Sunday sure gave the appearance of a second mini-Baylor junior day, didn't it?
Consider the amount of talent that arrived on campus.
Houston Miller, 2016, Keller DE (Baylor interest)
Tyrell Alexander, 2016, Lancaster, Ath (Baylor offer)
Anthony Hines III, 2017, Plano East, LB (Baylor offer)
Baron Browning, Kennedale, LB (Baylor offer)
Eric Fowler, 2016 LB Manor (Baylor offer)
Hezekiah Jones, 2017 WR Houston Stafford (Baylor offer)
Parrish Cobb, 2016 DB (Baylor offer)
Eric Cuffee, 2016 DB Waco (Baylor offer)
Tren'Davian Dickson, 2016 WR Navasota (Baylor offer)
Jordan Elliott, 2016, DT Houston Westside (Baylor commit)
Zach Smith, 2016, QB, Grandview (Baylor commit)
Greg Eisworth, 2016, Ath, South Grand Prairie (Baylor offer)
Jeffrey Okudah, 2017, Ath, South Grand Prairie (newest Baylor offer)
With the exception of Miller (no disrespect to him because he doesn't have an offer), this is a pretty impressive group. I think Fowler made his zillionth strip to Waco. There can be no doubt he likes Baylor quite a bit. But there's also no doubt that this recruiting effort is far from finished. But then again, what's the rush? What Texas started under Mack Brown, the early commits was all of the rage. Yet I think we're finding that process can be more destructive then productive. The proliferation of the information age and the excessiveness of social media all have made an impact here. Recruits are hearing from people they don't even know much less seen in person telling them University X is horrible because of whatever reason but that their University Y is the gold standard because of whatever reason. It's called information overload. Some recruits are really smart to stay off twitter and just live their lives without the annoyance. Others crave the attention. But the bottom line is that I think we're slowly returning to a point where prospects are no longer knee jerk reacting and committing because they could be fearful a ship offer at their favorite school is no longer available. If the school really wants him, more often than not, it will find a way to get him.
I could see Baylor being stuck on five 2016 commitments until after the conclusion of the spring football season. That brings me to another point. I think Baylor likes to start and finish its spring football season very early because the staff wants it to not overlap into recruiting. On campus evaluation visits run April 15-May 31, so why let the spring practices run into a very important part of the calendar. By stopping on April 2, the staff can finalize its depth chart and lay out its plan for how it wants to attack the state of Texas (and now Louisiana among other locations) and certain recruiting targets. Yeah, the weather can be a problem. But over the weekend, everyone connected with Baylor football was thankful to the Allison family for an indoor practice facility. Everything basically stayed on schedule.
Some scatter shooting opinions from Sunday….As for Dickson's appearance Sunday, it validates my argument that the change in the Baylor coaching staff with the wide receivers had ZERO to do with him de-committing. The glut of offers did that. The coaches Dickson was talking with - Jeff Lebby and Kendal Briles - didn't go anywhere. He's still interested. He may come back. He may not. But I don't think any decision is coming anytime soon….Elliott kept the good vibe going with Baylor, but the Bears are not out of the woods with this year…I think Baylor will eventually land Browning's commitment. It's just a question of when. There's no rush but Baylor is in a pretty good place…Cobb and Cuffee are situations that should resolve themselves over time.
This is why you should always not get consumed with announcement days. Copperas Cove OL J.P. Urquidez said after Texas junior day that he's now looking at Miami (Fla.) and UCLA and plans to take trips to each. He also said that his March announcement date could get pushed back into April because of the emergence. That's fine. They're 17-year-old and 18-year-old young men with their minds swimming. Will Baylor eventually wind up with him? I don't know. I still like the Bears' chances.
*****
I'm still wondering what happened with 899 people who didn't buy a ticket this past Saturday's game at the Ferrell Center for the men's basketball team's game against West Virginia. The 9,385 who did show were great. The blackout was a success because Baylor jumped all over a wounded West Virginia team. But I'm sorry because this team deserves better. There should have been a standing room only crowd for this game. I really thought I was going to see an attendance number into the five figures. This team was coming off its first win EVER at Iowa State. It's playing incredible basketball. CBS' Jerry Palm has this team listed as a third seed in Bracketology. And the team has an outside chance to finish second. Why can't the Ferrell Center sell out? I'm calling it right now: With FRIDAY'S senior night for Texas Tech, I wonder if the place will get 8,000.
