By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Welcome to another edition of Single-Digit Flashback. Playing off Baylor’s new and popular tradition of awarding numbers 0-9 to those deserving players who have become leaders on the team, I’m coming up with the 10 takeaways from the Bears’ previously played game that could be either good or not so much.
There also could be something related to recruiting or something else to either share.
The RJB always enjoys the month of October because we’re in the height of the College Football Season, the NFL season and the baseball playoffs. And you’re publisher always enjoys the World Series. That starts Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
So the RJB wants to go in another direction. As you know, his messiah is the great Vin Scully. At 92, Scully has seen some of the greatest moments the game has provided and his call of those moments still capture a nation.
Two months ago, Scully blessed us all by joining Twitter. He picked up like 150,000 followers in the first 3-4 days. There are little videos of him recalling stories that take us back. If you’ll indulge the RJB, we take you to Scully’s call of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, the infamous Bill Buckner moment and then Game 1 of the 1988 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s, the Kirk Gibson home run.
Long live the red head kid from Flatbush, N.Y.
****
>0. Baylor returned to the practice field on Sunday afternoon to start preparations for the first time since Oct. 17. That’s 11 days where players and coaches were separated from each other, had to work out on their own doing whatever workouts they had assigned to them individually and talk to each other through Zoom conference calls.
Fortunately, they’ve been through this previously in the spring when they were already handling these disruptions. The difference then was that the players were scattered in different parts of the country and coaches crossed their fingers on the honor system that players were doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Now, that we’re into the season, it’s a little different because there is a season to be played. While Baylor has played just two games, it likely used Sunday in combo style to knock off rust and start getting into a rhythm and then begin preparing for Texas. The heavy lifting should come Monday-Wednesday.
That’s typical for any preparation week. While postponing Oklahoma State until Dec. 12 isn’t ideal, it may have been a slight blessing where some nagging injuries got some extra time to heal.
In a year where you have to pivot, Baylor has done more than its share.
>1. What kind of Texas team will Baylor see on Saturday? I really don’t know. I don’t think Baylor knows. And I don’t think Texas knows. The image that remains with me at the end of the Texas-OU game where the Texas band played, “The eyes of Texas’’ and QB Sam Ehlinger was the only one who stayed for it.
You can get into the minutia of that song’s intent etc. if you want. But I’ll remind you it wasn’t an issue when Texas beat UTEP and escaped Texas Tech to open the season. It appears to be an issue following losses to TCU and Oklahoma.
Culture does seem to be a problem for Tom Herman’s program. In college football, a tight locker room signals that it could be a solid season. A bad locker room could cause total unrest.
Actions speak louder than words. But just looking at that picture tells me that Texas is a team with so many internal issues. Remember in the season opener against UTEP, it was reported safety BJ Foster reportedly quit in the third quarter. That should tell you about the buy in with a staff.
If Baylor is able to hang and perhaps pull off the upset, I don’t think it matters what Herman will do with the rest of the season. His fate will have been sealed. In fact, I asked a couple of Texas fans if they would lay the 10 1/2 at home against the Bears. Their response? No Way!
>2. To this point, Baylor kickers – John Mayers and Noah Rauschenberg – are 1-4 on field goal attempts. But I wouldn’t get worried about where Baylor is with it’s place-kicking situation just yet.
All four have been attempted from 40 yards and beyond. At West Virginia, the Bears missed three when Mayers missed from 46 and 47 yards and Rauschenberg had his 51-yard attempt at the end of the first half blocked.
Of course, college kickers need to be consistent. The need to keep their jobs. But consider that the three attempts Mayers attempted this year from 40 yards are more than he ever attempted in 2019. He attempted just two between 40-49 and 50+.
For my money, when you get 45 yards and beyond for college kickers, it’s a crapshoot. You hope it works. You exhale in relief when it works.
The time to judge Mayers is how he does with the makeable kicks between 20-29 and 30-39 yards. He hasn’t tried one yet. If he shows that he’s fine from there, then don’t worry. If he struggles, then Baylor has a problem.
>3. As we know Baylor has played the fewest games of any team in the Big 12 with two. The minimum anyone else has played is three between Oklahoma State and TCU.
Is that an advantage or disadvantage? Frankly, I don’t think it’s an issue given what kind of season we’re experiencing and how it could finish because everybody else is going through the same thing. Games are on. Games are postponed. Games are canceled.
If Baylor finishes the season playing nine games that might be the biggest victory of all. I wouldn’t be surprised if Baylor doesn't play nine games this year. It’s already used its mulligan with Oklahoma State, so it has nowhere else to go with any other games this fall. It’s walking a fine line for the rest of the season. Hopefully, there will be no other scheduling malfunctions.
