You’re in a really good mood after 70-17 and you feel like you want to bust out. Maybe the energy is sticking with you since early Saturday evening. So when you’re on that weekly Monday morning conference call, put the phone on mute (double check to make sure) and break out your air guitar to The Smithereens.
****
We learned two things over the weekend:
>Art Briles is back.
>Style points actually do count.
I watched and re-watched Briles postgame presser from Saturday against Rice and saw someone who had the steeled look in his eye and a conviction in his voice where everything he said came out with purpose and confidence.
Not only did his team play well, his team absolutely dismantled its opposition. And it made sure this game was over pretty quickly. I know he said that when a team is up 21 points that it’s a tie. But we know what we watched Saturday at McLane Stadium. This thing was over at 28-10. Rice did not possess the firepower to make this game.
Minus the ever underlying tone of penalties (I guess this issue will never get resolved), you could not have asked for a better performance going into Big 12 play. If Baylor had wobbled and kept this interesting because of its own doing and still won, just about every Baylor fan would have had more anxiety for Saturday’s game against Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium than they do now.
There’s a sense of calm that has returned to the Brazos. The path to get there took a little longer to find. But Baylor seems to have taken the right fork in the road.
Does that mean everything is in the clear? Well if I knew the answer to that, then I would have won the mega Power Ball and drinking my beverage of choice on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean years ago.
You have 105 players and a full coaching staff under your watch. It’s hard to always manage that many personalities on a week-to-week basis and make sure they are on the same page. You’re part coach and part psychologist.
Now, we can’t deny that what’s happened over the last month hasn’t given the football program nor the university a good look. They just didn’t.
When Briles confessed, “It's been personally difficult. I had to quit pouting, quit acting like a baby and I had to act like a man,’’ he acknowledged that. I think it revealed that everybody is fallible. Art needed to own what happened in several instances. The University needed to own what happened with the Sam Ukwuachu case.
If either flinched, that would have been terrible. However, each side has shown itself to own the character to accept it and find the resolve to lead the program and the school to the other side. That process is still unfolding.
Now, when we are in the midst of a crisis, we individually will tend to fall into that no-man’s land area.
Emotions of doubt, frustration, anger and confusion surface. All that had been built since December 2007 took body blow after body blow.
Outside of a player being dismissed here or there, this was the first time Briles’ program had been through some serious adversity. It probably won’t be the last time this happens either. For better and for worse, Baylor is now under the national spotlight and national scrutiny.
When you rise, you’re on more people’s radars. They can’t wait for you fail. Jealousy can be ugly because you have what other people want. It’s been that way since Adam walked on the earth.
I had some amusing times last week on the free board when people went after Baylor and accused it of being this and that. I challenged those and said if you have something to produce that would support your argument, then let’s see it. I got crickets.
I’m sure Art was irritated with us in the media because we were critical of how these things went down. I’m sure he was suspicious because other programs could use the negative news against him when it came to recruiting (in the latter, I don’t think so because his strong personality is the biggest asset going for Baylor).
You can throw out all of the clichés about tough times and tough people and adversity isn’t what happens but how you respond to it, character is revealed in difficult periods and so on. They are all true.
Keep in mind there was only one man that was perfect and look what happened to him.
****
When Briles said this affected him personally and said earlier in the week that he had lost his edge and that he had to get it back, this went beyond the football program in my opinion. This was his family. He had to suspend his son for a game because of a recruiting violation. He will be suspending his son in-law for a half because he went to an opposing Big 12 team’s game to see a lifelong friend coach on the other sideline.
I think that was a breaking point for him where he pretty much put his foot on the floor and said this nonsense is going to end now. It had to start with him. Leaders will always question and doubt themselves. That’s natural. But they usually will find the solution and emerge.
Art is going to look at these two a little differently than he does his defensive coordinator or his offensive line coach. These two are family. I can only imagine what was said behind closed doors.
Whatever was addressed and however it was addressed seemed to clear the air. It showed on Saturday. Everybody was in sync. That’s why Art looked and sounded the way he did in the presser.
