’s not a lot of experience with that group so you could say you need the battle tested receivers to stay. That’s where the proponents for having Hall stay could make their case. But if Hall wants to play in the NFL, I think his ticket is going to the secondary. The images I saw in 2013 in Marshall at Baylor’s camp still burn in my mind. He would bring such a presence back there. When Baylor has a safety playing over the top, it would really have one.
>Quarterback always dominates the thinking. It would help that Seth Russell (broken neck) and Jarrett Stidham (ankle fracture) will be ready or close to ready. With Russell, the timetable for his return is six months. Since he had the surgery in November, I wouldn’t think he could go. Even if he did, it would be so limited. If you looked at the way he was moving his neck when he was on the sidelines for the Russell Athletic Bowl -- remember the scars -- you know there’s a long way to go. If there’s no Russell, then that means more snaps for Smith and Chris Johnson. Stidham should be fully recovered by then. There was some outside hope he would return for the bowl game. You would be looking at a little more than three months before he returned.
>Wholesale changes in the offensive and defensive lines are here. So this is a time for the likes of Ishmael Wilson, Mo Porter and Rami Hammad to step up. They were either running second team or being redshirted so this is the time for them to prepare carefully because this is their chance.
We can discuss more issues with this program as we get closer to the start. But I wanted to whet your whistle.
****
As much as you may have zero love for TCU, you really have to admire how that team came back from 31-0 against Oregon in the Alamo Bowl and find a way to win that game, 47-41 in triple overtime. Now, the Ducks contributed by losing starting quarterback Vernon Adams and their center which created snap chaos. But you still have to score. The one thing about Gary Patterson teams is that they will always play for 60 minutes. They don’t stop. How many times have we watched games with the Horned Frogs when they were down by double digits and came back to win? This was even more impressive with Trevone Boykin suspended.
Credit Arizona State coach Todd Graham with the game ball in the Cactus Bowl against West Virginia. You go up 41-36 and kick the PAT. So you’ve just asked West Virginia to score and kick an extra point. That’s what happened. West Virginia won, 43-42.
Good thing TCU and West Virginia won to salvage the Big 12 bowl season – the league went 3-4 – because it was looking pretty bad. I thought Oklahoma played with no urgency when it fell behind Clemson 30-17 in its national semifinal in the Orange Bowl. Texas Tech was ridiculous against LSU. Leonard Fournette made the nation’s worst tackling defense look pitiful at the Texas Bowl. Arkansas ran over Kansas State (Arkansas’s Alex Collins may be the best running back you don’t know about) in the Liberty Bowl. Ole Miss toyed with Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl. Baylor’s performance was the most impressive of any of the league’s bowl teams. If the Bears were healthy, they probably could have been in the national semifinals. But there’s no use in recycling that topic. We’re way past that.
****
Other thoughts…
>Wasn’t that interesting when RGIII’s parents were wearing Cowboys jerseys in Washington’s regular season finale Sunday at AT&T. The reports came out a couple of weeks ago the Redskins are going to release him once their season has finished. Wherever he ends up on his next stop, it’s probably his last chance to make something of his professional career.
>No surprise that Cowboys coach Jason Garrett will survive Black Monday. When the starting QB is out there for only 3 ½ games, it changes your season. But the Cowboys were their usual September-December comedy of errors. Jerry Jones has built a billion dollar franchise that produces $10 results.
>Very cool to see the Houston Texans get into the playoffs. The AFC South champions play host to Kansas City Saturday afternoon. Brandon Weeden does get the last laugh. He’s still playing. Good luck to them. I’m not a huge NFL fan (except for the Vikings). I’m a casual observer of it for the most part. But I do like the Wild Card and Divisional Playoff rounds. There’s just something about those weekends that carry more appeal to me than the championship games. The league looks so balanced. I have no idea on who will get to Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco.
>Just a brutal Saturday afternoon at Kansas for Scott Drew’s team. What concerns me is how poorly this team has played on the road. And I think teams may be taking the approach of isolating Taurean Prince and daring the rest of the roster to beat them. He was pretty much not a factor at Texas A&M and at Kansas. We’ll see what Oklahoma State does with him on Tuesday. I’m hopeful the crowd at the Ferrell Center will be solid. This team really needs a lift. The Bears really haven’t played well for two weeks.
>The New Year’s Eve national semifinals were not a good idea. Those games needed to be on New Year’s Day. I realize that it would have messed with the fabric of the NYD traditions of the Rose and Fiesta. By the way, I was just not into the bowl season. Outside of Baylor, I paid very little attention to most of the games. Too many of them? Just too much going on in my life? I’m sure that all figured into it.
Let’s make it a great week!
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