But the good thing is that it doesn’t need to get to the magic number of six wins to become bowl eligible. Last week, the NCAA cleared the way for pretty much anyone to qualify.
>4. This past weekend, football reminded us that it truly is a week-to-week business. As much as people lauded Ole Miss’ offense for sticking Alabama for 600+ yards and 48 points, it was humbled when it pretty much got shut down at Arkansas (who by the way has a legitimate head coach in Sam Pittman instead of that fraud Chad Morris) when QB Matt Corral was picked off six times and saw two of those picked sixed.
Then you look at North Carolina under Mack Brown. The praises are singing and proclaiming Brown’s second act in Chapel Hill as a rebirth. No problem until the Tar Heels went to Tallahassee, FL on Saturday and lost to Florida State, 31-28.
I keep to heart something Alabama head coach Nick Saban said following his presser after the Crimson Tide defeated Georgia, 41-24, on Saturday. “Humility keeps you hungry.’’ The good coaches can get their teams to buy into that philosophy and keep playing at that level. That's why they are always in the championship conversation.
>5. Baylor will release its COVID-19 testing numbers late Monday afternoon/early Monday evening. Remember, the numbers were not good with 59 people within the program who had either tested positive for COVID-19 or were within contact tracing.
I expect those number to be lower. I came close to saying significantly. However, I’m going to be a little more conservative because you’re talking 10 days after someone tests positive and another 14 for someone to be in quarantine.
That said, things should be trending in the right direction because Baylor was able to conduct practice on Sunday.
>6. I’m not sure there is a correlation. However, I do find it interesting that some of these recent postponements were as a result of teams traveling. Obviously, that wasn’t the case in all of them. However, the ones that brought attention were the ones that occurred when someone was traveling.
Baylor had just returned from West Virginia. Florida had just returned from Texas A&M. Vanderbilt was already having issues but didn’t travel from South Carolina.
Before anyone in the major media tries to draw an absolute conclusion, don’t take their take as gospel. COVID-19 is a germ. It travels. Anywhere and everywhere. No one knows how its spread or when it’s spread. It just happens.
However, the Saban positive to coaching against Georgia story and Baylor’s story following from last week still has me a little hmmm.
Now, that Baylor has increased the testing for student-athletes from three times a week to every day, it makes me wonder if we will see as many postponements.
When Saban tested positive last Wednesday, it sent shock waves throughout college football.
However, it appears that Saban’s initial test was a false positive as his next three tests were negative. That goes back to the overall reliability accuracy of these tests and the increased need to test daily because of their up and down reality.
There may never be an absolute way of doing business. But in this era where you have to pivot more than you want to, daily testing may be the only way to go.
>7. Here’s what I want to see from the Baylor passing game this Saturday at Texas. I want to see more vertical shots downfield. For sure, Texas has the talent to defend that kind of ball. At least, we’re led to believe that.
However, if you give too much respect to athleticism, you’re playing right into its hands. It doesn’t mean you have to be reckless and take absurd chances. However, you can't play under an umbrella either. I do think Baylor is going to have to be more aggressive this weekend.
You don’t know what you don’t know until you know.
>8. A couple of things in this one: Watch Baylor’s pursuit of Cedar Hill 2022 defensive lineman/offensive lineman Syncere Massey. I saw him against Aledo on Friday and came away impressed. He’s 6=5, 290 and can move, especially laterally.
He transferred in from Trinity Christian-Cedar Hill after 2020 for likely more exposure and appears to have made a name for himself. Baylor knows who he is and I would think likes him on the offensive line more than the defensive line.
Then, the college football weekend becomes a little more normal this coming weekend when the Big 10 and Mountain West get started. These are compressed schedules with eight games and no bye weeks but the fact that they are back gives a little more substance to the season.
And I think everyone understands that if there’s an issue and games are canceled and won’t be re-scheduled then it’s not the end of the world. You just move forward as best you can.
>9. On a personal note, your publisher is pretty excited about this coming weekend because his Razorback and Crimson Tide are coming home for an extended weekend. They should be home on Thursday. I haven’t seen them in three months.
Like all parents, when we see our kids for the first time in a long time we get a little more jazzed. The good thing is that each is also pretty excited to come home for a few days.
Personally, I think the Razorback will stay in Fayetteville for a little while after she graduates. The Crimson Tide likely will come home after she’s done.
****
And now some Baylor notes from other fall sports…
>Baylor men’s tennis wrapped up its weekend at the TCU Invitational with another 3-3 day in Fort Worth on Sunday. The Bears collected three singles wins after dropping both doubles matches in the morning, marking an even .500 record for the tournament.
