By KEVIN LONNQUIST
Publisher
Baylor wrapped up camp week on Sunday at the school campus. About 450 hopefuls attended between the offensive/defensive line portions and the skill sets. For the five camps – two at Baylor, Cy Falls, Richardson Pearce and Marhsall – Baylor drew about 2,000 campers. That’s an average of about 400 per camp.
That’s a pretty solid number because one the numbers get really big, the number of reps go decrease. So the quality of work that players of all abilities earned had value to it.
Topper
Southlake Carroll 2017 safety Robert Barnes said his visit to Baylor went very well. He got to meet the rest of the coaching staff and is hopeful Baylor may extend an offer. Barnes was at Baylor's camp Friday at Richardson Pearce as a spectator.
Positive sign
Baylor made an important move by having McKinney North 2016 defensive end and Rivals No. 241 Justin Madubuike on campus.
ANALYSIS: What Denzel Mims’ commitment means
Daingerfield 2016 athlete Denzel Mims presents choices for the Baylor coaching staff. Yes, he’s made a name for himself as a wide receiver.
But when you are 6-3, 180 with exceptional athleticism you can do more than just go get the football. Admittedly, I was probably watching the linebackers going against the running backs when the Baylor coaches put Mims on the secondary side of the one-on-one drills.
So there was something where the coaching staff played a hunch. It sounded like Mims took the switch without much difficulty. College programs need tall corners.
That move probably led the staff to offer late Saturday. By Sunday afternoon, Mims became the ninth member of the 2016 class. Whatever his position is going to be at Baylor, the point is Baylor wants pure athletes who are capable of doing anything. All the coaching staff wants is the foundation and it feels like it can do the rest to develop him.
We saw that with Terrence Singleton. We have a chance to see that with Blake Lynch. Mims is the Class 3A state champion in the 200 with a personal best time of 21.3. But the drill that caught my attention Saturday was in the wide receivers. Coaches threw high balls to see if receivers could go high enough to grab them. The receivers had to be flat footed. In a couple of instances, Mims’ could get two feet off the ground, maintain his concentration and collect the ball. You don’t teach that. Either you have it or you don’t.
There will probably be other schools that harp on Mims and tell him they want him at wide receiver. It will be Baylor’s job to keep the line of communication going and make sure Mims stays on message.
As for other receiving targets – Devin Duvernay, Tren’Davian Dickson, Jared Atkinson, Tyrie Cleveland – this shouldn’t impact how Baylor recruits them. But I do think it’s a commitment that gets their attention. How they react to it is a matter of opinion. Yes, Mims is a two-star recruit for now. But his reputation is growing.
Zach Smith will enroll early
Baylor 2016 QB commit Zach Smith said he plans to enroll in school in January 2016. That would follow the pattern that Stephenville QB Jared Stidham started by enrolling in January of this year. Smith attended Baylor’s camp on Sunday on the Baylor campus and went through all of the drills.
“I really started thinking about this shortly after I committed,’’ Smith said. “But I decided that I wanted to do this maybe at the start of the school year.’’
That’s good news because given his baseball success (ability to throw a fastball 90 mph), his enrolling early would eliminate the professional baseball angle.
Smith looks even more refined this year than he was from last year. His physique has changed to where he doesn’t even look like he has much body fat. His face is thinner.
And his arm was even better than a year ago. The ball explodes out of his hand. To use a baseball pitcher’s term, when Smith throws a football, there’s something on it. Balls that were thrown from the plus-45 went to the back of the end zone without requiring Smith to muscle it. He threw several that were on a line and right to the spot.
As for the short routes, receivers knew they needed to be ready because there was some heat on them. Some handled them. Some didn’t. The ball just explodes out of his hand with a very quick release.
“I just wanted to work on the little stuff,’’ Smith said. “That can turn into big stuff.’’
If you had a reason to worry about Smith’s ability to throw a football, Sunday’s workout should eliminate that doubt.
SMU and Notre Dame still stayed in contact with him. But those efforts have been rebuffed.
Mond has a timetable
San Antonio Reagan 2017 QB Kellen Mond said he plans to make his commitment decision known around National Signing Day 2016 (Feb. 3).
Mond, a three-star prospect, spent the entire afternoon at Baylor and went through the camp. There were plenty of reps for him to demonstrate his skills in front of the coaching staff and validate the offer that was extended in May.
“It was amazing,’’ Mond said. “I got to take a tour of the campus, meet the teachers in the education department and see what their plans are. I got to see the stadium and the locker room. I didn’t think the stadium was going to be this nice. That’s definitely a huge factor for me, and I would love to play at Baylor.’’
