By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Baylor’s hopes of returning to the Big 12 Championship Game Dec. 3 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington are on life support following Thursday’s heartbreaking 43-40 loss at West Virginia.

The Bears (3-3, 1-2) likely must run the table for the remainder of the season to finish 7-2 and get some help along the way. Not impossible as two-thirds of the conference season lies in front of them. Anything can happen.

Baylor returns to McLane Stadium for Homecoming against Kansas at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.

SicEmSports provides reflections, observations and three Golden Bears.


Upon Reflection
Let’s start with the health of this team. If these apparent concussions to quarterback Blake Shapen and running back Sqwirl Williams are serious enough to where they miss Kansas, the depth at both of those positions thins.

We’ll get an update from Dave Aranda on Monday at his presser. Maybe the two extra days means something.

However, if Kyron Drones starts, he’s the last scholarship QB on the active roster. His backup is probably walk-on Luke Anthony. While Anthony has scholarship experience between Abilene Christian and Louisiana Tech, the one question that would have to be answered should he go out there for an extended period of time is how mobile he is. He suffered a pretty rough ankle injury in the final game of 2020 at TCU and missed all of 2021.

With no Taye McWilliams, possibly no Sqwirl and Josh Fleeks entering the transfer portal, Baylor is down to two healthy backs – Richard Reese and Qualan Jones. After that, the only scholarship back on the roster is Jordan Jenkins who hasn’t played since Albany followed by walk-on Jacoby Clarke.

Even if Sqwirl is cleared to return, I would think the Baylor coaches would be hypercautious with him and use him sparingly if at all. You just don’t mess with head injuries because of a person’s lifelong future.


Moving forward
Perhaps college quarterbacks should be taught not to slide or find a different way to give themselves up if they are running. Shapen and Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel suffered their concussion in the same manner. Gabriel returned Saturday against Kansas.

While most want to tar and feather West Virginia’s Andrew Wilson-Lamp, if you watch the play, he immediately got up and knew he messed up. The other thing is walk a mile in the defender’s shoes. He’s coming 0 to 100 at the QB before Shapen starts to slide. It’s difficult for defenders to slam on the breaks and stop if they have started their motion to make the play. Not impossible because they can somewhat control how they approach the ball carrier.


Cold Fronts
Let’s talk about the offensive and defensive lines. The thing about a team like Baylor is that once you think something has been fixed on one side, then the other springs a leak.

Had absolutely no issues with the offensive line. Thought that unit was good. Even with no Khalil Keith, they were solid against a solid Mountaineer front. Shapen was sacked twice – technically one on the fumble that was returned for a touchdown – but the running game averaged 4.8 yards per carry, a full yard more than what they had done against other P5 teams. You all know how I’ve harped on that. Holes were there all night.

Defensively, this group was a huge disappointment. Zero pressure on West Virginia QB J.T. Daniels. He was pressured once. That’s it. A clean pocket all night. To make it worse, they were getting blown off the line against the Mountaineer’s backup running back Tony Mathis who finished with 163 yards including the 37-yarder that set up the game-winning field goal.

They had been good against the run all year allowing 96 yards per game. But the flaw has been the pass rush. That first half against Texas State was not an anomaly. It’s been a problem. Because of that, they’re not helping an inexperienced secondary that really needs it.

What’s disappointing is that just about everybody is back. Cole Maxwell is back from his injury. They’re just not winning enough at the point of attack. I don’t know you fix it.


Football 101
>Special teams were decent. Issac Power didn’t have a great night, but he was OK. The fatal flaw is the blocked PAT early in the fourth that’s returned for two points. Baylor takes the momentum at 37-31 on Jones’ TD run and then gives it right back at 37-33 on an untimed down. That’s nine points Baylor has allowed in the last two weeks.

