So the RJB really had a layup selection this week. It is the end of October. Thursday is Halloween. It has been a tradition of the RJB to refer to the usual in John Carpenter’s original Halloween theme from the 1978 horror thriller.
What makes music so unique is that you hear a song or maybe the first few bars of it and it automatically takes you somewhere. For film signature title themes, you can see the event play out over and over.
In Jaws, you wonder where the shark is but you know it’s nearby. In Star Wars, you think of the opening with crawl of the storyline followed by the tiny Rebel Ship being pursued the by the Imperial Cruiser that swallows up the movie screen.
For Halloween, the first few piano keys can summon you looking over your shoulder hoping Michael Myers is not behind you. Obviously, he’s not. Then again…
But the music fits the mood perfectly.
And don’t be stunned by this choice. If you attended Baylor’s game against Texas Tech on Oct. 12 at McLane Stadium, the entertainment folks used this when the Bears went on defense.
Want to make a bet that it’s played again Thursday for West Virginia?
****
Welcome to sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings for the Baylor Bears (7-0, 4-0).
How does it feel?
Should you have answered less than pretty darn stinking good, I would have been concerned.
If we’ve learned anything about the 2019 college football season is that it’s off-the-charts mayhem.
Those preseason predictions that you read about in July and August? Who cares? They mean zilch now.
Thanks to Kansas State upsetting No. 5 Oklahoma, 48-41, Saturday in Manhattan, KS, the Bears suddenly find themselves in control of their destiny. No longer are they a dark horse to get to the Big 12 championship game. The odds are in their favor.
They have a 3-game lead on Iowa State (5-3, 3-2). It’s technically two but the Bears have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cyclones.
They have a two-game lead over Texas (5-3, 3-2) – did you hear that program is back? – with the Longhorns still having to play Iowa State and Kansas State and a date at McLane Stadium on Nov. 23.
Oklahoma still has to play TCU (that’s in Norman) and gets Iowa State at home next Saturday.
Really, the Bears don’t have to worry about Oklahoma State and Kansas State trying to catch them as they have those tiebreakers as well.
With that set up being what it is, it really comes down to this:
November is money time. If Baylor goes 3-2 in these last five games against West Virginia, TCU, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. If the Bears go 4-1, they’re in. The regular season championship will sort itself out.
Although West Virginia is being played on the last day of the month, you might as well throw it into the money time category. The game starts five hours before Nov. 1.
Moving forward, the magnitude of every game becomes higher. The enjoyment of the season transitions into agony because of the implications.
When you were looking at the schedule in the spring and summer and thought, “Well, West Virginia is not that great so Baylor should handle it,’’ you had every right to believe that.
I really don’t think Baylor is going to have much of an issue with the Mountaineers because they don’t have much of a running game and their offense has been pretty soft the previous two weeks. Plus, Baylor is playing this game in Waco and there is some owin’ to do after the 58-14 massacre in Morgantown last year.
Still, knowing what you know about the season – undefeated, leading the Big 12 and a No. 11/12 ranking with the college football playoff poll to released on Nov. 5 – now, you look at that game with a little more trepidation and for whatever reason, you lock hard on to what the Mountaineers do well instead of how well the Bears have played to this point.
September was boring. There were three easy wins despite the clunker at Rice. October started on Sept. 28 against the Cyclones and is the separation month. The contenders rise to the top. The pretenders and those who are just hoping to qualify for a bowl – just working to where they find enough wins to get there.
November is the best month of the college football season especially if your team is in it. Dreams can be realized or crushed between now and Thanksgiving weekend.
Matt Rhule and his team can talk about and focus in on one game at a time. That’s their job. For us in this capacity and you as fans, you can become enticed with looking ahead. If you didn’t, that would weird, wild, wacky stuff.
After all, you’re not in the film room studying the opponent, going through the game plan, heading out to practice and then dealing with the walk through 24 hours before kickoff.
Had you been involved with any of those, you were probably asked to leave the Simpson building by personnel that weren’t pleased with seeing you there.
