Happy Thanksgiving Week! Time dangerously flies fast. But let’s never forget to enjoy every moment. For many across this country, this week has kind of migrated into a full vacation week. It’s a great idea because nothing much substantive occurs. It used to be that if you get away sometime on Wednesday, you were good. Forget that.
But the random juke box pulls from its collection what it considers the signature song of the 1980s – Van Halen’s Jump.
****
The week leading up to playing your arch rival is like no other. All of the angst, vitriol (let’s face it, that always comes with the territory) and passion rises to the surface. The records, the national consequences are all dismissed for those 3-4 hours. You just want to beat the living daylights out of them.
For the 111th time Baylor and TCU meet. The No. 10 Bears (9-1, 6-1) travel to Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth at 6:30 p.m. Friday to play No. 18 TCU (9-2, 6-2). It’s going to be one very intense building. And some things will be said about each side that just aren’t very nice. The series record – Baylor leads 52-51-7 – still blows me away that it is that tight.
But then again when you look at the last two meetings, Baylor has won each by three points (41-38 and 61-58) and needed to make plays in the final moments in order to pull those off. Then again, you don't worry about style points when it comes to this game. You just need to make sure you have more.
Now a word of warning. This is not the way Baylor wants to catch TCU. The Horned Frogs are no longer in the running for either the national championship or the Big 12 titles. Their fate is sealed. They won’t have wide receiver Josh Doctson who is missing this game with a wrist injury. It probably was a foolish move for the TCU staff to play Doctson against Kansas when it was clear he should not have been out there.
Whether or not TCU coach Gary Patterson will have quarterback Trevone Boykin is anybody’s guess. With ankle sprains, they heal at their own rate. If you’re Baylor you have to prepare for this one like Boykin will work his way back into the lineup. Of course, this program now has two games worth of film on backups Foster Sawyer and Bram Kohlhausen to understand their tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of Boykin’s status, it would hard to think of him being able to play similar to what we saw in September and October when he was mobile and free to use his legs when needed. If he gets out there and moves and takes one hit, then he could meet the same fate as Baylor’s Jarrett Stidham did.
And speaking of beat up Baylor, that QB situation isn’t exactly in a position of strength either. The way Stidham was moving throughout the night in Stillwater (or wasn’t moving at the end of the first quarter) doesn’t give you the confidence that he will have the opportunity to contribute much to Friday’s affair. Art Briles said after the game that Stidham was dealing with hand, ankle and back problems and “isn’t doing real good.’’ I have a hard time believing that Stidham is going to see a snap unless there’s a Willis Reed moment. You have to expect that this will be backup Chris Johnson’s game to play.
Now, I get euphoria over Johnson’s performance. But now the reality of working this week and going through the short week and a game plan is different. Now there’s film out on him. Johnson reacted well to a 24-14 lead in Stillwater. Maybe the most important play for him and this team was on the first possession. Baylor is facing a 3rd-and-8 at its 21-yard line. Johnson drops back and then takes off for 10 yards to keep the possession going. It finalizes in his perfectly-placed 39-yard touchdown strike to Jay Lee. Everyone in green and gold exhaled.
But let’s be honest, Johnson didn’t finish the game from a passing standpoint very well. He was 4-of-5 to start and then finished 1-of-5 and threw an ill-advised interception. So there’s stuff to work on if he’s the guy this week. He’s still really raw. That’s why he’s never emerged past the third string. That’s why he was moved to wide receiver when the season began. That’s why when Baylor recruited him, his head coach at Bryan Ross Rogers said everybody needed to be patient with him.
Maybe Johnson has a finish a la to Ohio State’s Cardale Jones last year. Anything is possible. The games this late in the year always feature wild finishes.
****
I can’t do this entry justice without talking about Gary Patterson. First off, he’s a really good coach. You don’t have the kind of success that he’s had in his 15 seasons because you just lucked your way into it. His program has won some very big games. I think back to winning at Oklahoma in 2005, winning at Clemson and beating Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
Patterson loves to play to you’re not wanted here card with his program because TCU has had to work itself up from that position ever since it was left out of the Big 12 in 1996. But his staff get players who buy into that and play their butts off for him. That’s a fact.
Where Patterson falls short is that when he leaves it on his sleeve, it gets him into trouble. Now, we understand there is no love between the Baylor coaching staff and the TCU coaching staff. There never has been. There never will be.
Obviously, I think back to his postgame presser in 2013 following the Baylor win at Amon Carter. Patterson went off on Ahmad Dixon who was ejected following the targeting penalty against then-WR Trevone Boykin. Now, Dixon wasn’t smart in the way he handled it. Patterson was worse because of the way he handled it. I get Patterson’s frustration. It just wasn’t good. And I’m ripped him for it on a couple of radio stations.