>Obviously, this defense has a tackling problem. Beyond the fundamentals, that’s an effort thing. Either you want to do it, or you don’t. We’re at a point in the season where that should not have to be addressed. Unfortunately, Baylor’s defensive staff is going to have to spend some time doing that when it could be using other time to prepare for Kansas and other schematic ideas.

>Baylor is now -2 in the turnover ratio this year with the three it committed Thursday. To show you what a wild card the turnover ratio is – and it’s like this every year – Baylor was +12 in 2021. West Virginia scored 14 points off the two lost fumbles.

>Anyone enjoy the déjà vu moment with about nine minutes remaining in the third quarter in a 24-24 tie when Aranda went for it on 4th-and-1 on the Baylor 35? We just saw this movie against Oklahoma State. Well, they converted on a Reese two-yard run and eventually scored to take a 31-24 lead. I’m a punt/field position guy there. But I guess I’m as stubborn about punting there as Aranda is as stubborn about going for it there.


Golden Bears
The yearly tradition returns. No matter the outcome, we select the three who had the most impact on the Bears’ performance. The following are from Baylor’s 43-40 loss at West Virginia.

Gavin Holmes, WR, 6th: A veteran knows how to put things in perspective and have a short memory. After a brutal performance against Oklahoma State, Holmes bounced right back with a career night and one of the best performances by a Baylor WR in school history. His 56-yard catch-and-run TD was one of prettiest plays of the season.

Notable – Receiving: 7-210 1TD

John Mayers, PK, 5th: The blocked PAT was not his fault. Someone blew an assignment. For as much as he has struggled from 40+ plus in his career (4-9 lifetime before this game), he was nails Thursday converting both attempts from 40+ including the game-tying 44 yarder with 1:40 to play.

Notable – FGA: 2-2 (40, 44); PAT 4-5 (blocked)

Drake Dabney, TE, Jr.: He’s really becoming a featured part of this passing attack. It’s almost like Ben Sims and him are 1 and 1A. Dabney is physical where he is a matchup problem, and his hands are soft and sure. Nice luxury to have. He’ll be the No. 1 tight end when Sims’ career ends. Dabney was the second leading pass catcher Thursday.

Notable – Receiving: 5-66 (13.2 ypc, 24 YAC)

TCU big win Now we can knock them off
Texas scrape by win We’ll kick their ass
Kansas Stare bye They need all the rest they can get before they eventually play us
Kansas better get use to losing again. We are going to bring it next week
Tech well who cares let them enjoy it while they can.
OU looked better but we need to keep the schooner grounded

but the other games were something else
Bama goes down to the wire They are showing vulnerability.

They were really bad this year. Blowout after blowout. He'll get paid a lot of money not to coach this team.

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Bears get back into the season and trying to end a winless history at Milan-Puskar Stadium.

By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
In Morgantown, WV, Casey Legg kicked a 22-yard field goal with 33 seconds remaining as West Virginia rallied past Baylor, 43-40, Thursday night at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Baylor continues to struggle in Morgantown and is 0-6 lifetime. The Bears (3-3, 1-2) also lost starting quarterback Blake Shapen to a head injury during a slide in the third quarter.

On a running play, Shapen slid at the West Virginia 12. But West Virginia’s Andrew Wilson-Lamp went high and hit Shapen whose head snapped back and hit the turf hard. Shapen was taken to the tent and then the locker room and did not return.

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said there will be more examination of both Shapen and running back Sqwirl Williams, who also went down with a head injury, to determine their status. Shapen was on the verge of a personal best. He threw for 326 yards and two scores.

In his place, backup QB Kyron Drones threw for 95 yards and a touchdown and led another scoring drive. The teams combined for 1,090 yards of total offense, 590 for Baylor and 500 for West Virginia.

However, the Bears hurt themselves with three turnovers. The Mountaineers scored 14 points off of them.

Tied at 31 early in the fourth quarter, Qualan Jones scored on a 4-yard run to give the Bears a 37-31 lead. But Mountaineer defensive tackle Dante Stills blocked the extra point and Jacolby Spells returned it 87 yards for two points to cut it to 37-33.