Big game in Austin against a very desperate Texas team. The Horns out of the NCAA tournament but when desperate teams play hard, they can have the advantage. I saw two other teams over the weekend - BYU and UConn - pull off wins over teams in better NCAA positions because they needed the wins badly. Baylor really needs to be careful here and not assume Texas is done and playing out the string. I thought Texas gave a pretty good showing at Kansas. To me, this team is still playing for the embattled Rick Barnes. But that's why we play the games. Game is at 6:00 p.m.
*****
Some other Baylor jottings
>Baylor baseball steps away from Waco and has a lost weekend at Cal-State Fullerton. I mentioned in the spring preview that finding a close much less late inning relief was going to be pivotal. Against a proud program at its building, the Bears' bullpen melted down and gave up leads in the seventh and eighth innings. Maybe it was a bad weekend. But if you're Steve Smith, do you trust this bullpen right now?
>It could be that the Lady Bears lost their edge by losing back-to-back road games at Oklahoma and Iowa State. This time has grinded pretty hard. Sometimes, you just play hard and lose. We forget there's another team on the court that wants to win too. And it's not like they got blown out. A 4-point loss to Oklahoma and 5-point loss at Iowa State came down to a couple of plays. The OU game was tied at 64 in the final minute. Oklahoma just finished. The Lady Bears made a good rally in Ames and came up short. We'll see how they respond tonight in the regular season finale against Texas Tech.
>While the Baylor men's and women's track teams didn't win Big 12 indoor championships over the weekend, they did collect six individual titles as you will read here.
>The women's tennis team stormed through Big 10 country this past weekend with road wins at Northwestern on Friday and at Ohio State on Sunday. Not to be outdone, the men's tennis team owns Virginia. For the second time in two weeks, the Bears beat the cavaliers. BTW, it's a big deal to have to have the NCAA national tennis tournament coming to Waco. The dates are May 14-25 at the Hurd Tennis Center.
*****
Now to scheduling...
It was pointed out that the link for Baylor's future football schedules is no longer on the site. Who knows the reason, but unless there is a big to do about a major shift between 2016-2019, don't expect anything to change. Your OOC opponents are a combination of SMU, Duke, UTSA, Rice, Liberty, Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian.
So once again, Baylor will feel the wrath in the fall about its schedule (or lack thereof) by the media and its own annoyed fan base. Like I've said, it's really hard to break these deals unless the Bears have a willing participant on the other side. We shared that an ACC team backed out of an agreement in the window after 2020. So what are you going to do?
Part of me has to wonder that if Baylor approaches these schools, the others want Baylor to come to their place first and won't give any wiggle room. Maybe that's a deal breaker. If that's true, then I think there's still a stigma that Baylor has to endure until it no longer does.
We can use the TCU argument that the Horned Frogs weren't afraid of going to Oklahoma, Clemson and so on when they weren't a P5 program. They had to fight to get where they wanted to go.
Baylor was already in the Big 12. The problem was that up until 2010, this program was brutal and so the college football landscape paid little attention to it. Now that success is being sustained, you still have some power brokers who still aren't convinced and may be waiting to see if this is a window thing or a long-term thing. Maybe they think beating up on Texas and Oklahoma doesn't mean anything either.
I really don't think Baylor is avoiding anyone. You're just going to have to ride out the next few years because these schedules were created when Baylor NEEDED to get wins. I do think the schedules form 2020 and beyond will look more challenging. I still don't have a problem if a FCS team is still on there year. Everybody plays one. It's a dress rehearsal.
*****
We lost Spock last week. I was really sorry to see Leonard Nimoy pass away last week at age 83. Sounded like the long-term effects of smoking caught up with him. I'm not a trekky but the show had its moments where you were sucked in. Sometimes, when you're branded as an actor to a role, you can't avoid it and your options are limited. And when I was reading his obituary, it was refreshing that Nimoy still could do what he loved but at the same time embrace Spock.
LLAP Spock.
*****And the throwback juke box takes us to the B-52s and this hit that deserved better.
This post was edited on 3/2 2:27 PM by K Lonnquist
Consider the amount of talent that arrived on campus.