There were plenty of camp reps for him to show his arm on deep, intermediate and short routs. His arm strength is plenty good. Accuracy was pretty solid. Whatever flaws there are can be honed for him to be polished.
Whatever the initial reaction from Mond to Baylor’s offer, there is now substance behind it.
“Getting up here and meeting the wide receivers and building a relationship with them was big because I might be playing with them in a couple of years,’’ he said. “For me, getting to know everybody has been huge.’’
Mexia’s response
Mexia 2017 quarterback Jaylen Gipson also went through Sunday’s camp. He’s a dual-threat quarterback who should start to receive more exposure. He already has a Texas Tech offer.
Gipson is pretty young and mechanically does some things well. His feet still need some work so he can build a foundation so he can make all of the throws. He does throw a good football but it doesn’t explode like it did with Smith.
Expect his offer list to grow. Expect Baylor to watch him. Don’t look for an offer yet because the Bears have three quarterbacks who are ahead of him: Denton Guyer’s Shawn Robinson, Mond and possibly Mesquite Horn’s Chris Robison (no offer) who Baylor has been tracking since he came to camp in June of 2014.
Williams hopes it was enough
Fort Worth All Saints 2016 defensive tackle Michael Williams took part in Baylor’s camp over at the offensive line/defensive line position.
Williams went through every drill and held his own. He’s a repeat participant as he went through the camp in 2014.
“Just making sure I flipped my hips more and using my hands,’’ Williams said. “I just want to make sure my fundamentals are right.’’
Williams is an option but may not be among the first options for Baylor. His size is impressive. His footwork is pretty solid. There’s probably going to be more evaluation to see if Williams did enough to move up in the thinking.
“I like how they pay attention to detail,’’ Williams said. “They liked what they saw from me and said I
improved from last year.’’
14 offers….and counting?
Odessa Permian 2016 three-star defensive back Des Smith has plenty of Division I offers. But of his 14, only one is from a Power 5 school – Minnesota.
At Baylor’s camp, played cornerback and had a strong performance. He had one interception and showed relentless effort. He wanted to keep a no-quit attitude.
“Coach [Carlton] Buckels broke me down on all of my fundamentals from my weave (moving left to right), my feet and my stance,’’ Smith said. “I made some plays in the one on one. Even when I got beat, I didn’t give up on the play. I saw other guys do that.
“I got a lot of reps. When no one wanted to go, I got in there. I wanted to take advantage of every chance.’’
Sunday turned out to be a good day for Smith. He helped himself with Baylor. Of course, the staff is pursuing some big names. But the reality is that both sides know each other could be available months later as long as Smith doesn’t collect more P5 offers.
“If Baylor offered, I’d have to talk to my family about a commitment,’’ he said. “Recruiting wise, if Baylor did, it might cause other schools to offer.’’
More from Lancaster
Lancaster is becoming a place for Baylor to frequently recruit. The Bears already have a commit in Kenan Ivy and haven’t given up on Tyrell Alexander. When 2017 receiver Omar Manning (6-3, 197) went through Sunday’s workout, continued to make play after play. His routes were crisp, showed pretty solid concentration and has good hands.
Plenty of schools know about him as he has offers from Houston, Toledo, Illinois State and Louisiana-Lafayette.
“A lot of competition and worked hard,’’ Manning said. “I had to keep my routes crisp. I wanted to show them that not only am I a big receiver, but I’m explosive and that I can run by any DB. I like the program a lot.’’
Manning was virtually an unknown in 2014. He had only one reception for eight yards.
Camp quick hits
> Temple 2017 defensive end Taquon Graham (6-4, 230) is a player who may start to see some attention. “They noticed me when they came by my school,’’ he said. He has offers from Tulsa, TCU and Kansas.
> Mansfield 2017 wide receiver Saiid Adebo (6-1, 180 – offers from Arkansas, SMU and Kansas) was at camp but could not participate due to a right hand injury.
> Carthage 2016 defensive end Jarrod McLin went through the offensive line/defensive line segment. Although he is a 3-star recruit, he does not have any offers.
> DeSoto 2017 wide receiver K.D. Nixon had to stop his camp experience because of an apparent hamstring injury. All-purpose back La’Darren Brown had a solid camp day. Time will tell if Baylor will evaluate more and offer. Brown already has offers from SMU, Oregon State and Arizona State.
> As we mentioned, Dallas Bishop Dunne 2017 DB Chevin Calloway was at camp as a spectator. This was his second visit in about a month. More on him soon.
