I trust all of the fathers on this board had a great Father’s Day on Sunday. I did my traditional of parking myself on the couch to watch the U.S. Open (I terribly missed NBC’s opening theme from Yanni) and see an exceptional finish. You’re happy for Jordan Spieth, who is quickly helping us forget Tiger what’s his name. But you feel terrible for Dustin Johnson who in two strokes of the putter went from winning the 115th U.S. Open to finishing second. What a terrible memory to take with you. Despite some of the grumpiness from the golfers about Chambers Bay, WA’s course (and the greens), my advice is get over it. Sports is about making the adjustment.
As we are in the middle of summer, the random juke box takes us back to those days when we were doing the cross country roadtrips for our vacation. I have this gem from Lindsay Buckingham. Yes, I’m channeling my inner Clark Grizwold.
****
Maybe it’s the dead of summer and Aug. 4 – the start of fall camp begins – seems so far out to reach. But this actually is the best time to start talking about the 2015 Baylor Bears football team.
First of all, Stephen Cook and I will be at the Dallas Omni for Big 12 media days when it’s Baylor’s turn. The Bears are slated to arrive for the second day, July 21.
With that comes the responsibility of filling out my preseason poll. I have to admit that this is a real struggle of who gets the No. 1 and who gets the No. 2. Baylor? TCU? I don’t know. And I may not know until I do a little more studying on everything before I submit the ballot in a couple of weeks.
Now, you probably have already seen several national and regional publications give the nod to the Horned Frogs as preseason champions. Their logic makes sense. TCU returns quarterback Trevone Boykin who turned in arguably the most surprising season of any player in college football in 2014. I don’t believe any of us were anticipating that he would throw for 3,901 yards, 33 touchdowns and be in the Heisman Trophy conversation. Plus, the Horned Frogs return five starters on defense from a team that went 12-1 and whipped Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl.
When you see preseason rankings come out, you’ll likely see TCU ranked consistently at No. 3 behind Ohio State and Alabama.
Baylor appears to be the consensus No. 2 team for one major reason. No one is sure if junior quarterback Seth Russell can be good enough to lead Baylor to a third consecutive Big 12 championship despite having a pretty dynamic supporting cast. Baylor also returns eight defensive starters.
Plus, Baylor has to play at TCU on Nov. 27 in Amon Carter Stadium.
Therein lies my struggle. There’s not one part of my thinking that Russell can’t carry the torch for another year. He’s a great athlete. I read some comments by Corey Coleman in a couple of publications – including Dave Campbell’s Texas Football – where Russell carries a tough streak that will get in guys faces. A little butt chewing never hurt anyone unless you’re oversensitive. For me, you want your quarterbacks to be tough when times are tough. It keeps everybody accountable.
I can look at Russell’s performance in mopup duty the past two years and shrug my shoulders. The good part is that he saw some live action. The troubling part was the performance against Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium over Thanksgiving weekend. He was thrown into a game where Baylor went from being in command to not so much. Baylor scored only 13 points after he came in and only three in the fourth quarter. Baylor needed a stop on Tech’s 2-point try to hang on.
There’s two ways to spin that performance. The positive is like most backups, he didn’t take the majority of the snaps of the week so he had to work under extraordinary circumstances. The negative spin is that he didn’t react well to what became a very stressful game that wound up nearly costing Baylor a chance at its second consecutive Big 12 champion. Of course, Baylor won, but I can assure you that many of you came away from that game feeling more relieved than thrilled.
Many reporters want to see it before they believe it unless their familiarity with the program is such that they think Russell can pick up where Petty left off. No doubt, there’s a faction out there. No doubt, there’s a faction that needs to see it to believe it.
If I pick Baylor No. 1 it will be because I found enough convincing arguments to give Russell this leap of faith. If I pick TCU No. 1, I’m sure I’ll catch heat from several of you. That’s nothing new. But before you do that, just remember I was one of nine voters in 2013 who picked Baylor as preseason conference champions when about 75 percent of the voters picked Oklahoma. And we know how that season turned out.
As much as there’s a faction that believes Russell can do it, it’s probably the same group that doubts Boykin can have a repeat season. Call it homerism, skepticism or whatever you want. One year doesn’t a career make. But you have to give Boykin credit for picking up the new spread offense and becoming a playmaker.
The benefit he had is that few expected him to perform at this level. Heck, TCU head coach Gary Patterson kept a tight lip throughout summer camp (behind the scenes he already knew) on who was going to be the starter between Boykin and Matt Joeckel. TCU was predicted to finish in the middle of the standings.