After the Baylor defense stuff the Moutaineers at their 45 minutes later, the Bears drove inside the West Virginia 30. However, Jones fumbled and Mountaineer linebacker Jasir Cox, who returned a fumble for a touchdown earlier in the game, recovered his second.

West Virginia took advantage, drove the length of the field and took a 40-37 on Tony Mathis’ 34-yard run.

Baylor looked finished when Drones threw an interception in the West Virginia red zone. However, linebacker Dillon Doyle intercepted Mountaineer QB JT Daniels at the 26. John Mayers 44-yard field goal with 1:40 to play tied it, 40-40.

The Mountaineers appeared to be playing for the longer field goal. However, Mathis broke off a 37-yard run that set up Legg’s chip shot.

Baylor was 3-of-3 on fourth down including Drones’ 2-yard TD pass to Hal Presley.

Rebounding from a rough performance against Oklahoma State, veteran Gavin Holmes had a career night with seven receptions for 210 yards and a nifty catch-and-run 56-yard touchdown reception.

Baylor returns to McLane Stadium on Oct. 22 against Kansas. The game is scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. kickoff.

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Didn't think he would get too detailed. But there's your update. We won't get to Aranda until Monday. But I'm sure Baylor has to approach Kansas like Kyron Drones will be the starter due to the concussion protocol Shapen will have to go through during the week. As delicate and serious as they treat these things, my guess is no Shapen for Kansas.

Dillon Doyle
(Defensive issues) It’s hard to tell off first impressions, obviously since we haven’t seen the film yet. But I didn’t feel like we were able to pressure the passer enough tonight. We missed some tackles certainly, and we missed some assignments. It starts with me. I wasn’t able to pressure the quarterback when I had some mike pressure looks, and that’s on me. I had a couple missed tackles, and that’s on me. It starts with the leadership owning that. Taking ownership and I think it will fall down to the rest of the guys.

(Doyle interception) I don’t really get caught up in macro trends or momentum during the game. Obviously, it’s always good to get turnovers. You want to get three a game. That’s been an emphasis for us to continue to get more of those. So that will be a focus moving forward after a few days off and get back on it to go through the rest of the season.

(Frustration) Yeah it’s frustrating. It’s kind of like a broken record, but it’s really simple the things you need to do to win. But they’re not easy things to do. I feel like we didn’t do them. We didn’t do simple better today, especially defensively. I mean the offense did a really great job, but we just didn’t do our part. We needed to play complementary football, and we didn’t really do it today. So that’s obviously disappointing. We also recognize there's six games left, and we have an opportunity to turn it around and have a season to be proud of.

(Did bye week help) It was really a normal week for us from the standpoint of we had one day off, I think. But we went into it like a normal week. The scheduling was still the same. Last Friday was Sunday for us, and then we went through a normal game week for us. Saturday we were on the practice field, Sunday we were on the practice field. I didn’t feel like it was anything that different. We did get a chance to self scout a little bit. We still got the chance to look at some things there. But if you watch the tape pretty closely, I think we know what our deficiencies are, so it’s just going about improving those in a systematic manner, and that comes with intentional practice. I’m sure Coach hammered that into you guys, we need to continue to practice intentionally and have energy on the practice field. I feel like we did that this week, so obviously it’s disappointing to see that not show up on Thursday night game day.

Gavin Holmes
(Frustation) It’s obviously frustrating when we don’t bring home a win. But we got a lot of good things out of this game. We know what we can do offensively. We’re just going to continue to work. Yes we lost, but there’s still a lot of football left.

(Kyron) I’m extremely proud of Kyron. He came in and made some big time throws. It’s not easy to come in a situation like that and have to kind of take over the team essentially. I thought he did a great job.

(WVU defense) We knew they played a lot of cover fours, so safeties are going to play deep. So we knew the middle of the field was going to be open a lot. So we just tried to exploit that and take advantage of that.

