By KEVIN LONNQUIST
Publisher
Kudos to the approximate 5,000 fans who were at Baylor's Friday Night Lights Showcase event at McLane Stadium. There had been talk that there could be as many 15,000. But the rain and raw impacted the crowd. However, when there is better weather, the turnouts will be strong and this will be a festive annual spring event.
It definitely helps to have an on-campus stadium to hold it. While the Highers Complex served its purpose, McLane Stadium will allow everybody to spread out and relax and take it all in.
There's two weeks remaining in the spring season, so the way to judge the performance of this event is through the prism that this was the team's first week back from spring break and things will not be crisp. To be sure, they weren't. Plus, these scrimmages are pretty vanilla so you never see anything too flashy.
To start, this quarterback race is over. And really, it was probably over before Jarrett Stidham ever walked on the Baylor campus. Seth Russell will be the starter, Stidham will be the backup. Chris Johnson will only see the field when games are way out of hand in the fourth quarter.
Russell's effort (18-27-1, 345 yards 4TD) looks good on the stat sheet. But there's a lot to prove here. His deep ball looks fine as he threw a 65-yard TD pass to Corey Coleman and a 54-yard TD strike to KD Cannon. But his arm strength is a real concern of mine. When he threw a couple of out routes, there wasn't the heat on the ball to fit into the tight window and beat the defensive back. A couple of times, the DB could step in and break up the pass. Russell's mid-range game needs a lot of work and if Baylor's passing game is going to chew people up, that has to be consistent. I feel like this is déjà vu because I said this about Bryce Petty last year. But Petty has a better arm. It was also pointed out that a couple of times, Baylor receivers had to come back. That didn't happen very much over the last several years.
As for Stidham (7-18-0 52), he clearly was overwhelmed and just struggled. But he's a true freshman. He did what a lot of young quarterbacks do: not go through his progressions. He went for his first read and when that wasn't available he took off and ran. Yes, Stidham talked in December that when he arrived he planned on competing for the starting job. What I hope this spring reveals is a big dose of reality. He has so much to learn about the college game, especially the speed.
Maybe the defense is ahead of the offense because that first-team defensive line pretty much owned the first-team offensive line. Remember, this is a unit that is without Shawn Oakman and Jamal Palmer. But it shows you that when you have a monster defensive tackle in Andrew Billings, he's going to draw a double team and open something. Thus, the pass rush can tee off all the time. I'm going to say this: Andrew Billings is the most valuable member of the 2015 Baylor Bears.
What was interesting in the defensive ends was that Brian Nance worked a lot with the first team, and I thought he did OK. Nance isn't big. He's pretty lean. But he looks like he's running easy. Perhaps he sees more time this year.
Don't know to make of it but it was interesting to see the two nickel back candidates, Travon Blanchard and Patrick Levels, on the field at the same time.
A lot of good reps for the young secondary guys in Taion Sells, Terrence Singleton, Verkedrick Vaughns and Jourdan Blake. It's a young group that needs more time on the field. Tion Wright was fine.
If I'm members of the offensive line, I'd feel pretty humbled about that performance. Not a good night from start to finish.
Quickly about the WRs
>Corey Coleman is the leader of this group
>KD Cannon looks thicker and will only get better
>Chris Pratt doesn't mind going over the middle
>Jay Lee should be steady but I hope he picks it up a notch
>Ishmael Zamora is a big young man but needs to fight for the ball better
>Lynx Hawthorne can contribute
>I'm concerned about Davion Hall and what his future is going to be here. He's been dealing with a lot of Injuries since he's been at Baylor.
>I have no idea how Quan Jones fits with this group. He looks the part of a big physical receiver and that's about it.
The running game wasn't anything special but the bright spot was Johnny Jefferson's 50-yard run. He'll be the home run hitter, and I think he'll have the confidence to pull off several of those runs. He's not a 4.3 guy but I think his upper body strength is an undervalued asset. I liked what I saw from Terence Williams. He's big to be Glasco Martin but he's not bad with bouncing runs to the outside.
If you didn't know LaQuan McGowan wore 80 you probably wouldn't recognize him. He has really slimmed down and runs well including the 21-yard reception on a seam rout. Gus Penning has good hands. But then again, if Baylor tight ends catch more than 25 passes this fall, that will be breaking news.
The shake your head moment was the impromptu boxing match between Zamora and Vaughns. It drew the oohs and ahhs. But this was not good. Those two were really angry with each other and threw punch after punch before they had to be separated. The game took a couple of minutes of a breather for everybody to settle down. I'm sure the guys are tired banging on each other. But you can't bring your dirty laundry out to the public. I would have to think that the coaching staff is going to deal with this internally.
Overall, this was just a decent but far from sparking performance. Is this a time to be concerned? I'm not going there. Clearly, the Bears are not where they need to be. Key players weren't available because of injury. The next two weeks are going to be really important for the offense. I think the defense will be better.
But once spring finishes on April 2nd, the quarterback and receivers have to spend a lot of time on the field playing catch. I think this team can be good. Can it be a national championship contender? It's way too early to say that. There's a lot of work to do.