Russell can’t sneak in under the radar with Baylor because of where this program is. That’s fine. He understands this. Any consistent college football program will always have questions about the new quarterback. It will find a way to win.
If you want to talk about answering questions about the unknown quarterback look no further than Ohio State last year. The Buckeyes went to their third signal caller in Cardale Jones. In his first start against Alabama in the national semifinals and a more experienced QB in Blake Sims, Jones threw for 243 yards as the Buckeyes won. Ohio State was a sizable underdog.
In the national title game against Oregon, Jones went against a Heisman Trophy winner in Marcus Mariota and played like the season quarterback
Everybody is different. New QBs react differently. What Russell has going for him is that he has a head coach in Art Briles who brings a sense of calm to a team. Briles has also had this way of summoning players to play at levels they didn’t even think they could.
There’s more thinking and research to do. Good thing I don’t have to make this decision today.
****
When watching Baylor go through these summer camps in Waco, Richardson and Marshall, I could start to see Kendal Briles taking a little more ownership of things and becoming more and more comfortable of where he is as a college coach and becoming a leader.
Art deferred to Kendal on a couple of things, such as when the Marshall camp closed. Kendal brought all of the campers to the middle of the field, gave them final words of instruction and encouragement and led them all in the Sice’Em sign and cheer.
In my opinion, these are the early stages of the younger Briles being groomed to become a head coach. Will it be as his father’s successor in about 6-8 years? Maybe. It could be that Kendal leaves Baylor in a couple of years to get some seasoning at a G5 program before he returns.
Follow this thinking. Chad Morris turns SMU around and moves on to Texas A&M (Morris’ alma mater) to replace Kevin Sumlin. SMU wants to find another head coach with a solid recruiting background. Kendal takes over and runs SMU for several seasons. When Dad is ready to move on to the next chapter, Kendal is ready to return. He’s been through the game coaching chaos.
Without question, I’m getting ahead of myself. Kendal has only one game of experience as Baylor’s offensive coordinator. Quietly, this is possibly a long-term gameplan that I’m sure those within the program have discussed. Baylor fans have also talked about this.
This is a pretty important year for him in his development as a coach. He can look back on the Michigan State game and what went well and what didn’t go well and see where he can adjust.
For the most part, Kendal had a gameplan that produced a Cotton Bowl-record performance from Petty. The flipside of that game was that Baylor’s running attack was pretty non-existent. When the Bears needed to run the ball in the fourth quarter to put away the Spartans, they couldn’t do it.
So Kendal takes what he experienced from that game as a playcaller and learns from it. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. What’s incumbent upon Kendal is that he ensure that he puts each of his offensive skill players in a position to succeed from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.
He a lot to work with between Russell, Corey Coleman, KD Cannon, Shock Linwood and Johnny Jefferson. There are more in the wings. What’s also going to be important is his relationship with Russell. They have to be of the same mind on just about every play. They have to know each other so well, that the relationship will become second nature.
Kendal doesn’t lack for confidence. But I can tell you that he will prepare his players thoroughly for each of the next 12 games. By October, you should see him get into a rhythm.
***
So Galena Park North Shore safety Eric Monroe commits to LSU and the summoning of Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” begins.
Look I understand where this is coming from. Morroe said back in February that Baylor was his No. 1 school. We reported that. Why did he say that? I don’t know. If I knew the mindset of 17- and 18-year-old kids, I would be rich beyond anyone’s imagination. We also reported in subsequent stories/notes that LSU really appeared to be the leader.
This isn’t going to be the last big name that Baylor doesn’t. I can tell you that barring some epiphany they’re not getting Sachse DB Jared Mayden unless he wants to play in Texas. Everything points to him wanting to play out of state. The chances of getting Michael Divinity are long. But the key is going to be him getting to Baylor for either a summer visit or watch a game.
Baylor is seriously involved with 13 Rivals250 uncommitted defensive prospects. And when you pick up our DCTF, go look at the all-defensive high school teams in this state. There’s a lot of familiar faces where Baylor is in the middle of this.
I have said both here on this board and on ESPN 1660 Central Texas that if this staff can land three of them that would be both historic and groundbreaking. Baylor can get great defensive players like Andrew Billings. But this is going to be a long process. A lot of the major decisions will probably come after the 2015 high school football season and on National Signing Day 2016 (Feb. 3).
Bravvoin Roy is not a 250 player but the Spring NT is really good. If the Bears secure Plano Prestonwood LB Deonte Williams, this recruiting class will continue to look even stronger. He’s not a Rivals250 player either. But he’s a player. Now, if the Bears get Trophy Club Byron Nelson DE Bradon Bowen, this class will be ridiculous. I’m partial toward him because I’ve seen him more than the other DL recruits. He didn’t go from 3 stars to No. 50 because he stunk. To me, he’s the best DL prospect in this class.