(Gavin TD) We knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of bodies in the middle, so that’s what that was. Coaches put their belief in me, especially this last week in practice. We came out here and didn’t get the job done.

(What’s it going to take to turn season around) I think we just got to stay together. Like I said, there’s still a lot of football left, and we know what we’re capable of. We just can’t fall apart. We just have to keep pushing. There’s a lot of big time games left. We have to keep fighting. We still have a lot of opportunity, we know we’re a real good team.

(Watching Blake go out) It’s tough, especially seeing a hit like that is kind of scary. Prayers up for Blake that he’s alright. We have a lot of faith in Kyron as well, he came in and did a really good job. I’m proud of him for that.

Baylor HC Dave Aranda

Opening Statement
First of all, just a great job by West Virginia and Coach (Neal) Brown. Their fight and their execution really showed up tonight. I thought at the start of the game, we came ready to play. I’m disappointed, and I think we’re all frustrated with just our execution really at critical points. There was a lot of good things, but we could not make that next play. Whether it was, we’re up and we’ve got to make a play to stop a drive to kind of halt the emerging momentum. We never could do that. And there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that, whether it was alignment or assignment. So, a fair amount to clean up there. And then, I think the other piece that plays with it is we’re still fighting the battle with special teams for improvement and for consistency and to really have that as a weapon for us. That, obviously, showed up tonight as well. But, in all of it, with the punches that we took, some of which were self-inflicted, I thought guys continued to fight. So, proud of that. That’s something to build off of.

(Update on Blake Shapen) No, both Blake and Sqwirl went out with head injuries. I think they’ll get looked at tomorrow, and we should have an idea then.

(How did Kyron handle it in that situation) I thought there was a calmness with him and there was a strong presence with him in the pocket when he was able to rear back and throw it. And I thought the offense really took to it. So, that was really good to see. That last two-minute drive kind of colors the opposite view. They were working their flush rush, and that was affecting us. But I think prior to that, he was able to stick his foot in the ground and really hammer some balls in with really impressive throws. So, there’s a lot to build off with his throw game. Impressed with him.

(What’s it going to take to turn it around) I think we’ve got to continue to teach everything. This is hard to say after a loss, but I thought we showed up wanting to be there. I thought we showed up wanting to fight. You could feel that in the locker room, you could feel it on the sidelines that guys wanted to be there, they wanted to fight. And we had to really teach that. There’s a whole bunch into that. I have to do a better job of teaching how to finish and how to close out drives, finish drives on offense. We’re missing the complementary football part where if an offense gets something going, defense shuts it down, offense adds on even more. Right now, we’re trading one score for another score, really two weeks in a row. So, we have to really finish that next play, that next drive. That’s what’s missing.

(Lot of missed tackles)
Secondary-wise, our MO has been to play real thick alignments up front and 2-gap, and then with our back end really bracket receivers and double receivers. And we were doing that tonight. They were completing passes into that, which a lot of folks up to this point have not. So, into the teeth of the coverage, they were completing things. There’s a whole lot in terms of just why that was occurring, whether it was misalignments and technique and/or lack of rush. But then, once that started to happen, then guys tried to push and stress and try to do too much. And then, that affected the run game. I think that it starts with, if we’re in pass coverage and you’re throwing a route into coverage, we have to execute so that doesn’t happen. And then, I think the other piece is once the run game kind of starts to go, having everybody trust in doing their job so that guys to the right and left of them can do theirs. That was wilted away tonight.

(Get enough done during the bye week) Well, you would love to have a win coming off of a bye, but I thought there was a lot of truth that was spoken, I feel, and there was a lot of work put into fundamentals and things that you’d like to say would equate to a win. And it’s awfully unfortunate that it didn’t, but it really shows that there’s much more work to do. So, I think for us to approach it from a teacher’s perspective and really meet guys where they’re at, and get them to be at their best in a real kind of tough and critical time is everything right now. So, we’re all about it.