Publisher
Baylor wrapped up camp week on Sunday at the school campus. About 450 hopefuls attended between the offensive/defensive line portions and the skill sets. For the five camps – two at Baylor, Cy Falls, Richardson Pearce and Marhsall – Baylor drew about 2,000 campers. That’s an average of about 400 per camp.
That’s a pretty solid number because one the numbers get really big, the number of reps go decrease. So the quality of work that players of all abilities earned had value to it.
Topper
Southlake Carroll 2017 safety Robert Barnes said his visit to Baylor went very well. He got to meet the rest of the coaching staff and is hopeful Baylor may extend an offer. Barnes was at Baylor's camp Friday at Richardson Pearce as a spectator.
Positive sign
Baylor made an important move by having McKinney North 2016 defensive end and Rivals No. 241 Justin Madubuike on campus.
ANALYSIS: What Denzel Mims’ commitment means
Daingerfield 2016 athlete Denzel Mims presents choices for the Baylor coaching staff. Yes, he’s made a name for himself as a wide receiver.
But when you are 6-3, 180 with exceptional athleticism you can do more than just go get the football. Admittedly, I was probably watching the linebackers going against the running backs when the Baylor coaches put Mims on the secondary side of the one-on-one drills.
So there was something where the coaching staff played a hunch. It sounded like Mims took the switch without much difficulty. College programs need tall corners.
That move probably led the staff to offer late Saturday. By Sunday afternoon, Mims became the ninth member of the 2016 class. Whatever his position is going to be at Baylor, the point is Baylor wants pure athletes who are capable of doing anything. All the coaching staff wants is the foundation and it feels like it can do the rest to develop him.
We saw that with Terrence Singleton. We have a chance to see that with Blake Lynch. Mims is the Class 3A state champion in the 200 with a personal best time of 21.3. But the drill that caught my attention Saturday was in the wide receivers. Coaches threw high balls to see if receivers could go high enough to grab them. The receivers had to be flat footed. In a couple of instances, Mims’ could get two feet off the ground, maintain his concentration and collect the ball. You don’t teach that. Either you have it or you don’t.
There will probably be other schools that harp on Mims and tell him they want him at wide receiver. It will be Baylor’s job to keep the line of communication going and make sure Mims stays on message.
As for other receiving targets – Devin Duvernay, Tren’Davian Dickson, Jared Atkinson, Tyrie Cleveland – this shouldn’t impact how Baylor recruits them. But I do think it’s a commitment that gets their attention. How they react to it is a matter of opinion. Yes, Mims is a two-star recruit for now. But his reputation is growing.
Zach Smith will enroll early
Baylor 2016 QB commit Zach Smith said he plans to enroll in school in January 2016. That would follow the pattern that Stephenville QB Jared Stidham started by enrolling in January of this year. Smith attended Baylor’s camp on Sunday on the Baylor campus and went through all of the drills.
“I really started thinking about this shortly after I committed,’’ Smith said. “But I decided that I wanted to do this maybe at the start of the school year.’’
That’s good news because given his baseball success (ability to throw a fastball 90 mph), his enrolling early would eliminate the professional baseball angle.
Smith looks even more refined this year than he was from last year. His physique has changed to where he doesn’t even look like he has much body fat. His face is thinner.
And his arm was even better than a year ago. The ball explodes out of his hand. To use a baseball pitcher’s term, when Smith throws a football, there’s something on it. Balls that were thrown from the plus-45 went to the back of the end zone without requiring Smith to muscle it. He threw several that were on a line and right to the spot.
As for the short routes, receivers knew they needed to be ready because there was some heat on them. Some handled them. Some didn’t. The ball just explodes out of his hand with a very quick release.
“I just wanted to work on the little stuff,’’ Smith said. “That can turn into big stuff.’’
If you had a reason to worry about Smith’s ability to throw a football, Sunday’s workout should eliminate that doubt.
SMU and Notre Dame still stayed in contact with him. But those efforts have been rebuffed.
Mond has a timetable
San Antonio Reagan 2017 QB Kellen Mond said he plans to make his commitment decision known around National Signing Day 2016 (Feb. 3).
Mond, a three-star prospect, spent the entire afternoon at Baylor and went through the camp. There were plenty of reps for him to demonstrate his skills in front of the coaching staff and validate the offer that was extended in May.
“It was amazing,’’ Mond said. “I got to take a tour of the campus, meet the teachers in the education department and see what their plans are. I got to see the stadium and the locker room. I didn’t think the stadium was going to be this nice. That’s definitely a huge factor for me, and I would love to play at Baylor.’’