Football is so week to week. Why did the Bears struggle to beat Iowa State and Texas Tech at home by a total of five points? I don’t know. Why did the Bears look so impressive with three score wins at Kansas State and Oklahoma State? I don’t know.
Maybe it’s matchups. Maybe it’s about showing up mentally to play. Maybe it’s about turnovers. Maybe it’s about all of it.
But let’s do this and look at November. As long as Baylor plays like it has and doesn’t hurt itself with turnovers or horrendous penalties, the Bears should take care of things beating West Virginia on Thursday.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 9
Your enemy is your friend. Beleaguered TCU gets off the mat and stuns Texas. The Longhorns are vulnerable. But now that Nov. 9 meeting at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth looks more daunting than it did previously.
As much as you have it in for Gary Patterson, this is when he’s at his most dangerous. Look no further than last year’s meeting at McLane when he beat the Bears, 16-9, and you walked away from that game wondering how that happened. And Patterson is consumed with preparation of beating his rivals. He’s now 5-2 against Texas since his program joined the Big 12. He’s also won the last four meetings with the Bears.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 5
Oklahoma’s mindset is pretty interesting. The Sooners know they’re in a very precarious position with their playoff hopes. One more slip and they’re done. If they trip up before they come to Waco on Nov. 16, how much will this program want to compete? Blue bloods should always think they will compete. But Kansas State showed there is a path toward beating them. Is Oklahoma still the best team in the Big 12? Maybe. The question will be how much Baylor’s improved secondary can handle the explosive OU offense and if Baylor’s up-and-down running game will establish itself against OU’s wishy washy defense.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 5
Texas’ injuries and inconsistencies have taken hold. Injuries can be the great equalizer for any team. Look how devastated Baylor was by them in 2017. It also is a problem when your QB throws four interceptions and doesn’t complete 50 percent of his passes. Really, Texas knows its on the outside looking in for this title game race as it travels to Waco for Baylor’s home finale and senior day on Nov. 23. It’s a program that lost the benchmark games it played to LSU and Oklahoma. The TCU loss was a shocker. Texas is not going to a New Year’s Day bowl.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 7
The season finale on Nov. 30 in Lawrence, KS against the Jayhawks has a bit of mystery to it. Yes, Baylor is the better team. But go back and read the Big 12 Coaches Corner last week where the ever confusing Les Miles said after Texas game that he hoped that when people played his program, they would know they would have been in a dogfight and played a solid team. Thanks to a field goal at the horn to beat Texas Tech because Tech decided to lateral the field goal blocked (Really?), KU has three wins and now may think it has a chance at a bowl. Texas, Oklahoma and TCU are in the Jayhawks rear view mirror. The road won’t be easy with meetings against Kansas State, Iowa State and Oklahoma Stat. But should they be playing for bowl eligibility against the Bears, expect some stress.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 7
The glory years of 2013 and 2014 don’t seem as far away as they would seem. For any team competing for a championship, all anyone can ask is for it to have a chance.
For the Bears, they have a chance. A good chance. Fun season, isn’t it?
****
Appreciate the patience with me being in Minneapolis to watch Minnesota play Maryland. It was great to see my cousin. And the people who hosted us for their tail gate couldn’t have been more gracious.
****
Now, a look at other Baylor sports…
>No. 1 Baylor volleyball (17-1, 7-1 Big 12) captured its 100th win of the Ryan McGuyre era with a 3-1 victory over West Virginia (10-11, 1-7 Big 12) Saturday afternoon at the Ferrell Center, 25-19, 25-17, 22-25, 25-18.
McGuyre is the fastest Baylor volleyball coach to 100 wins, accomplishing the milestone in 142 matches (100-42) in the midst of his fifth season at the helm. He holds a .704 win percentage in Waco and is the fourth coach in program history to surpass 100 Baylor victories.
BU will open the second half of conference play in a road match against Oklahoma on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT in Norman, Ok. The match will be broadcast on Fox Sports Oklahoma Plus.