Houston Miller, 2016, Keller DE (Baylor interest)
Tyrell Alexander, 2016, Lancaster, Ath (Baylor offer)
Anthony Hines III, 2017, Plano East, LB (Baylor offer)
Baron Browning, Kennedale, LB (Baylor offer)
Eric Fowler, 2016 LB Manor (Baylor offer)
Hezekiah Jones, 2017 WR Houston Stafford (Baylor offer)
Parrish Cobb, 2016 DB (Baylor offer)
Eric Cuffee, 2016 DB Waco (Baylor offer)
Tren'Davian Dickson, 2016 WR Navasota (Baylor offer)
Jordan Elliott, 2016, DT Houston Westside (Baylor commit)
Zach Smith, 2016, QB, Grandview (Baylor commit)
Greg Eisworth, 2016, Ath, South Grand Prairie (Baylor offer)
Jeffrey Okudah, 2017, Ath, South Grand Prairie (newest Baylor offer)
With the exception of Miller (no disrespect to him because he doesn't have an offer), this is a pretty impressive group. I think Fowler made his zillionth strip to Waco. There can be no doubt he likes Baylor quite a bit. But there's also no doubt that this recruiting effort is far from finished. But then again, what's the rush? What Texas started under Mack Brown, the early commits was all of the rage. Yet I think we're finding that process can be more destructive then productive. The proliferation of the information age and the excessiveness of social media all have made an impact here. Recruits are hearing from people they don't even know much less seen in person telling them University X is horrible because of whatever reason but that their University Y is the gold standard because of whatever reason. It's called information overload. Some recruits are really smart to stay off twitter and just live their lives without the annoyance. Others crave the attention. But the bottom line is that I think we're slowly returning to a point where prospects are no longer knee jerk reacting and committing because they could be fearful a ship offer at their favorite school is no longer available. If the school really wants him, more often than not, it will find a way to get him.
I could see Baylor being stuck on five 2016 commitments until after the conclusion of the spring football season. That brings me to another point. I think Baylor likes to start and finish its spring football season very early because the staff wants it to not overlap into recruiting. On campus evaluation visits run April 15-May 31, so why let the spring practices run into a very important part of the calendar. By stopping on April 2, the staff can finalize its depth chart and lay out its plan for how it wants to attack the state of Texas (and now Louisiana among other locations) and certain recruiting targets. Yeah, the weather can be a problem. But over the weekend, everyone connected with Baylor football was thankful to the Allison family for an indoor practice facility. Everything basically stayed on schedule.
Some scatter shooting opinions from Sunday….As for Dickson's appearance Sunday, it validates my argument that the change in the Baylor coaching staff with the wide receivers had ZERO to do with him de-committing. The glut of offers did that. The coaches Dickson was talking with - Jeff Lebby and Kendal Briles - didn't go anywhere. He's still interested. He may come back. He may not. But I don't think any decision is coming anytime soon….Elliott kept the good vibe going with Baylor, but the Bears are not out of the woods with this year…I think Baylor will eventually land Browning's commitment. It's just a question of when. There's no rush but Baylor is in a pretty good place…Cobb and Cuffee are situations that should resolve themselves over time.
This is why you should always not get consumed with announcement days. Copperas Cove OL J.P. Urquidez said after Texas junior day that he's now looking at Miami (Fla.) and UCLA and plans to take trips to each. He also said that his March announcement date could get pushed back into April because of the emergence. That's fine. They're 17-year-old and 18-year-old young men with their minds swimming. Will Baylor eventually wind up with him? I don't know. I still like the Bears' chances.
*****
I'm still wondering what happened with 899 people who didn't buy a ticket this past Saturday's game at the Ferrell Center for the men's basketball team's game against West Virginia. The 9,385 who did show were great. The blackout was a success because Baylor jumped all over a wounded West Virginia team. But I'm sorry because this team deserves better. There should have been a standing room only crowd for this game. I really thought I was going to see an attendance number into the five figures. This team was coming off its first win EVER at Iowa State. It's playing incredible basketball. CBS' Jerry Palm has this team listed as a third seed in Bracketology. And the team has an outside chance to finish second. Why can't the Ferrell Center sell out? I'm calling it right now: With FRIDAY'S senior night for Texas Tech, I wonder if the place will get 8,000.