A national television audience will be watching and appreciating why this rivalry ranks in the top three nationally with Michigan-Ohio State and Alabama-Auburn. In my opinion, Baylor-TCU has passed Texas-Oklahoma.
As much as this rivalry is heated and that fans from both sides would rather stick a fork in their eye before they pull for the other – see the vandalism on each other’s campus in October – the two sides need each other.
Baylor needs TCU to be good. TCU needs Baylor to be good. That’s when it’s at its best.
The countdown to Friday continues.
****
Some other thoughts….
>Now, that Sachse WR and Rivals 100 prospect Devin Duvernay is in the fold, I expect this finish to the 2016 recruiting class to focus on the defense. At 17 commitments, Baylor probably needs about 3-4 more to finish this class. I would expect two more defensive linemen, one more defensive back/athlete and another offensive lineman.
Some people didn’t want to believe me about Duvernay committing to Baylor. But everything just pointed to him coming here. Actually, I thought it was too easy to predict. And I’m not just saying this because it’s after the fact. All of the signs were there.
>Sorry to see Paul Rhoads at Iowa State get fired. But you could see that coming when the Cyclones became bowl ineligible with the 35-31 loss to Oklahoma State. Then there was the meltdown at Kansas State. He was in trouble this year.
>This might be the most volatile coaching turnover season I think I’ve ever witnessed. I think we’re at 13 Division I moves and the season hasn’t even finished. But remember this all got started before the season began when Illinois fired Tim Beckman after it was learned he wasn’t treating his players very well. Actually, one position was filled when Minnesota took the interim tag of Tracy Claeys and gave him a three-year contract.
Now, there are reports that LSU and Les Miles are discussing an exit strategy. Virginia is probably going to make a move. We’re going to have to watch what Bill Snyder does at Kansas State. He is 76. Colorado could make a move. Can Gus Malzahn survive another year at Auburn? They are bowl eligible but they’re last in the SEC West.
We could get up to 30 moves before we reach Dec. 31. But one of those won’t be in Waco. When the Texas talk died two years ago, that was it. That guy isn’t going anywhere. Neither is his son.
>What I do hope will happen is that former assistant Dino Babers gets an opportunity. He’s done a great job at Bowling Green and has the Falcons in the MAC Championship game. His name is connected with the Missouri opening.
>It may or may not be too early for Philip Montgomery at Tulsa to make a move but you never know. In his first year, he’s going to get the Golden Hurricane into a bowl in his first year. That team is 5-6 and plays at very beatable Tulane on Saturday.
>As much as people around here may still sting from the Cotton Bowl loss to Michigan State, thanks are in order for what Sparty did on Saturday in Columbus. The 17-14 win at Ohio State opened the door for a lot of teams to get back into the college football playoffs. I see where several “experts” have Michigan State in the top three. I’m not going there. We have two weeks before we really know where this is going. Well, it might take three. The Army-Navy game is Dec. 12 so the Midshipmen may have a say in getting into one of those Big 6 bowls from the other five conferences. So we may have to wait until Dec. 13 until we really know.
I do think Baylor can probably jump back into the 5-7 range when Tuesday’s list is released. The committee is going to have to look at that win at Oklahoma State given this team’s circumstances and be impressed. And Oklahoma State was much healthier than Baylor. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
>Have to admit the Cowboys look like a different team when Tony Romo is back in there. I bet they pull off the upset of Carolina on Thanksgiving. Anyone like his first pass? He’s in the end zone with the rain coming down hard. Miami defenders are in his face. In order to avoid a safety, he flips the ball with his left hand to Darren McFadden who nearly gets a first down out of it.
>Nice to see my Vikings once again implode against Green Bay, 30-13, thanks to a zillion penalties and a killer Adrian Peterson fumble. The record in the last 12 meetings is 1-10-1. That’s not very good. Oh they have to go to Atlanta on Sunday.
****
Now to other Baylor sports (Basketball won’t be included here)
>Baylor women's cross country junior Maggie Montoya placed 86th at the NCAA Championships Saturday at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, KY.
Montoya completed the 6,000-meter course in 20:45.9, improving on her time from the 2014 NCAA Championships by over four seconds (20:49.96). However, Montoya dropped from 44th last year to 86th in 2015.
The indoor track season begins Jan. 16.
>The Baylor volleyball team (16-12, 4-10 Big 12) fell to the 5th-ranked Texas Longhorns (23-2, 13-1 Big 12) on Wednesday at the Gregory Gymnasium, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21. A season-high 12 service errors and a 10-5 blocking deficit proved to be too much for the Bears to overcome, playing in front of a packed house.
Baylor faces Iowa State on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.
>The Baylor equestrian team (7-1, 2-1 Big 12) picked up a big 10-7 road win over the No. 10 SMU Mustangs (2-5, 1-1 UEC) on Friday at the Sleepy P Ranch. Baylor pauses for the winter break, picking back up with the spring schedule on Jan. 30, 2016 at Auburn in Auburn, Alabama
Let’s make it a great week!
But the random juke box pulls from its collection what it considers the signature song of the 1980s – Van Halen’s Jump.
****
The week leading up to playing your arch rival is like no other. All of the angst, vitriol (let’s face it, that always comes with the territory) and passion rises to the surface. The records, the national consequences are all dismissed for those 3-4 hours. You just want to beat the living daylights out of them.
For the 111th time Baylor and TCU meet. The No. 10 Bears (9-1, 6-1) travel to Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth at 6:30 p.m. Friday to play No. 18 TCU (9-2, 6-2). It’s going to be one very intense building. And some things will be said about each side that just aren’t very nice. The series record – Baylor leads 52-51-7 – still blows me away that it is that tight.
But then again when you look at the last two meetings, Baylor has won each by three points (41-38 and 61-58) and needed to make plays in the final moments in order to pull those off. Then again, you don't worry about style points when it comes to this game. You just need to make sure you have more.
Now a word of warning. This is not the way Baylor wants to catch TCU. The Horned Frogs are no longer in the running for either the national championship or the Big 12 titles. Their fate is sealed. They won’t have wide receiver Josh Doctson who is missing this game with a wrist injury. It probably was a foolish move for the TCU staff to play Doctson against Kansas when it was clear he should not have been out there.
Whether or not TCU coach Gary Patterson will have quarterback Trevone Boykin is anybody’s guess. With ankle sprains, they heal at their own rate. If you’re Baylor you have to prepare for this one like Boykin will work his way back into the lineup. Of course, this program now has two games worth of film on backups Foster Sawyer and Bram Kohlhausen to understand their tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of Boykin’s status, it would hard to think of him being able to play similar to what we saw in September and October when he was mobile and free to use his legs when needed. If he gets out there and moves and takes one hit, then he could meet the same fate as Baylor’s Jarrett Stidham did.
And speaking of beat up Baylor, that QB situation isn’t exactly in a position of strength either. The way Stidham was moving throughout the night in Stillwater (or wasn’t moving at the end of the first quarter) doesn’t give you the confidence that he will have the opportunity to contribute much to Friday’s affair. Art Briles said after the game that Stidham was dealing with hand, ankle and back problems and “isn’t doing real good.’’ I have a hard time believing that Stidham is going to see a snap unless there’s a Willis Reed moment. You have to expect that this will be backup Chris Johnson’s game to play.
Now, I get euphoria over Johnson’s performance. But now the reality of working this week and going through the short week and a game plan is different. Now there’s film out on him. Johnson reacted well to a 24-14 lead in Stillwater. Maybe the most important play for him and this team was on the first possession. Baylor is facing a 3rd-and-8 at its 21-yard line. Johnson drops back and then takes off for 10 yards to keep the possession going. It finalizes in his perfectly-placed 39-yard touchdown strike to Jay Lee. Everyone in green and gold exhaled.
But let’s be honest, Johnson didn’t finish the game from a passing standpoint very well. He was 4-of-5 to start and then finished 1-of-5 and threw an ill-advised interception. So there’s stuff to work on if he’s the guy this week. He’s still really raw. That’s why he’s never emerged past the third string. That’s why he was moved to wide receiver when the season began. That’s why when Baylor recruited him, his head coach at Bryan Ross Rogers said everybody needed to be patient with him.
Maybe Johnson has a finish a la to Ohio State’s Cardale Jones last year. Anything is possible. The games this late in the year always feature wild finishes.
****
I can’t do this entry justice without talking about Gary Patterson. First off, he’s a really good coach. You don’t have the kind of success that he’s had in his 15 seasons because you just lucked your way into it. His program has won some very big games. I think back to winning at Oklahoma in 2005, winning at Clemson and beating Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
Patterson loves to play to you’re not wanted here card with his program because TCU has had to work itself up from that position ever since it was left out of the Big 12 in 1996. But his staff get players who buy into that and play their butts off for him. That’s a fact.
Where Patterson falls short is that when he leaves it on his sleeve, it gets him into trouble. Now, we understand there is no love between the Baylor coaching staff and the TCU coaching staff. There never has been. There never will be.