I’m not discouraging anyone from expressing outrage, panic or pointing the finger. Five years ago, Baylor doesn’t even have a chance at Monroe. All a program wants is to have a chance. Baylor has a legitimate chance in a lot of efforts.
****
Quick hitting thoughts
>I didn’t see it but was told other report(s) cited California as Baylor’s opponent for the 2016 opener in Austrailia. Hmmm. Nothing really new to report at this time, but based on what I know, this is pretty far down the road. What might something that needs to be resolved is if this game is played in late August, Baylor would probably have to seek clearance to begin fall workouts in July to offset the early travel. Coaches are very protective of their workout dates and want to use all of them. Figure that it’s going to take 3-4 days for travel and adjustment to the new time zone.
>Great news that the early signing period was pushed back for another year. It just sounded like the conference commissioners wanted to have a better handle of the issue before making a move. I don’t think there’s any rush to this. There need to be addendums over recruits signing with programs where the coaches leave (December is moving season). They also have to decide on a timeframe. It seemed simple enough that the period in December with the JUCOs could work. But I still favor an August time period simply because kids are getting recruited earlier, they’re committing earlier and they want the process over with. Why not offer a signing period for August, December and NSD?
>New baseball coach Steve Rodriguez won the press conference last week. He’ll hit the recruiting trail as hard as he can. I’m not looking for 2016 to be a major turnaround. I just want to see progress.
>Glad to see Golden State win the NBA Championship. Nothing against LeBron James. You just like to embrace a new face win the world championship. Not a bad debut season for Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
>Oh, and the hockey season is over. Bet you didn’t know the Chicago Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup in three of the last six years. I'm sure you don't much care either.
>Still can’t make up my mind about the Rangers and if they’re a legitimate playoff contender. The same goes for the Astros. I want to see this the week after the All-Star Game.
>Baylor basketball is probably looking for foru recruits to the 2016 class. Obviously, they need a replacement for Lester Medford, Rico Gathers, Taurean Prince and Deng Deng. They have one commit in Mark Vital. Nothing has come yet of the Rico Gathers arrest. But I would think that a two-game suspension to being the campaign would be the right punishment. He made a really bad decision. It’s another indication where where the cost-of-attendance stipend is needed. That begins this fall. As we reported in April, Baylor part should be around $3,800. That will cover both the fall and spring semesters.
Let’s make it a great week.
As we are in the middle of summer, the random juke box takes us back to those days when we were doing the cross country roadtrips for our vacation. I have this gem from Lindsay Buckingham. Yes, I’m channeling my inner Clark Grizwold.
****
Maybe it’s the dead of summer and Aug. 4 – the start of fall camp begins – seems so far out to reach. But this actually is the best time to start talking about the 2015 Baylor Bears football team.
First of all, Stephen Cook and I will be at the Dallas Omni for Big 12 media days when it’s Baylor’s turn. The Bears are slated to arrive for the second day, July 21.
With that comes the responsibility of filling out my preseason poll. I have to admit that this is a real struggle of who gets the No. 1 and who gets the No. 2. Baylor? TCU? I don’t know. And I may not know until I do a little more studying on everything before I submit the ballot in a couple of weeks.
Now, you probably have already seen several national and regional publications give the nod to the Horned Frogs as preseason champions. Their logic makes sense. TCU returns quarterback Trevone Boykin who turned in arguably the most surprising season of any player in college football in 2014. I don’t believe any of us were anticipating that he would throw for 3,901 yards, 33 touchdowns and be in the Heisman Trophy conversation. Plus, the Horned Frogs return five starters on defense from a team that went 12-1 and whipped Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl.
When you see preseason rankings come out, you’ll likely see TCU ranked consistently at No. 3 behind Ohio State and Alabama.
Baylor appears to be the consensus No. 2 team for one major reason. No one is sure if junior quarterback Seth Russell can be good enough to lead Baylor to a third consecutive Big 12 championship despite having a pretty dynamic supporting cast. Baylor also returns eight defensive starters.
Plus, Baylor has to play at TCU on Nov. 27 in Amon Carter Stadium.
Therein lies my struggle. There’s not one part of my thinking that Russell can’t carry the torch for another year. He’s a great athlete. I read some comments by Corey Coleman in a couple of publications – including Dave Campbell’s Texas Football – where Russell carries a tough streak that will get in guys faces. A little butt chewing never hurt anyone unless you’re oversensitive. For me, you want your quarterbacks to be tough when times are tough. It keeps everybody accountable.