>Behind a pair of goals in the first half, Baylor soccer (8-6-3, 4-3) topped Iowa State (3-13-0, 0-7) by a final score of 2-0 Sunday afternoon at Betty Lou Mays Field. The match also served as Senior Day for the Bears as Baylor honored seven seniors after the game. Baylor lost to No. 17 Texas Tech, 2-0, on Friday.
Baylor travels to Stillwater to battle a Top-25 Oklahoma State team. From there, the Bears will head to the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City.
>Baylor men's golf moved up one spot to finish in second place after shooting 10-under-par 274 in Tuesday's final round at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate. The Bears entered the day in third place and moved ahead of Liberty with a three-round total of 16-under 836 at Royal Oaks Country Club.Baylor (-16) finished second to SMU (-27). The Bears placed ahead of Liberty (-12), Michigan (-4), Charlotte (-1), New Mexico (-1), Kent State (+6), North Texas (+7), Kansas State (+11), Iowa (+16), UTSA (+22) and Nebraska (+51).
Baylor has completed the fall portion of its 2019-20 season and now has more than three months before returning to competition Jan. 27-28 at the Arizona Intercollegiate at Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson, AZ.
>Baylor men's tennis senior Constantin Frantzen captured a big win, and two doubles tandems advanced to the quarterfinals on day two of the ITA Texas Regional Championships Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
In singles action, Frantzen tallied the highest-ranked win of his career with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 1 seed and second-ranked Christian Sigsgaard of Texas on court four. He booked a spot in Sunday's round of 16.
>Baylor women’s golf wraps up its fall season with a trip to The Bahamas to play in the White Sands Invitational, which runs Monday through Wednesday on the par-72, 6,415-yard course at Ocean Club GC in Paradise Island.
The Bears will take on a 14-team field that includes 10 top-50 ranked teams. No. 27 Baylor goes up against No. 3 Texas, No. 17 Arkansas, No. 21 Mississippi State, No. 24 Houston, No. 25 Ohio State, No. 31 Clemson, No. 34 Georgia, No. 41 Oklahoma, No. 48 Tennessee, North Texas, New Mexico, Tulane and SMU.
Let’s make it a great week!
What makes music so unique is that you hear a song or maybe the first few bars of it and it automatically takes you somewhere. For film signature title themes, you can see the event play out over and over.
In Jaws, you wonder where the shark is but you know it’s nearby. In Star Wars, you think of the opening with crawl of the storyline followed by the tiny Rebel Ship being pursued the by the Imperial Cruiser that swallows up the movie screen.
For Halloween, the first few piano keys can summon you looking over your shoulder hoping Michael Myers is not behind you. Obviously, he’s not. Then again…
But the music fits the mood perfectly.
And don’t be stunned by this choice. If you attended Baylor’s game against Texas Tech on Oct. 12 at McLane Stadium, the entertainment folks used this when the Bears went on defense.
Want to make a bet that it’s played again Thursday for West Virginia?
****
Welcome to sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings for the Baylor Bears (7-0, 4-0).
How does it feel?
Should you have answered less than pretty darn stinking good, I would have been concerned.
If we’ve learned anything about the 2019 college football season is that it’s off-the-charts mayhem.
Those preseason predictions that you read about in July and August? Who cares? They mean zilch now.
Thanks to Kansas State upsetting No. 5 Oklahoma, 48-41, Saturday in Manhattan, KS, the Bears suddenly find themselves in control of their destiny. No longer are they a dark horse to get to the Big 12 championship game. The odds are in their favor.
They have a 3-game lead on Iowa State (5-3, 3-2). It’s technically two but the Bears have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cyclones.
They have a two-game lead over Texas (5-3, 3-2) – did you hear that program is back? – with the Longhorns still having to play Iowa State and Kansas State and a date at McLane Stadium on Nov. 23.
Oklahoma still has to play TCU (that’s in Norman) and gets Iowa State at home next Saturday.
Really, the Bears don’t have to worry about Oklahoma State and Kansas State trying to catch them as they have those tiebreakers as well.