For their first action of the 2020-21 year, BU went 9-9 total on the weekend, led by Finn Bass who was 4-2 with a perfect 3-0 record in singles play. The redshirt sophomore picked up another straight-sets victory by defeating Texas’ Leighton Allen 6-2, 7-5 on the final day of the tournament.
Baylor will compete again next weekend at the ITA Regionals in Waco on Oct. 23-25.
> No. 2 Baylor volleyball (7-1) swept Texas Tech (3-5) on Saturday in Lubbock at United Supermarkets Arena, 27-25, 25-21, 25-19 for its seventh-straight victory. On Friday, Baylor held off Texas Tech 15-25, 25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 15-9.
Baylor (7-1) continues its road trip with two matches at Iowa State on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 in Ames. Friday’s series opener will begin at 6:30 p.m. CT, with Saturday’s match set for 4 p.m. Both contests will be available on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
> Lily Jacobs placed 10th individually in the women’s 6,000-meter race to lead Baylor to a third-place finish Saturday at the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station.
Jacobs’ 6K time of 21:15.8 was one of five personal bests by Baylor scoring runners and helped the Bears finish third as a team behind Texas and LSU and ahead of host Texas A&M in fourth. Sarah Antrich finished 14th to help bolster Baylor’s position with a time of 21:27.5, and Celia Holmes was right behind in 15th at 21:29.1. Aaliyah Miller returned to the cross country course and took 18th with a time of 21:50.4, and Mazie Larsen closed out the Bears’ scoring with a time of 21:54.8 to finish 19th.
On the men’s side, Ryan Day led Baylor for the second-consecutive race with a personal-best 8K time of 24:37.2 to place 15th individually. Connor Laktasic finished 17th with a time of 24:47.8, followed by Ryan Hodge with a personal-best 25:01.5 in 27th place. Jeremy Meadows finished 43rd with a time of 25:38.4, and Cal Johnston placed 44th with a personal-best 8K of 25:41.7. The Bears finished in fifth place as a team, ahead of conference foes Texas Tech and TCU.
With the regular season complete, Baylor will close the fall campaign at the 2020 Big 12 Cross Country Championships Oct. 30 in Lawrence, KS.
Let’s make it a great week!
Publisher
Welcome to another edition of Single-Digit Flashback. Playing off Baylor’s new and popular tradition of awarding numbers 0-9 to those deserving players who have become leaders on the team, I’m coming up with the 10 takeaways from the Bears’ previously played game that could be either good or not so much.
There also could be something related to recruiting or something else to either share.
The RJB always enjoys the month of October because we’re in the height of the College Football Season, the NFL season and the baseball playoffs. And you’re publisher always enjoys the World Series. That starts Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
So the RJB wants to go in another direction. As you know, his messiah is the great Vin Scully. At 92, Scully has seen some of the greatest moments the game has provided and his call of those moments still capture a nation.
Two months ago, Scully blessed us all by joining Twitter. He picked up like 150,000 followers in the first 3-4 days. There are little videos of him recalling stories that take us back. If you’ll indulge the RJB, we take you to Scully’s call of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, the infamous Bill Buckner moment and then Game 1 of the 1988 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s, the Kirk Gibson home run.
Long live the red head kid from Flatbush, N.Y.
****
>0. Baylor returned to the practice field on Sunday afternoon to start preparations for the first time since Oct. 17. That’s 11 days where players and coaches were separated from each other, had to work out on their own doing whatever workouts they had assigned to them individually and talk to each other through Zoom conference calls.
Fortunately, they’ve been through this previously in the spring when they were already handling these disruptions. The difference then was that the players were scattered in different parts of the country and coaches crossed their fingers on the honor system that players were doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Now, that we’re into the season, it’s a little different because there is a season to be played. While Baylor has played just two games, it likely used Sunday in combo style to knock off rust and start getting into a rhythm and then begin preparing for Texas. The heavy lifting should come Monday-Wednesday.
That’s typical for any preparation week. While postponing Oklahoma State until Dec. 12 isn’t ideal, it may have been a slight blessing where some nagging injuries got some extra time to heal.
In a year where you have to pivot, Baylor has done more than its share.
>1. What kind of Texas team will Baylor see on Saturday? I really don’t know. I don’t think Baylor knows. And I don’t think Texas knows. The image that remains with me at the end of the Texas-OU game where the Texas band played, “The eyes of Texas’’ and QB Sam Ehlinger was the only one who stayed for it.