That’s where the style points mattered. When you play like and act like the No. 4/5 team in the country and beat up somebody, it shows that accountability has returned. For the most part, each member of the Baylor football team did his job because he paid attention to the details and focused on his task.
Now, the Bears start playing for keeps Saturday in the Big 12 opener against Texas Tech. Baylor has to embrace the new label that it is the hunted. I think this program struggled with that concept because it preached for so long about being the hunter. This is new territory. It continues to be explored.
Baylor was the hunter in 2013 when it won its first Big 12 title. This program could still use that label in 2014 when it won its second championship. There was the belief that 2013 was a one-year wonder.
There isn’t any wondering anymore. What has been built can be sustained. It’s a matter of playing with and protecting what has been accomplished and yet not feel content or entitled because of what’s transpired.
Baylor went through a period of contentment. I now think its slowly dissipating. That doesn’t mean the Bears are never going to lose again. They will. It’s just a day-to-day process of making sure the core principles of this program are adhered to daily by every member of this program.
****
I have several Big 12 thoughts…
>I’m patting myself on the back (my shoulder is fine, thank you) because I picked TCU to win at Texas Tech. If we’ve learned anything about Gary Patterson over the years, it’s that when he gets very combative with the media over something – off the field or not – it’s a signal that he’s setting the tone for his team to rally around each other because it’s about to go play in a hostile environment on the road. I saw this at West Virginia last year. I saw this when he brought TCU to Baylor in 2012. Patterson uses this approach and his kids believe in it. He’s a great motivator. You can say what you want about the Horned Frogs catching a break on a deflected pass. But great teams make their own breaks. Give TCU its due. The Horned Frogs found a way to win. That’s all that matters. I think they’re going to flatten Texas.
>In Austin, the pot is definitely calling the kettle black. When you hear Texas fans complaining that officials cheated them out of a chance to get Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State into overtime, then you have to feel some poetic justice. How many times over the years have you heard other fan bases accuse officials of making calls that have favored Texas? Remember the fumble at Iowa State that wasn’t. Now, this is all grassy knoll when it comes to officials. Truly, I don’t ever believe that officials are favoring one team over the other. However, I do find this so ironic.
>Looking forward to watching West Virginia at Oklahoma on Saturday. That’s going to tell us a lot about the Mountaineers. Did Tulsa expose some things against the Sooners? Or did the Golden Hurricane play to a higher level than normal? College football is so week to week.
>Kansas State visits Oklahoma State and I don’t know who the better teams is. The Cowboys were just OK in Austin.
>What do you say about Texas Tech? I think the Red Raiders are a better team. You can jump all over their defense because of chaos over the last seven years. But I think they’re going to beat somebody they shouldn’t beat this year.
>Iowa State plays host to Kansas. If the Jayhawks don’t win this, then they’re pulling an 0-fer in 2015. David Beaty inherited such a torched roster.
****
Other jottings…
>We hit the stretch run for the AL West title and second wild card between the Rangers, Astros and Angels. Texas begins this final week of the season with a 2½ game lead over the Astros. Actually, the Rangers final road trip to Oakland and Houston went as well as Rangers fans could have hoped. They swept the A’s and grabbed one in Houston. Now, they finish with Detroit and the Angels at home. They face Justin Verlander Monday. The Astros are on the road in Seattle in Arizona. The Angels play host to the A’s before they come to Arlington. And the Twins are not dead yet. They are in Cleveland for four before finishing at home against Kansas City. The second wild card is a beautiful thing.
>I thought Cowboys were too conservative in the second half against Atlanta and then just let Julio Jones torch them. I think the tone in their 39-28 loss to the Falcons was set on their first possession of the second half. They started in plus territory and immediately went backwards.
>Nice to see the Texans get their first win, although I’m getting a little tired of all J.J. Watt all the time.
>The second teen-ager is starting to drive. Got her permit last week. I’m smiling to cover the stress.
>At 15 commits, I think Baylor still ends up with about 20. I know Briles threw out the number 24 when Zach Smith signed his financial aid papers in August. But I think Briles just randomly threw that number out there. I have no reason not to think Sachse WR Devin Duvernay doesn’t come here. I think Trophy Club Byron Nelson DE Brandon Bowen ends up at Baylor. But I will say that this is one of the oddest recruiting stories I’ve ever followed. I would just caution you to pay attention more to the actions on this than what is said. And you can’t say I didn’t prepare you for Houston MacArthur DE Isaiah Chambers announcing for TCU. You can still be upset about it. But at least you weren’t surprised.
>I still think Scott Drew’s team ends up with three signees in November. We know one of them is forward Mark Vital. Mario Kegler coming in last week was big because this program needs help in the front court. We’re going to have to wait for this to play out for another month. A coup would be this program getting Irving MacArthur guard Andrew Jones. Arizona leads for him. October will be big for official visits.
****
Now to the other Baylor sports
>The Bears (11-3, 0-1 Big 12) had a five-game winning streak snapped by the Kansas State Wildcats (9-5, 1-1 Big 12), dropping a three-set match in front of a packed house at the Ahearn Field House. Baylor hosts its Big 12 home opener with Texas Tech on Wednesday, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center.
> Led by Eric Anderson for the third time in four races, the Baylor men’s cross country team placed sixth at the Stanford Invitational Saturday at the Stanford University Golf Course. The Bears tallied 224 points as a team, just bettering San Jose State (225) by one point. For the women at the Roy Griak Invitational in Saint Paul, MN. Maggie Montoya led the way by taking ninth in 21:37.5 Peyton Thomas was close behind, finishing 25th in 22:12.6. The men and women will join back together to run at the Chili Pepper Festival on Oct. 3 in Fayetteville, Ark.
> Baylor soccer earned a 1-0 overtime win over Oklahoma State to begin Big 12 play Friday evening at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field. The Bears (6-4-1, 1-0-0) used goal from freshman Jackie Crowther to take down the Cowgirls (5-5-0, 0-1-0). The Bears hit the road for another Big 12 match next weekend at Iowa State, starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
Let’s make it a great week.
****
We learned two things over the weekend:
>Art Briles is back.
>Style points actually do count.
I watched and re-watched Briles postgame presser from Saturday against Rice and saw someone who had the steeled look in his eye and a conviction in his voice where everything he said came out with purpose and confidence.
Not only did his team play well, his team absolutely dismantled its opposition. And it made sure this game was over pretty quickly. I know he said that when a team is up 21 points that it’s a tie. But we know what we watched Saturday at McLane Stadium. This thing was over at 28-10. Rice did not possess the firepower to make this game.
Minus the ever underlying tone of penalties (I guess this issue will never get resolved), you could not have asked for a better performance going into Big 12 play. If Baylor had wobbled and kept this interesting because of its own doing and still won, just about every Baylor fan would have had more anxiety for Saturday’s game against Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium than they do now.
There’s a sense of calm that has returned to the Brazos. The path to get there took a little longer to find. But Baylor seems to have taken the right fork in the road.
Does that mean everything is in the clear? Well if I knew the answer to that, then I would have won the mega Power Ball and drinking my beverage of choice on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean years ago.
You have 105 players and a full coaching staff under your watch. It’s hard to always manage that many personalities on a week-to-week basis and make sure they are on the same page. You’re part coach and part psychologist.
Now, we can’t deny that what’s happened over the last month hasn’t given the football program nor the university a good look. They just didn’t.
When Briles confessed, “It's been personally difficult. I had to quit pouting, quit acting like a baby and I had to act like a man,’’ he acknowledged that. I think it revealed that everybody is fallible. Art needed to own what happened in several instances. The University needed to own what happened with the Sam Ukwuachu case.
If either flinched, that would have been terrible. However, each side has shown itself to own the character to accept it and find the resolve to lead the program and the school to the other side. That process is still unfolding.
Now, when we are in the midst of a crisis, we individually will tend to fall into that no-man’s land area.
Emotions of doubt, frustration, anger and confusion surface. All that had been built since December 2007 took body blow after body blow.
Outside of a player being dismissed here or there, this was the first time Briles’ program had been through some serious adversity. It probably won’t be the last time this happens either. For better and for worse, Baylor is now under the national spotlight and national scrutiny.
When you rise, you’re on more people’s radars. They can’t wait for you fail. Jealousy can be ugly because you have what other people want. It’s been that way since Adam walked on the earth.
I had some amusing times last week on the free board when people went after Baylor and accused it of being this and that. I challenged those and said if you have something to produce that would support your argument, then let’s see it. I got crickets.
I’m sure Art was irritated with us in the media because we were critical of how these things went down. I’m sure he was suspicious because other programs could use the negative news against him when it came to recruiting (in the latter, I don’t think so because his strong personality is the biggest asset going for Baylor).
You can throw out all of the clichés about tough times and tough people and adversity isn’t what happens but how you respond to it, character is revealed in difficult periods and so on. They are all true.
Keep in mind there was only one man that was perfect and look what happened to him.
****
When Briles said this affected him personally and said earlier in the week that he had lost his edge and that he had to get it back, this went beyond the football program in my opinion. This was his family. He had to suspend his son for a game because of a recruiting violation. He will be suspending his son in-law for a half because he went to an opposing Big 12 team’s game to see a lifelong friend coach on the other sideline.
I think that was a breaking point for him where he pretty much put his foot on the floor and said this nonsense is going to end now. It had to start with him. Leaders will always question and doubt themselves. That’s natural. But they usually will find the solution and emerge.
Art is going to look at these two a little differently than he does his defensive coordinator or his offensive line coach. These two are family. I can only imagine what was said behind closed doors.
Whatever was addressed and however it was addressed seemed to clear the air. It showed on Saturday. Everybody was in sync. That’s why Art looked and sounded the way he did in the presser.
That’s where the style points mattered. When you play like and act like the No. 4/5 team in the country and beat up somebody, it shows that accountability has returned. For the most part, each member of the Baylor football team did his job because he paid attention to the details and focused on his task.
Now, the Bears start playing for keeps Saturday in the Big 12 opener against Texas Tech. Baylor has to embrace the new label that it is the hunted. I think this program struggled with that concept because it preached for so long about being the hunter. This is new territory. It continues to be explored.
Baylor was the hunter in 2013 when it won its first Big 12 title. This program could still use that label in 2014 when it won its second championship. There was the belief that 2013 was a one-year wonder.
There isn’t any wondering anymore. What has been built can be sustained. It’s a matter of playing with and protecting what has been accomplished and yet not feel content or entitled because of what’s transpired.
Baylor went through a period of contentment. I now think its slowly dissipating. That doesn’t mean the Bears are never going to lose again. They will. It’s just a day-to-day process of making sure the core principles of this program are adhered to daily by every member of this program.
****
I have several Big 12 thoughts…
>I’m patting myself on the back (my shoulder is fine, thank you) because I picked TCU to win at Texas Tech. If we’ve learned anything about Gary Patterson over the years, it’s that when he gets very combative with the media over something – off the field or not – it’s a signal that he’s setting the tone for his team to rally around each other because it’s about to go play in a hostile environment on the road. I saw this at West Virginia last year. I saw this when he brought TCU to Baylor in 2012. Patterson uses this approach and his kids believe in it. He’s a great motivator. You can say what you want about the Horned Frogs catching a break on a deflected pass. But great teams make their own breaks. Give TCU its due. The Horned Frogs found a way to win. That’s all that matters. I think they’re going to flatten Texas.
>In Austin, the pot is definitely calling the kettle black. When you hear Texas fans complaining that officials cheated them out of a chance to get Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State into overtime, then you have to feel some poetic justice. How many times over the years have you heard other fan bases accuse officials of making calls that have favored Texas? Remember the fumble at Iowa State that wasn’t. Now, this is all grassy knoll when it comes to officials. Truly, I don’t ever believe that officials are favoring one team over the other. However, I do find this so ironic.
>Looking forward to watching West Virginia at Oklahoma on Saturday. That’s going to tell us a lot about the Mountaineers. Did Tulsa expose some things against the Sooners? Or did the Golden Hurricane play to a higher level than normal? College football is so week to week.
>Kansas State visits Oklahoma State and I don’t know who the better teams is. The Cowboys were just OK in Austin.
>What do you say about Texas Tech? I think the Red Raiders are a better team. You can jump all over their defense because of chaos over the last seven years. But I think they’re going to beat somebody they shouldn’t beat this year.
>Iowa State plays host to Kansas. If the Jayhawks don’t win this, then they’re pulling an 0-fer in 2015. David Beaty inherited such a torched roster.
****
Other jottings…
>We hit the stretch run for the AL West title and second wild card between the Rangers, Astros and Angels. Texas begins this final week of the season with a 2½ game lead over the Astros. Actually, the Rangers final road trip to Oakland and Houston went as well as Rangers fans could have hoped. They swept the A’s and grabbed one in Houston. Now, they finish with Detroit and the Angels at home. They face Justin Verlander Monday. The Astros are on the road in Seattle in Arizona. The Angels play host to the A’s before they come to Arlington. And the Twins are not dead yet. They are in Cleveland for four before finishing at home against Kansas City. The second wild card is a beautiful thing.
>I thought Cowboys were too conservative in the second half against Atlanta and then just let Julio Jones torch them. I think the tone in their 39-28 loss to the Falcons was set on their first possession of the second half. They started in plus territory and immediately went backwards.
>Nice to see the Texans get their first win, although I’m getting a little tired of all J.J. Watt all the time.
>The second teen-ager is starting to drive. Got her permit last week. I’m smiling to cover the stress.
>At 15 commits, I think Baylor still ends up with about 20. I know Briles threw out the number 24 when Zach Smith signed his financial aid papers in August. But I think Briles just randomly threw that number out there. I have no reason not to think Sachse WR Devin Duvernay doesn’t come here. I think Trophy Club Byron Nelson DE Brandon Bowen ends up at Baylor. But I will say that this is one of the oddest recruiting stories I’ve ever followed. I would just caution you to pay attention more to the actions on this than what is said. And you can’t say I didn’t prepare you for Houston MacArthur DE Isaiah Chambers announcing for TCU. You can still be upset about it. But at least you weren’t surprised.
>I still think Scott Drew’s team ends up with three signees in November. We know one of them is forward Mark Vital. Mario Kegler coming in last week was big because this program needs help in the front court. We’re going to have to wait for this to play out for another month. A coup would be this program getting Irving MacArthur guard Andrew Jones. Arizona leads for him. October will be big for official visits.
****
Now to the other Baylor sports
>The Bears (11-3, 0-1 Big 12) had a five-game winning streak snapped by the Kansas State Wildcats (9-5, 1-1 Big 12), dropping a three-set match in front of a packed house at the Ahearn Field House. Baylor hosts its Big 12 home opener with Texas Tech on Wednesday, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center.
> Led by Eric Anderson for the third time in four races, the Baylor men’s cross country team placed sixth at the Stanford Invitational Saturday at the Stanford University Golf Course. The Bears tallied 224 points as a team, just bettering San Jose State (225) by one point. For the women at the Roy Griak Invitational in Saint Paul, MN. Maggie Montoya led the way by taking ninth in 21:37.5 Peyton Thomas was close behind, finishing 25th in 22:12.6. The men and women will join back together to run at the Chili Pepper Festival on Oct. 3 in Fayetteville, Ark.
> Baylor soccer earned a 1-0 overtime win over Oklahoma State to begin Big 12 play Friday evening at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field. The Bears (6-4-1, 1-0-0) used goal from freshman Jackie Crowther to take down the Cowgirls (5-5-0, 0-1-0). The Bears hit the road for another Big 12 match next weekend at Iowa State, starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
Let’s make it a great week.
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