Tough night for the Bears. We talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly.



Came in at 13:28

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IRVING, Texas – Baylor men’s basketball’s Keyonte George was named the Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year and Adam Flagler was selected to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, announced Wednesday by the conference office.

Additionally, George and junior guard LJ Cryer were All-Big 12 honorable mention selections.

Preseason All-Big 12 teams are voted on by the league's head coaches, who are not permitted to vote for their own players. The Preseason All-Big 12 Team is typically five players, but a tie in voting created the sixth spot for 2022-23.

George follows Kendall Brown, who was last year's Preseason Freshman of the Year, and BU is now just the third program in Big 12 history to have back-to-back winners.

The fifth McDonalds All-American in program history, George is the highest-ranked recruit in BU history. Last season at IMG Academy, he averaged 17.8 points per game while shooting .410 from beyond the arc. The freshman from Lewisville, Texas, was named MVP of the 2021 3x3 U18 World Cup while playing for USA Basketball. This past summer, he averaged 22.8 points to lead the Bears to the GLOBL JAM championship game in Canada.

Flagler, one of three unanimous selections to the Preseason All-Big 12 squad, enters the season coming off a stellar junior campaign that saw him top the double-digit scoring mark a team-leading 23 times, played an integral role in the Bears’ second-consecutive Big 12 Championship. The senior from Duluth, Ga., was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team by the coaches and the Associated Press last season, in addition to being selected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 8 Second Team.

Cryer is coming off a career year despite missing 15 games with injury. The Katy, Texas, native shot .468 from three-point range, which led the Big 12 Conference, and was third nationally until he fell below the minimum games-played threshold. The junior burst onto the scene last year as a sophomore, scoring 256 points in 19 games, which was more than triple his previous season’s total of 67 in 20 games. In his injury-shortened season, he led the team in scoring eight different times and topped the 12-point mark in 13 games.

Baylor opens the 2022-23 season on Monday, Nov. 7, with a home game against Incarnate Word. Tipoff is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. CT on ESPN+ as a part of BU’s annual “Future Bears Day.”

Season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at BaylorBears.com. Follow @BaylorMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for additional updates.

2022-23 PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
Adam Flagler, Baylor*
Jalen Wilson, Kansas*
Avery Anderson III, Oklahoma State
Mike Miles Jr., TCU*
Timmy Allen, Texas
Marcus Carr, Texas
Note: A tie resulted in an extra position on the team.

Honorable mention: LJ Cryer (Baylor), Keyonte George (Baylor), Kevin McCullar (Kansas), Tanner Groves (Oklahoma), Moussa Cisse (Oklahoma State), Emmanuel Miller (TCU), Tyrese Hunter (Texas), Fardaws Aimaq (Texas Tech), Kevin Obanor (Texas Tech).

Preseason Player of the Year: Mike Miles Jr., TCU
Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Grant Sherfield, Oklahoma
Preseason Freshman of the Year: Keyonte George, Baylor

BAYLOR'S PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 SELECTIONS (since 2002-03)
2007-08 – Curtis Jerrells, G
2008-09 – Curtis Jerrells, G
2010-11 – LaceDarius Dunn, G
2011-12 – Perry Jones III, F
2012-13 – Pierre Jackson, G
2013-14 – Isaiah Austin, C
2013-14 – Cory Jefferson, F
2015-16 – Rico Gathers, F
2016-17 – Johnathan Motley, F
2019-20 – Tristan Clark, F
2020-21 – Jared Butler, G
2021-22 – Matthew Mayer, G/F
2022-23 – Adam Flagler, G

Thought this would be close with Kansas. And it was. Top 4 is about right. All four of these teams can play into the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. I think the conference is deeper this year.

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Have to cram a lot in with the game on Thursday. Big game for Austin Novosad as he faces Austin Westlake this week. Isaiah Robinson did return. Both of them received their U.S. Army All-American Jerseys

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