This post was edited on 3/21 12:28 AM by K Lonnquist
Publisher
Kudos to the approximate 5,000 fans who were at Baylor's Friday Night Lights Showcase event at McLane Stadium. There had been talk that there could be as many 15,000. But the rain and raw impacted the crowd. However, when there is better weather, the turnouts will be strong and this will be a festive annual spring event.
It definitely helps to have an on-campus stadium to hold it. While the Highers Complex served its purpose, McLane Stadium will allow everybody to spread out and relax and take it all in.
There's two weeks remaining in the spring season, so the way to judge the performance of this event is through the prism that this was the team's first week back from spring break and things will not be crisp. To be sure, they weren't. Plus, these scrimmages are pretty vanilla so you never see anything too flashy.
To start, this quarterback race is over. And really, it was probably over before Jarrett Stidham ever walked on the Baylor campus. Seth Russell will be the starter, Stidham will be the backup. Chris Johnson will only see the field when games are way out of hand in the fourth quarter.
Russell's effort (18-27-1, 345 yards 4TD) looks good on the stat sheet. But there's a lot to prove here. His deep ball looks fine as he threw a 65-yard TD pass to Corey Coleman and a 54-yard TD strike to KD Cannon. But his arm strength is a real concern of mine. When he threw a couple of out routes, there wasn't the heat on the ball to fit into the tight window and beat the defensive back. A couple of times, the DB could step in and break up the pass. Russell's mid-range game needs a lot of work and if Baylor's passing game is going to chew people up, that has to be consistent. I feel like this is déjà vu because I said this about Bryce Petty last year. But Petty has a better arm. It was also pointed out that a couple of times, Baylor receivers had to come back. That didn't happen very much over the last several years.
As for Stidham (7-18-0 52), he clearly was overwhelmed and just struggled. But he's a true freshman. He did what a lot of young quarterbacks do: not go through his progressions. He went for his first read and when that wasn't available he took off and ran. Yes, Stidham talked in December that when he arrived he planned on competing for the starting job. What I hope this spring reveals is a big dose of reality. He has so much to learn about the college game, especially the speed.
Maybe the defense is ahead of the offense because that first-team defensive line pretty much owned the first-team offensive line. Remember, this is a unit that is without Shawn Oakman and Jamal Palmer. But it shows you that when you have a monster defensive tackle in Andrew Billings, he's going to draw a double team and open something. Thus, the pass rush can tee off all the time. I'm going to say this: Andrew Billings is the most valuable member of the 2015 Baylor Bears.
What was interesting in the defensive ends was that Brian Nance worked a lot with the first team, and I thought he did OK. Nance isn't big. He's pretty lean. But he looks like he's running easy. Perhaps he sees more time this year.
Don't know to make of it but it was interesting to see the two nickel back candidates, Travon Blanchard and Patrick Levels, on the field at the same time.
A lot of good reps for the young secondary guys in Taion Sells, Terrence Singleton, Verkedrick Vaughns and Jourdan Blake. It's a young group that needs more time on the field. Tion Wright was fine.
If I'm members of the offensive line, I'd feel pretty humbled about that performance. Not a good night from start to finish.
Quickly about the WRs
>Corey Coleman is the leader of this group
>KD Cannon looks thicker and will only get better
>Chris Pratt doesn't mind going over the middle
>Jay Lee should be steady but I hope he picks it up a notch
>Ishmael Zamora is a big young man but needs to fight for the ball better
>Lynx Hawthorne can contribute
>I'm concerned about Davion Hall and what his future is going to be here. He's been dealing with a lot of Injuries since he's been at Baylor.
>I have no idea how Quan Jones fits with this group. He looks the part of a big physical receiver and that's about it.
The running game wasn't anything special but the bright spot was Johnny Jefferson's 50-yard run. He'll be the home run hitter, and I think he'll have the confidence to pull off several of those runs. He's not a 4.3 guy but I think his upper body strength is an undervalued asset. I liked what I saw from Terence Williams. He's big to be Glasco Martin but he's not bad with bouncing runs to the outside.
If you didn't know LaQuan McGowan wore 80 you probably wouldn't recognize him. He has really slimmed down and runs well including the 21-yard reception on a seam rout. Gus Penning has good hands. But then again, if Baylor tight ends catch more than 25 passes this fall, that will be breaking news.
The shake your head moment was the impromptu boxing match between Zamora and Vaughns. It drew the oohs and ahhs. But this was not good. Those two were really angry with each other and threw punch after punch before they had to be separated. The game took a couple of minutes of a breather for everybody to settle down. I'm sure the guys are tired banging on each other. But you can't bring your dirty laundry out to the public. I would have to think that the coaching staff is going to deal with this internally.
Overall, this was just a decent but far from sparking performance. Is this a time to be concerned? I'm not going there. Clearly, the Bears are not where they need to be. Key players weren't available because of injury. The next two weeks are going to be really important for the offense. I think the defense will be better.
But once spring finishes on April 2nd, the quarterback and receivers have to spend a lot of time on the field playing catch. I think this team can be good. Can it be a national championship contender? It's way too early to say that. There's a lot of work to do.
This post was edited on 3/21 12:28 AM by K Lonnquist