You can get into the minutia of that song’s intent etc. if you want. But I’ll remind you it wasn’t an issue when Texas beat UTEP and escaped Texas Tech to open the season. It appears to be an issue following losses to TCU and Oklahoma.
Culture does seem to be a problem for Tom Herman’s program. In college football, a tight locker room signals that it could be a solid season. A bad locker room could cause total unrest.
Actions speak louder than words. But just looking at that picture tells me that Texas is a team with so many internal issues. Remember in the season opener against UTEP, it was reported safety BJ Foster reportedly quit in the third quarter. That should tell you about the buy in with a staff.
If Baylor is able to hang and perhaps pull off the upset, I don’t think it matters what Herman will do with the rest of the season. His fate will have been sealed. In fact, I asked a couple of Texas fans if they would lay the 10 1/2 at home against the Bears. Their response? No Way!
>2. To this point, Baylor kickers – John Mayers and Noah Rauschenberg – are 1-4 on field goal attempts. But I wouldn’t get worried about where Baylor is with it’s place-kicking situation just yet.
All four have been attempted from 40 yards and beyond. At West Virginia, the Bears missed three when Mayers missed from 46 and 47 yards and Rauschenberg had his 51-yard attempt at the end of the first half blocked.
Of course, college kickers need to be consistent. The need to keep their jobs. But consider that the three attempts Mayers attempted this year from 40 yards are more than he ever attempted in 2019. He attempted just two between 40-49 and 50+.
For my money, when you get 45 yards and beyond for college kickers, it’s a crapshoot. You hope it works. You exhale in relief when it works.
The time to judge Mayers is how he does with the makeable kicks between 20-29 and 30-39 yards. He hasn’t tried one yet. If he shows that he’s fine from there, then don’t worry. If he struggles, then Baylor has a problem.
>3. As we know Baylor has played the fewest games of any team in the Big 12 with two. The minimum anyone else has played is three between Oklahoma State and TCU.
Is that an advantage or disadvantage? Frankly, I don’t think it’s an issue given what kind of season we’re experiencing and how it could finish because everybody else is going through the same thing. Games are on. Games are postponed. Games are canceled.
If Baylor finishes the season playing nine games that might be the biggest victory of all. I wouldn’t be surprised if Baylor doesn't play nine games this year. It’s already used its mulligan with Oklahoma State, so it has nowhere else to go with any other games this fall. It’s walking a fine line for the rest of the season. Hopefully, there will be no other scheduling malfunctions.
But the good thing is that it doesn’t need to get to the magic number of six wins to become bowl eligible. Last week, the NCAA cleared the way for pretty much anyone to qualify.
>4. This past weekend, football reminded us that it truly is a week-to-week business. As much as people lauded Ole Miss’ offense for sticking Alabama for 600+ yards and 48 points, it was humbled when it pretty much got shut down at Arkansas (who by the way has a legitimate head coach in Sam Pittman instead of that fraud Chad Morris) when QB Matt Corral was picked off six times and saw two of those picked sixed.
Then you look at North Carolina under Mack Brown. The praises are singing and proclaiming Brown’s second act in Chapel Hill as a rebirth. No problem until the Tar Heels went to Tallahassee, FL on Saturday and lost to Florida State, 31-28.
I keep to heart something Alabama head coach Nick Saban said following his presser after the Crimson Tide defeated Georgia, 41-24, on Saturday. “Humility keeps you hungry.’’ The good coaches can get their teams to buy into that philosophy and keep playing at that level. That's why they are always in the championship conversation.
>5. Baylor will release its COVID-19 testing numbers late Monday afternoon/early Monday evening. Remember, the numbers were not good with 59 people within the program who had either tested positive for COVID-19 or were within contact tracing.
I expect those number to be lower. I came close to saying significantly. However, I’m going to be a little more conservative because you’re talking 10 days after someone tests positive and another 14 for someone to be in quarantine.
That said, things should be trending in the right direction because Baylor was able to conduct practice on Sunday.
>6. I’m not sure there is a correlation. However, I do find it interesting that some of these recent postponements were as a result of teams traveling. Obviously, that wasn’t the case in all of them. However, the ones that brought attention were the ones that occurred when someone was traveling.
Baylor had just returned from West Virginia. Florida had just returned from Texas A&M. Vanderbilt was already having issues but didn’t travel from South Carolina.
Before anyone in the major media tries to draw an absolute conclusion, don’t take their take as gospel. COVID-19 is a germ. It travels. Anywhere and everywhere. No one knows how its spread or when it’s spread. It just happens.
However, the Saban positive to coaching against Georgia story and Baylor’s story following from last week still has me a little hmmm.