With that set up being what it is, it really comes down to this:
November is money time. If Baylor goes 3-2 in these last five games against West Virginia, TCU, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. If the Bears go 4-1, they’re in. The regular season championship will sort itself out.
Although West Virginia is being played on the last day of the month, you might as well throw it into the money time category. The game starts five hours before Nov. 1.
Moving forward, the magnitude of every game becomes higher. The enjoyment of the season transitions into agony because of the implications.
When you were looking at the schedule in the spring and summer and thought, “Well, West Virginia is not that great so Baylor should handle it,’’ you had every right to believe that.
I really don’t think Baylor is going to have much of an issue with the Mountaineers because they don’t have much of a running game and their offense has been pretty soft the previous two weeks. Plus, Baylor is playing this game in Waco and there is some owin’ to do after the 58-14 massacre in Morgantown last year.
Still, knowing what you know about the season – undefeated, leading the Big 12 and a No. 11/12 ranking with the college football playoff poll to released on Nov. 5 – now, you look at that game with a little more trepidation and for whatever reason, you lock hard on to what the Mountaineers do well instead of how well the Bears have played to this point.
September was boring. There were three easy wins despite the clunker at Rice. October started on Sept. 28 against the Cyclones and is the separation month. The contenders rise to the top. The pretenders and those who are just hoping to qualify for a bowl – just working to where they find enough wins to get there.
November is the best month of the college football season especially if your team is in it. Dreams can be realized or crushed between now and Thanksgiving weekend.
Matt Rhule and his team can talk about and focus in on one game at a time. That’s their job. For us in this capacity and you as fans, you can become enticed with looking ahead. If you didn’t, that would weird, wild, wacky stuff.
After all, you’re not in the film room studying the opponent, going through the game plan, heading out to practice and then dealing with the walk through 24 hours before kickoff.
Had you been involved with any of those, you were probably asked to leave the Simpson building by personnel that weren’t pleased with seeing you there.
Football is so week to week. Why did the Bears struggle to beat Iowa State and Texas Tech at home by a total of five points? I don’t know. Why did the Bears look so impressive with three score wins at Kansas State and Oklahoma State? I don’t know.
Maybe it’s matchups. Maybe it’s about showing up mentally to play. Maybe it’s about turnovers. Maybe it’s about all of it.
But let’s do this and look at November. As long as Baylor plays like it has and doesn’t hurt itself with turnovers or horrendous penalties, the Bears should take care of things beating West Virginia on Thursday.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 9
Your enemy is your friend. Beleaguered TCU gets off the mat and stuns Texas. The Longhorns are vulnerable. But now that Nov. 9 meeting at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth looks more daunting than it did previously.
As much as you have it in for Gary Patterson, this is when he’s at his most dangerous. Look no further than last year’s meeting at McLane when he beat the Bears, 16-9, and you walked away from that game wondering how that happened. And Patterson is consumed with preparation of beating his rivals. He’s now 5-2 against Texas since his program joined the Big 12. He’s also won the last four meetings with the Bears.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 5
Oklahoma’s mindset is pretty interesting. The Sooners know they’re in a very precarious position with their playoff hopes. One more slip and they’re done. If they trip up before they come to Waco on Nov. 16, how much will this program want to compete? Blue bloods should always think they will compete. But Kansas State showed there is a path toward beating them. Is Oklahoma still the best team in the Big 12? Maybe. The question will be how much Baylor’s improved secondary can handle the explosive OU offense and if Baylor’s up-and-down running game will establish itself against OU’s wishy washy defense.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 5
Texas’ injuries and inconsistencies have taken hold. Injuries can be the great equalizer for any team. Look how devastated Baylor was by them in 2017. It also is a problem when your QB throws four interceptions and doesn’t complete 50 percent of his passes. Really, Texas knows its on the outside looking in for this title game race as it travels to Waco for Baylor’s home finale and senior day on Nov. 23. It’s a program that lost the benchmark games it played to LSU and Oklahoma. The TCU loss was a shocker. Texas is not going to a New Year’s Day bowl.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 7
The season finale on Nov. 30 in Lawrence, KS against the Jayhawks has a bit of mystery to it. Yes, Baylor is the better team. But go back and read the Big 12 Coaches Corner last week where the ever confusing Les Miles said after Texas game that he hoped that when people played his program, they would know they would have been in a dogfight and played a solid team. Thanks to a field goal at the horn to beat Texas Tech because Tech decided to lateral the field goal blocked (Really?), KU has three wins and now may think it has a chance at a bowl. Texas, Oklahoma and TCU are in the Jayhawks rear view mirror. The road won’t be easy with meetings against Kansas State, Iowa State and Oklahoma Stat. But should they be playing for bowl eligibility against the Bears, expect some stress.