Big game in Austin against a very desperate Texas team. The Horns out of the NCAA tournament but when desperate teams play hard, they can have the advantage. I saw two other teams over the weekend - BYU and UConn - pull off wins over teams in better NCAA positions because they needed the wins badly. Baylor really needs to be careful here and not assume Texas is done and playing out the string. I thought Texas gave a pretty good showing at Kansas. To me, this team is still playing for the embattled Rick Barnes. But that's why we play the games. Game is at 6:00 p.m.
*****
Some other Baylor jottings
>Baylor baseball steps away from Waco and has a lost weekend at Cal-State Fullerton. I mentioned in the spring preview that finding a close much less late inning relief was going to be pivotal. Against a proud program at its building, the Bears' bullpen melted down and gave up leads in the seventh and eighth innings. Maybe it was a bad weekend. But if you're Steve Smith, do you trust this bullpen right now?
>It could be that the Lady Bears lost their edge by losing back-to-back road games at Oklahoma and Iowa State. This time has grinded pretty hard. Sometimes, you just play hard and lose. We forget there's another team on the court that wants to win too. And it's not like they got blown out. A 4-point loss to Oklahoma and 5-point loss at Iowa State came down to a couple of plays. The OU game was tied at 64 in the final minute. Oklahoma just finished. The Lady Bears made a good rally in Ames and came up short. We'll see how they respond tonight in the regular season finale against Texas Tech.
>While the Baylor men's and women's track teams didn't win Big 12 indoor championships over the weekend, they did collect six individual titles as you will read here.
>The women's tennis team stormed through Big 10 country this past weekend with road wins at Northwestern on Friday and at Ohio State on Sunday. Not to be outdone, the men's tennis team owns Virginia. For the second time in two weeks, the Bears beat the cavaliers. BTW, it's a big deal to have to have the NCAA national tennis tournament coming to Waco. The dates are May 14-25 at the Hurd Tennis Center.
*****
Now to scheduling...
It was pointed out that the link for Baylor's future football schedules is no longer on the site. Who knows the reason, but unless there is a big to do about a major shift between 2016-2019, don't expect anything to change. Your OOC opponents are a combination of SMU, Duke, UTSA, Rice, Liberty, Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian.
So once again, Baylor will feel the wrath in the fall about its schedule (or lack thereof) by the media and its own annoyed fan base. Like I've said, it's really hard to break these deals unless the Bears have a willing participant on the other side. We shared that an ACC team backed out of an agreement in the window after 2020. So what are you going to do?
Part of me has to wonder that if Baylor approaches these schools, the others want Baylor to come to their place first and won't give any wiggle room. Maybe that's a deal breaker. If that's true, then I think there's still a stigma that Baylor has to endure until it no longer does.
We can use the TCU argument that the Horned Frogs weren't afraid of going to Oklahoma, Clemson and so on when they weren't a P5 program. They had to fight to get where they wanted to go.
Baylor was already in the Big 12. The problem was that up until 2010, this program was brutal and so the college football landscape paid little attention to it. Now that success is being sustained, you still have some power brokers who still aren't convinced and may be waiting to see if this is a window thing or a long-term thing. Maybe they think beating up on Texas and Oklahoma doesn't mean anything either.
I really don't think Baylor is avoiding anyone. You're just going to have to ride out the next few years because these schedules were created when Baylor NEEDED to get wins. I do think the schedules form 2020 and beyond will look more challenging. I still don't have a problem if a FCS team is still on there year. Everybody plays one. It's a dress rehearsal.
*****
We lost Spock last week. I was really sorry to see Leonard Nimoy pass away last week at age 83. Sounded like the long-term effects of smoking caught up with him. I'm not a trekky but the show had its moments where you were sucked in. Sometimes, when you're branded as an actor to a role, you can't avoid it and your options are limited. And when I was reading his obituary, it was refreshing that Nimoy still could do what he loved but at the same time embrace Spock.
LLAP Spock.
*****And the throwback juke box takes us to the B-52s and this hit that deserved better.
This post was edited on 3/2 2:27 PM by K Lonnquist