Now, that Baylor has increased the testing for student-athletes from three times a week to every day, it makes me wonder if we will see as many postponements.
When Saban tested positive last Wednesday, it sent shock waves throughout college football.
However, it appears that Saban’s initial test was a false positive as his next three tests were negative. That goes back to the overall reliability accuracy of these tests and the increased need to test daily because of their up and down reality.
There may never be an absolute way of doing business. But in this era where you have to pivot more than you want to, daily testing may be the only way to go.
>7. Here’s what I want to see from the Baylor passing game this Saturday at Texas. I want to see more vertical shots downfield. For sure, Texas has the talent to defend that kind of ball. At least, we’re led to believe that.
However, if you give too much respect to athleticism, you’re playing right into its hands. It doesn’t mean you have to be reckless and take absurd chances. However, you can't play under an umbrella either. I do think Baylor is going to have to be more aggressive this weekend.
You don’t know what you don’t know until you know.
>8. A couple of things in this one: Watch Baylor’s pursuit of Cedar Hill 2022 defensive lineman/offensive lineman Syncere Massey. I saw him against Aledo on Friday and came away impressed. He’s 6=5, 290 and can move, especially laterally.
He transferred in from Trinity Christian-Cedar Hill after 2020 for likely more exposure and appears to have made a name for himself. Baylor knows who he is and I would think likes him on the offensive line more than the defensive line.
Then, the college football weekend becomes a little more normal this coming weekend when the Big 10 and Mountain West get started. These are compressed schedules with eight games and no bye weeks but the fact that they are back gives a little more substance to the season.
And I think everyone understands that if there’s an issue and games are canceled and won’t be re-scheduled then it’s not the end of the world. You just move forward as best you can.
>9. On a personal note, your publisher is pretty excited about this coming weekend because his Razorback and Crimson Tide are coming home for an extended weekend. They should be home on Thursday. I haven’t seen them in three months.
Like all parents, when we see our kids for the first time in a long time we get a little more jazzed. The good thing is that each is also pretty excited to come home for a few days.
Personally, I think the Razorback will stay in Fayetteville for a little while after she graduates. The Crimson Tide likely will come home after she’s done.
****
And now some Baylor notes from other fall sports…
>Baylor men’s tennis wrapped up its weekend at the TCU Invitational with another 3-3 day in Fort Worth on Sunday. The Bears collected three singles wins after dropping both doubles matches in the morning, marking an even .500 record for the tournament.
For their first action of the 2020-21 year, BU went 9-9 total on the weekend, led by Finn Bass who was 4-2 with a perfect 3-0 record in singles play. The redshirt sophomore picked up another straight-sets victory by defeating Texas’ Leighton Allen 6-2, 7-5 on the final day of the tournament.
Baylor will compete again next weekend at the ITA Regionals in Waco on Oct. 23-25.
> No. 2 Baylor volleyball (7-1) swept Texas Tech (3-5) on Saturday in Lubbock at United Supermarkets Arena, 27-25, 25-21, 25-19 for its seventh-straight victory. On Friday, Baylor held off Texas Tech 15-25, 25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 15-9.
Baylor (7-1) continues its road trip with two matches at Iowa State on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 in Ames. Friday’s series opener will begin at 6:30 p.m. CT, with Saturday’s match set for 4 p.m. Both contests will be available on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
> Lily Jacobs placed 10th individually in the women’s 6,000-meter race to lead Baylor to a third-place finish Saturday at the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station.
Jacobs’ 6K time of 21:15.8 was one of five personal bests by Baylor scoring runners and helped the Bears finish third as a team behind Texas and LSU and ahead of host Texas A&M in fourth. Sarah Antrich finished 14th to help bolster Baylor’s position with a time of 21:27.5, and Celia Holmes was right behind in 15th at 21:29.1. Aaliyah Miller returned to the cross country course and took 18th with a time of 21:50.4, and Mazie Larsen closed out the Bears’ scoring with a time of 21:54.8 to finish 19th.
On the men’s side, Ryan Day led Baylor for the second-consecutive race with a personal-best 8K time of 24:37.2 to place 15th individually. Connor Laktasic finished 17th with a time of 24:47.8, followed by Ryan Hodge with a personal-best 25:01.5 in 27th place. Jeremy Meadows finished 43rd with a time of 25:38.4, and Cal Johnston placed 44th with a personal-best 8K of 25:41.7. The Bears finished in fifth place as a team, ahead of conference foes Texas Tech and TCU.
With the regular season complete, Baylor will close the fall campaign at the 2020 Big 12 Cross Country Championships Oct. 30 in Lawrence, KS.
Let’s make it a great week!
Last edited:
