By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
The Topper
If you missed the podcast, just a reminder that the game day coverage vs. Kansas will look a little different. With family in town and Stephen tied into something a MCC, we have a plan to keep you right up to date.
Michael Haag Baylor Lariat Sports Editor will be doing the game story. Clairatt will man the Game Thread in my place. I encourage you all to be as active as you were for West Virginia.
Stephen has lined up a replacement for photos. There will not be a postgame podcast like we’ve done through the first six games. However, I will record the game and go through it so I will have my Baylor Breakdown on Sunday.
Nothing should be impacting from me later in the afternoon/evening posting the postgame interview transcripts.
Appreciate everybody understanding this.
MBB: Unofficial visitor
Lancaster 2025 6-7 PF Amari Reed took an unofficial visit to Baylor earlier this week.
Baylor getting off to the right start. He's more in eval mode. He's on the verge of claiming more attention should his 22-23 season goes the way he thinks it will.
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Notable Kansas visitors
Baylor plays at home for the first time in three weeks. It’s the fourth home game of the year with two more remaining. Subject to change, these recruits have told
SicEmSports they plan to attend the game. The 11:00 a.m. kickoff didn't help.
2023
Isaiah Robinson, OL, Arlington Lamar (Baylor commit; Not 100 but thinks he will)
Cory Huff, DB, Aldine Nimitz (Baylor commit)
LeVar Thornton, DB, Keller Timber Creek (Baylor commit)
Dawson Pendergrass, RB, Mineola (Baylor commit)
Taurean York, LB, Temple (Baylor commit)
2024
Jadon Porter, WR, Lorena, (Baylor commit)
Markus Boswell, LB, Lake Travis (Baylor interest)
Payton Pierce, LB, Lucas Lovejoy (Baylor offer)
Caleb Hackleman, OL, Texarkana Pleasant Grove (Baylor offer)
Trey Owens, QB, Cy-Fair (Baylor offer)
Zion Carter, DE, McKinney North (Baylor interest)
Selman Bridges, DB, Lake Belton (Baylor offer)
Edward Smith, DE, Pearland Dawson (Baylor offer0
2025
Adrian Wilson, WR, Pflugerville Weiss (Baylor offer)
Brody Whatley, DE, Monroe Neville (Baylor offer)
Kelden Ryan, QB, Keller Central (Baylor offer)
Boswell hoping for honor
Lake Travis 2024 linebacker
Markus Boswell is coming on these days. While he picked up his first offer from Colorado in September, other schools are starting to take notice.
Baylor is one of them. Boswell is expected to attend Saturday’s game against Kansas.
“I first did their camp last year at WR and started building the relationship with them,’’ he said. “This year they came to watch me in the spring playing LB and got invited to both summer camps. I really love the coaching staff and what they run there along with it being an amazing school. I surely hope they offer soon.’’
Boswell has been to watch other games at Notre Dame and Tulane. So his reputation is starting to make its way out there.
Boswell is making his presence felt. He’s second on the Cavaliers’ defense in tackles with 34. There’s more to see, of course. But he just trying to make the case.
“What stands out for me are the coaches, just being around them and seeing how they coached me during the camps,’’ Buckley said. “I also have a friend who’s brother is an equipment manger there and he just loves it. Coach Aranda does an amazing job with his staff developing players which is very important to me. I also want to be a pre-med student and there medical program is well respected.”
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On Kelden Ryan
This will be the third trip for
Kelden Ryan to visit Baylor within the calendar year. This was his plan for the last month. He’s going through the ups and downs as first-year starting quarterback.
The 2025 signal caller from Keller Central has thrown for 1,035 yards completed, 56 percent of his passes. Needless to say, the Chargers have struggled to a 1-6 record. Ryan has thrown four touchdowns against give INTs.
However, he is this team’s leading rusher with 340 yards. Ryan is one of those on-the-cusp QBs with 12 offers.
“The coaching staff at Baylor is awesome, one of the best in the country, and they play good football,’’ Ryan said. “I think it’s a great school for academics and athletics.”
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Baylor Players talk Kansas
Tight end
Ben Sims and nose tackle
Apu Ika gave their impressions of what happened against West Virginia and looking ahead to Homecoming against Kansas.
TE Ben Sims
(What do you guys need to do to get back on track?)