On a scale of 1-10 with Baylor winning: 7
The glory years of 2013 and 2014 don’t seem as far away as they would seem. For any team competing for a championship, all anyone can ask is for it to have a chance.
For the Bears, they have a chance. A good chance. Fun season, isn’t it?
****
Appreciate the patience with me being in Minneapolis to watch Minnesota play Maryland. It was great to see my cousin. And the people who hosted us for their tail gate couldn’t have been more gracious.
****
Now, a look at other Baylor sports…
>No. 1 Baylor volleyball (17-1, 7-1 Big 12) captured its 100th win of the Ryan McGuyre era with a 3-1 victory over West Virginia (10-11, 1-7 Big 12) Saturday afternoon at the Ferrell Center, 25-19, 25-17, 22-25, 25-18.
McGuyre is the fastest Baylor volleyball coach to 100 wins, accomplishing the milestone in 142 matches (100-42) in the midst of his fifth season at the helm. He holds a .704 win percentage in Waco and is the fourth coach in program history to surpass 100 Baylor victories.
BU will open the second half of conference play in a road match against Oklahoma on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT in Norman, Ok. The match will be broadcast on Fox Sports Oklahoma Plus.
>Behind a pair of goals in the first half, Baylor soccer (8-6-3, 4-3) topped Iowa State (3-13-0, 0-7) by a final score of 2-0 Sunday afternoon at Betty Lou Mays Field. The match also served as Senior Day for the Bears as Baylor honored seven seniors after the game. Baylor lost to No. 17 Texas Tech, 2-0, on Friday.
Baylor travels to Stillwater to battle a Top-25 Oklahoma State team. From there, the Bears will head to the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City.
>Baylor men's golf moved up one spot to finish in second place after shooting 10-under-par 274 in Tuesday's final round at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate. The Bears entered the day in third place and moved ahead of Liberty with a three-round total of 16-under 836 at Royal Oaks Country Club.Baylor (-16) finished second to SMU (-27). The Bears placed ahead of Liberty (-12), Michigan (-4), Charlotte (-1), New Mexico (-1), Kent State (+6), North Texas (+7), Kansas State (+11), Iowa (+16), UTSA (+22) and Nebraska (+51).
Baylor has completed the fall portion of its 2019-20 season and now has more than three months before returning to competition Jan. 27-28 at the Arizona Intercollegiate at Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson, AZ.
>Baylor men's tennis senior Constantin Frantzen captured a big win, and two doubles tandems advanced to the quarterfinals on day two of the ITA Texas Regional Championships Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
In singles action, Frantzen tallied the highest-ranked win of his career with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 1 seed and second-ranked Christian Sigsgaard of Texas on court four. He booked a spot in Sunday's round of 16.
>Baylor women’s golf wraps up its fall season with a trip to The Bahamas to play in the White Sands Invitational, which runs Monday through Wednesday on the par-72, 6,415-yard course at Ocean Club GC in Paradise Island.
The Bears will take on a 14-team field that includes 10 top-50 ranked teams. No. 27 Baylor goes up against No. 3 Texas, No. 17 Arkansas, No. 21 Mississippi State, No. 24 Houston, No. 25 Ohio State, No. 31 Clemson, No. 34 Georgia, No. 41 Oklahoma, No. 48 Tennessee, North Texas, New Mexico, Tulane and SMU.
Let’s make it a great week!