There were plenty of camp reps for him to show his arm on deep, intermediate and short routs. His arm strength is plenty good. Accuracy was pretty solid. Whatever flaws there are can be honed for him to be polished.
Whatever the initial reaction from Mond to Baylor’s offer, there is now substance behind it.
“Getting up here and meeting the wide receivers and building a relationship with them was big because I might be playing with them in a couple of years,’’ he said. “For me, getting to know everybody has been huge.’’
Mexia’s response
Mexia 2017 quarterback Jaylen Gipson also went through Sunday’s camp. He’s a dual-threat quarterback who should start to receive more exposure. He already has a Texas Tech offer.
Gipson is pretty young and mechanically does some things well. His feet still need some work so he can build a foundation so he can make all of the throws. He does throw a good football but it doesn’t explode like it did with Smith.
Expect his offer list to grow. Expect Baylor to watch him. Don’t look for an offer yet because the Bears have three quarterbacks who are ahead of him: Denton Guyer’s Shawn Robinson, Mond and possibly Mesquite Horn’s Chris Robison (no offer) who Baylor has been tracking since he came to camp in June of 2014.
Williams hopes it was enough
Fort Worth All Saints 2016 defensive tackle Michael Williams took part in Baylor’s camp over at the offensive line/defensive line position.
Williams went through every drill and held his own. He’s a repeat participant as he went through the camp in 2014.
“Just making sure I flipped my hips more and using my hands,’’ Williams said. “I just want to make sure my fundamentals are right.’’
Williams is an option but may not be among the first options for Baylor. His size is impressive. His footwork is pretty solid. There’s probably going to be more evaluation to see if Williams did enough to move up in the thinking.
“I like how they pay attention to detail,’’ Williams said. “They liked what they saw from me and said I
improved from last year.’’
14 offers….and counting?
Odessa Permian 2016 three-star defensive back Des Smith has plenty of Division I offers. But of his 14, only one is from a Power 5 school – Minnesota.
At Baylor’s camp, played cornerback and had a strong performance. He had one interception and showed relentless effort. He wanted to keep a no-quit attitude.
“Coach [Carlton] Buckels broke me down on all of my fundamentals from my weave (moving left to right), my feet and my stance,’’ Smith said. “I made some plays in the one on one. Even when I got beat, I didn’t give up on the play. I saw other guys do that.
“I got a lot of reps. When no one wanted to go, I got in there. I wanted to take advantage of every chance.’’
Sunday turned out to be a good day for Smith. He helped himself with Baylor. Of course, the staff is pursuing some big names. But the reality is that both sides know each other could be available months later as long as Smith doesn’t collect more P5 offers.
“If Baylor offered, I’d have to talk to my family about a commitment,’’ he said. “Recruiting wise, if Baylor did, it might cause other schools to offer.’’
More from Lancaster
Lancaster is becoming a place for Baylor to frequently recruit. The Bears already have a commit in Kenan Ivy and haven’t given up on Tyrell Alexander. When 2017 receiver Omar Manning (6-3, 197) went through Sunday’s workout, continued to make play after play. His routes were crisp, showed pretty solid concentration and has good hands.
Plenty of schools know about him as he has offers from Houston, Toledo, Illinois State and Louisiana-Lafayette.
“A lot of competition and worked hard,’’ Manning said. “I had to keep my routes crisp. I wanted to show them that not only am I a big receiver, but I’m explosive and that I can run by any DB. I like the program a lot.’’
Manning was virtually an unknown in 2014. He had only one reception for eight yards.
Camp quick hits
> Temple 2017 defensive end Taquon Graham (6-4, 230) is a player who may start to see some attention. “They noticed me when they came by my school,’’ he said. He has offers from Tulsa, TCU and Kansas.
> Mansfield 2017 wide receiver Saiid Adebo (6-1, 180 – offers from Arkansas, SMU and Kansas) was at camp but could not participate due to a right hand injury.
> Carthage 2016 defensive end Jarrod McLin went through the offensive line/defensive line segment. Although he is a 3-star recruit, he does not have any offers.
> DeSoto 2017 wide receiver K.D. Nixon had to stop his camp experience because of an apparent hamstring injury. All-purpose back La’Darren Brown had a solid camp day. Time will tell if Baylor will evaluate more and offer. Brown already has offers from SMU, Oregon State and Arizona State.
> As we mentioned, Dallas Bishop Dunne 2017 DB Chevin Calloway was at camp as a spectator. This was his second visit in about a month. More on him soon.