There's a lot of little things I guess that could go into it. It goes back to doing simple better, being more intentional in our practices. Like, taking everything seriously because the things that you do in practice show up in the game. So, really going back and looking at practice and it turns out that you do the exact same thing in the game. So, just the intentionality of what we're doing every day.
(Bringing new tricks out of the bag, was that fun?)
Yeah, that's always fun. Us as an offense, we have our identity. But at the same time, we like to have fun with what we do. So, throwing in a changeup every now and again that complements our fastball is always fun.
(Confidence in Kyron)
Kyron’s got the same abilities. I mean, he – like y’all saw in the game. He came in and didn't skip a beat. So, the confidence that the offense has in Kyron is second-to-none. We're ready for him to play if he needs to.
(Back on a normal week, anything to that?)
Okay, so it was weird. Last week, every day that normally would have been that day in a normal game week … It was a Wednesday practice on a Monday, and I kept thinking we had class or something. It was the weirdest thing. My days were off by two the whole week. So, it feels good to be back on track, I guess.
(Is there anything to that?)
Yeah, just back to normal. My class schedule is pretty simple. I take some online classes, so it felt the same for me. But I'm sure for other guys it felt different. But it was weird having a two-day difference in my head for a couple days.
(What do you see from this Kansas team?)
I mean, you see a team that's a really good team. They're really good defensively. They fight hard. Nothing but good things to say about them.
(Have to remind yourself that this isn’t last year’s KU team, or do you see that on tape?)
I mean, I feel like that's – ever since I've been here at least – we go into Kansas historically, maybe not the best team, but we tell ourselves every year that this is not the same Kansas team as it was the year before. And I think that keeps guys focused and I think it holds a lot of truth. So, I think going into it with the mentality that they’re the best team in the Big 12 might be necessary.
(You both are going into this week on a two-game losing streak, will there be added hunger?)
I mean, absolutely. No one likes to lose two straight. Losing two straight is obviously difficult and hard. And you start kind of looking in the mirror more and questioning things. But it's just coming back to doing simple better and being more intentional and doing the right things. What you do off the field is just as important as what you do on the field. And it's really about getting back on track.
(Homecoming here, big deal for y’all?)
Um, sure, yeah. There's always so much going on around the facility. I feel like Homecoming is just a thing that we get on top of everything. So, [I’m] happy it’s Homecoming, glad there's gonna be a lot of people here. I guess we're still focused on football.
(Until Blake got hurt, was he playing his best football?)
Yeah, I felt like Blake was hitting his stride and I think that holds true for the entire offense. I feel like we’re starting to put up good numbers and we're starting to do the right things and starting to clean up the mistakes as far as penalties and maybe some execution stuff. But yeah, Blake is playing his tail off, so props to him.
Apu Ika
Aranda said there was issues of players trusting. How do you get where you can trust the players around you) It’s repetitive, but practice. We are a young team, especially on the back end, on the defensive side of the ball. But, I feel like just in practice, we’ve got to practice faster. Practice making the plays that we need made on Saturday. So, I feel like we just need to put ourselves in the positions and work as a defense.
(Seen from Kansas) It’s not the same team as last year. And we’ve run into some trouble like that throughout the season. It’s going to be like that for the rest of the season. A lot of these teams that we see now aren’t the same team that we saw last year. Same as us, we’re not the same team that we were last year, too. Definitely have to make some adjustments and practice hard.
(Doing in practice to address the tackling issue) I guess just putting ourselves in more stressful situations. We’ve kind of started with just changing the practice schedule, in general. Feels like as the season has been going on, people have just been going through the motions. So, when we’re put in those stressful situations in the games, we don’t know how to handle it. It’s obviously something we need to address in practice. Put ourselves in those positions that we’re going to be in on Saturday, not something that we’re just running through just to get the period over with.
(Been here long enough to have an appreciation of playing at McLane) Oh yeah, for sure. Just playing in general. I’m a little older now, so I look at the game a little bit differently. I’m kind of starting to get to that point in my career where the number of guaranteed snaps is coming down. So, I’ve just been really trying to emphasize taking in everything, the wins and losses, the good practices and the bad practices. It’s just all part of it. I’m just glad to be here.