I can look at Russell’s performance in mopup duty the past two years and shrug my shoulders. The good part is that he saw some live action. The troubling part was the performance against Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium over Thanksgiving weekend. He was thrown into a game where Baylor went from being in command to not so much. Baylor scored only 13 points after he came in and only three in the fourth quarter. Baylor needed a stop on Tech’s 2-point try to hang on.
There’s two ways to spin that performance. The positive is like most backups, he didn’t take the majority of the snaps of the week so he had to work under extraordinary circumstances. The negative spin is that he didn’t react well to what became a very stressful game that wound up nearly costing Baylor a chance at its second consecutive Big 12 champion. Of course, Baylor won, but I can assure you that many of you came away from that game feeling more relieved than thrilled.
Many reporters want to see it before they believe it unless their familiarity with the program is such that they think Russell can pick up where Petty left off. No doubt, there’s a faction out there. No doubt, there’s a faction that needs to see it to believe it.
If I pick Baylor No. 1 it will be because I found enough convincing arguments to give Russell this leap of faith. If I pick TCU No. 1, I’m sure I’ll catch heat from several of you. That’s nothing new. But before you do that, just remember I was one of nine voters in 2013 who picked Baylor as preseason conference champions when about 75 percent of the voters picked Oklahoma. And we know how that season turned out.
As much as there’s a faction that believes Russell can do it, it’s probably the same group that doubts Boykin can have a repeat season. Call it homerism, skepticism or whatever you want. One year doesn’t a career make. But you have to give Boykin credit for picking up the new spread offense and becoming a playmaker.
The benefit he had is that few expected him to perform at this level. Heck, TCU head coach Gary Patterson kept a tight lip throughout summer camp (behind the scenes he already knew) on who was going to be the starter between Boykin and Matt Joeckel. TCU was predicted to finish in the middle of the standings.
Russell can’t sneak in under the radar with Baylor because of where this program is. That’s fine. He understands this. Any consistent college football program will always have questions about the new quarterback. It will find a way to win.
If you want to talk about answering questions about the unknown quarterback look no further than Ohio State last year. The Buckeyes went to their third signal caller in Cardale Jones. In his first start against Alabama in the national semifinals and a more experienced QB in Blake Sims, Jones threw for 243 yards as the Buckeyes won. Ohio State was a sizable underdog.
In the national title game against Oregon, Jones went against a Heisman Trophy winner in Marcus Mariota and played like the season quarterback
Everybody is different. New QBs react differently. What Russell has going for him is that he has a head coach in Art Briles who brings a sense of calm to a team. Briles has also had this way of summoning players to play at levels they didn’t even think they could.
There’s more thinking and research to do. Good thing I don’t have to make this decision today.
****
When watching Baylor go through these summer camps in Waco, Richardson and Marshall, I could start to see Kendal Briles taking a little more ownership of things and becoming more and more comfortable of where he is as a college coach and becoming a leader.
Art deferred to Kendal on a couple of things, such as when the Marshall camp closed. Kendal brought all of the campers to the middle of the field, gave them final words of instruction and encouragement and led them all in the Sice’Em sign and cheer.
In my opinion, these are the early stages of the younger Briles being groomed to become a head coach. Will it be as his father’s successor in about 6-8 years? Maybe. It could be that Kendal leaves Baylor in a couple of years to get some seasoning at a G5 program before he returns.
Follow this thinking. Chad Morris turns SMU around and moves on to Texas A&M (Morris’ alma mater) to replace Kevin Sumlin. SMU wants to find another head coach with a solid recruiting background. Kendal takes over and runs SMU for several seasons. When Dad is ready to move on to the next chapter, Kendal is ready to return. He’s been through the game coaching chaos.
Without question, I’m getting ahead of myself. Kendal has only one game of experience as Baylor’s offensive coordinator. Quietly, this is possibly a long-term gameplan that I’m sure those within the program have discussed. Baylor fans have also talked about this.
This is a pretty important year for him in his development as a coach. He can look back on the Michigan State game and what went well and what didn’t go well and see where he can adjust.
For the most part, Kendal had a gameplan that produced a Cotton Bowl-record performance from Petty. The flipside of that game was that Baylor’s running attack was pretty non-existent. When the Bears needed to run the ball in the fourth quarter to put away the Spartans, they couldn’t do it.
So Kendal takes what he experienced from that game as a playcaller and learns from it. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. What’s incumbent upon Kendal is that he ensure that he puts each of his offensive skill players in a position to succeed from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.