(On Christian Morgan, what he brings to the defense) He’s another old head. Especially in the back end, we don’t have a lot of old heads in the back end. He kind of reminds me of an Energizer bunny. When things are going one way, and things seem like they are, out of nowhere there’s just something out of the ordinary and just ‘Bang!’ and brings energy, something that sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s him. That’s him in our defense. And he’s been putting together some good days at practice and putting together some good film on tape. I’m so excited to see what’s in store for him throughout the rest of the season.
(Jack Fish have any new stuff coming out soon) Jack Fish is worried about Saturday and Kansas.
(Do you actually have singles, or is it just on your social media) I do, actually. I have a couple singles out, just under Jack Fish on Apple Music, Spotify. Working on some stuff, but like I said, worried about Kansas.
(Jackfish) Just to clarify, that’s my name in English. That’s why I go by Jackfish. That’s like my rapper name, just to clarify any misunderstandings.
(Atmosphere at practice) It’s great. Everyone is excited to be back. It’s another day to get better, so that’s always exciting.
(What does team need to do to get better) I feel like we’ve got to play faster, get back to playing green. I feel like during practice when the lights aren’t on and the pressure isn’t felt, it’s easy to play fast. We’ve just got to do it when the lights come on.
(Defensive line play) We’ve just got to get better. The D-linemen are one of the older position groups on the team, so we’ve obviously got to get a little more from us.
(Shaking off loss and learning from it) It’s 50-50. Obviously, it’s something you can use as a learning point but as a turning point as well. Learn from the things that happened, but at the end of the day what happened happened. Like I said, today is a new day to get better.
(Where does improvement need to start) Practice, that’s where it starts for everyone. How you practice is how you play. I feel like that’s something we need to get better at, loving practice, practicing faster, love practicing with our teammates.
(Dillon Doyle) I feel like he brings a confidence. We view him as the quarterback of our defense. At mike linebacker, he’s the one who’s calling out everything up front. He’s the one who gives us our plays. So when we’re out there, communication breeds confidence. That’s what he’s out there to do.
SicEmSports Big 12 Power Rankings
Each week,
SicEmSports unveils its looks at the league who in its view deserves to be ranked where. Agree or disagree, here’s how they look.
1. TCU – Texas Monthly calls Sonny Dykes the King of Texas
2. Kansas State – RB Deuce Vaughn averaging 110 yards per game
3. Oklahoma State – Watching Spencer Sanders’ health
4. Texas — Longhorns with a telling matchup in Stillwater, OK
5. Baylor – Season may hinge on Homecoming with Kansas
6. Kansas – Jalon Daniels is the lingering issuer
7. West Virginia – Given up for dead, Mountaineers respond
8. Texas Tech – QB carousel on Saturday
9. Oklahoma – Bizarre last two weeks for the Sooners
10. Iowa State – Been a really tough way open conference play
Big 12 Weekend
A look at the Big 12 schedule for the upcoming weekend. All games are Saturday unless otherwise listed. Rankings are from the coaches and AP polls. All times are central. TV is listed. Oklahoma and Iowa State have byes.
Kansas (5-2, 2-2) at Baylor (3-3, 1-2); 11:00 a.m., McLane Stadium, Waco (ESPN2)
Series: Baylor leads, 17-4
Notable: QB health is the headline. Baylor should have Blake Shapen (concussion) back. Kansas likely won’t with Jalon Daniels (shoulder).
West Virginia (3-3, 1-2) at Texas Tech (3-3, 1-2); 2:00 p.m., AT&T Jones Stadium, Lubbock (FS1)
Series: West Virginia leads, 6-5
Notable: Mountaineers have actually won three out of their last four while the Red Raiders have lost three out of their last four. Homecoming on the South Plains.
No. 20 Texas (5-2, 2-1) at No. 11 Oklahoma State (5-1, 2-1); 2:30 p.m., Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater, OK (ABC)
Series: Texas leads, 26-10
Notable: Pretty much an elimination game for either one of these teams. Oklahoma State more so because it already lost to TCU. Cowboys have won five of the last seven meetings.
No. 17 Kansas State (5-1, 3-0) at No. 8 TCU (6-0, 3-0); 7:00 p.m., Amon Carter Stadium, Fort Worth (FS1)
Series: Kansas State leads, 8-7
Notable: Battle of co-conference leaders. The winner has control of its Big 12 future. Wildcats should be fully healthy following their bye. TCU QB Max Duggan is second in the Big 12 in total offense per game (309).