He a lot to work with between Russell, Corey Coleman, KD Cannon, Shock Linwood and Johnny Jefferson. There are more in the wings. What’s also going to be important is his relationship with Russell. They have to be of the same mind on just about every play. They have to know each other so well, that the relationship will become second nature.
Kendal doesn’t lack for confidence. But I can tell you that he will prepare his players thoroughly for each of the next 12 games. By October, you should see him get into a rhythm.
***
So Galena Park North Shore safety Eric Monroe commits to LSU and the summoning of Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” begins.
Look I understand where this is coming from. Morroe said back in February that Baylor was his No. 1 school. We reported that. Why did he say that? I don’t know. If I knew the mindset of 17- and 18-year-old kids, I would be rich beyond anyone’s imagination. We also reported in subsequent stories/notes that LSU really appeared to be the leader.
This isn’t going to be the last big name that Baylor doesn’t. I can tell you that barring some epiphany they’re not getting Sachse DB Jared Mayden unless he wants to play in Texas. Everything points to him wanting to play out of state. The chances of getting Michael Divinity are long. But the key is going to be him getting to Baylor for either a summer visit or watch a game.
Baylor is seriously involved with 13 Rivals250 uncommitted defensive prospects. And when you pick up our DCTF, go look at the all-defensive high school teams in this state. There’s a lot of familiar faces where Baylor is in the middle of this.
I have said both here on this board and on ESPN 1660 Central Texas that if this staff can land three of them that would be both historic and groundbreaking. Baylor can get great defensive players like Andrew Billings. But this is going to be a long process. A lot of the major decisions will probably come after the 2015 high school football season and on National Signing Day 2016 (Feb. 3).
Bravvoin Roy is not a 250 player but the Spring NT is really good. If the Bears secure Plano Prestonwood LB Deonte Williams, this recruiting class will continue to look even stronger. He’s not a Rivals250 player either. But he’s a player. Now, if the Bears get Trophy Club Byron Nelson DE Bradon Bowen, this class will be ridiculous. I’m partial toward him because I’ve seen him more than the other DL recruits. He didn’t go from 3 stars to No. 50 because he stunk. To me, he’s the best DL prospect in this class.
I’m not discouraging anyone from expressing outrage, panic or pointing the finger. Five years ago, Baylor doesn’t even have a chance at Monroe. All a program wants is to have a chance. Baylor has a legitimate chance in a lot of efforts.
****
Quick hitting thoughts
>I didn’t see it but was told other report(s) cited California as Baylor’s opponent for the 2016 opener in Austrailia. Hmmm. Nothing really new to report at this time, but based on what I know, this is pretty far down the road. What might something that needs to be resolved is if this game is played in late August, Baylor would probably have to seek clearance to begin fall workouts in July to offset the early travel. Coaches are very protective of their workout dates and want to use all of them. Figure that it’s going to take 3-4 days for travel and adjustment to the new time zone.
>Great news that the early signing period was pushed back for another year. It just sounded like the conference commissioners wanted to have a better handle of the issue before making a move. I don’t think there’s any rush to this. There need to be addendums over recruits signing with programs where the coaches leave (December is moving season). They also have to decide on a timeframe. It seemed simple enough that the period in December with the JUCOs could work. But I still favor an August time period simply because kids are getting recruited earlier, they’re committing earlier and they want the process over with. Why not offer a signing period for August, December and NSD?
>New baseball coach Steve Rodriguez won the press conference last week. He’ll hit the recruiting trail as hard as he can. I’m not looking for 2016 to be a major turnaround. I just want to see progress.
>Glad to see Golden State win the NBA Championship. Nothing against LeBron James. You just like to embrace a new face win the world championship. Not a bad debut season for Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
>Oh, and the hockey season is over. Bet you didn’t know the Chicago Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup in three of the last six years. I'm sure you don't much care either.
>Still can’t make up my mind about the Rangers and if they’re a legitimate playoff contender. The same goes for the Astros. I want to see this the week after the All-Star Game.
>Baylor basketball is probably looking for foru recruits to the 2016 class. Obviously, they need a replacement for Lester Medford, Rico Gathers, Taurean Prince and Deng Deng. They have one commit in Mark Vital. Nothing has come yet of the Rico Gathers arrest. But I would think that a two-game suspension to being the campaign would be the right punishment. He made a really bad decision. It’s another indication where where the cost-of-attendance stipend is needed. That begins this fall. As we reported in April, Baylor part should be around $3,800. That will cover both the fall and spring semesters.
Let’s make it a great week.
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