Obviously, I think back to his postgame presser in 2013 following the Baylor win at Amon Carter. Patterson went off on Ahmad Dixon who was ejected following the targeting penalty against then-WR Trevone Boykin. Now, Dixon wasn’t smart in the way he handled it. Patterson was worse because of the way he handled it. I get Patterson’s frustration. It just wasn’t good. And I’m ripped him for it on a couple of radio stations.
A national television audience will be watching and appreciating why this rivalry ranks in the top three nationally with Michigan-Ohio State and Alabama-Auburn. In my opinion, Baylor-TCU has passed Texas-Oklahoma.
As much as this rivalry is heated and that fans from both sides would rather stick a fork in their eye before they pull for the other – see the vandalism on each other’s campus in October – the two sides need each other.
Baylor needs TCU to be good. TCU needs Baylor to be good. That’s when it’s at its best.
The countdown to Friday continues.
****
Some other thoughts….
>Now, that Sachse WR and Rivals 100 prospect Devin Duvernay is in the fold, I expect this finish to the 2016 recruiting class to focus on the defense. At 17 commitments, Baylor probably needs about 3-4 more to finish this class. I would expect two more defensive linemen, one more defensive back/athlete and another offensive lineman.
Some people didn’t want to believe me about Duvernay committing to Baylor. But everything just pointed to him coming here. Actually, I thought it was too easy to predict. And I’m not just saying this because it’s after the fact. All of the signs were there.
>Sorry to see Paul Rhoads at Iowa State get fired. But you could see that coming when the Cyclones became bowl ineligible with the 35-31 loss to Oklahoma State. Then there was the meltdown at Kansas State. He was in trouble this year.
>This might be the most volatile coaching turnover season I think I’ve ever witnessed. I think we’re at 13 Division I moves and the season hasn’t even finished. But remember this all got started before the season began when Illinois fired Tim Beckman after it was learned he wasn’t treating his players very well. Actually, one position was filled when Minnesota took the interim tag of Tracy Claeys and gave him a three-year contract.
Now, there are reports that LSU and Les Miles are discussing an exit strategy. Virginia is probably going to make a move. We’re going to have to watch what Bill Snyder does at Kansas State. He is 76. Colorado could make a move. Can Gus Malzahn survive another year at Auburn? They are bowl eligible but they’re last in the SEC West.
We could get up to 30 moves before we reach Dec. 31. But one of those won’t be in Waco. When the Texas talk died two years ago, that was it. That guy isn’t going anywhere. Neither is his son.
>What I do hope will happen is that former assistant Dino Babers gets an opportunity. He’s done a great job at Bowling Green and has the Falcons in the MAC Championship game. His name is connected with the Missouri opening.
>It may or may not be too early for Philip Montgomery at Tulsa to make a move but you never know. In his first year, he’s going to get the Golden Hurricane into a bowl in his first year. That team is 5-6 and plays at very beatable Tulane on Saturday.
>As much as people around here may still sting from the Cotton Bowl loss to Michigan State, thanks are in order for what Sparty did on Saturday in Columbus. The 17-14 win at Ohio State opened the door for a lot of teams to get back into the college football playoffs. I see where several “experts” have Michigan State in the top three. I’m not going there. We have two weeks before we really know where this is going. Well, it might take three. The Army-Navy game is Dec. 12 so the Midshipmen may have a say in getting into one of those Big 6 bowls from the other five conferences. So we may have to wait until Dec. 13 until we really know.
I do think Baylor can probably jump back into the 5-7 range when Tuesday’s list is released. The committee is going to have to look at that win at Oklahoma State given this team’s circumstances and be impressed. And Oklahoma State was much healthier than Baylor. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
>Have to admit the Cowboys look like a different team when Tony Romo is back in there. I bet they pull off the upset of Carolina on Thanksgiving. Anyone like his first pass? He’s in the end zone with the rain coming down hard. Miami defenders are in his face. In order to avoid a safety, he flips the ball with his left hand to Darren McFadden who nearly gets a first down out of it.
>Nice to see my Vikings once again implode against Green Bay, 30-13, thanks to a zillion penalties and a killer Adrian Peterson fumble. The record in the last 12 meetings is 1-10-1. That’s not very good. Oh they have to go to Atlanta on Sunday.
****
Now to other Baylor sports (Basketball won’t be included here)
>Baylor women's cross country junior Maggie Montoya placed 86th at the NCAA Championships Saturday at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, KY.
Montoya completed the 6,000-meter course in 20:45.9, improving on her time from the 2014 NCAA Championships by over four seconds (20:49.96). However, Montoya dropped from 44th last year to 86th in 2015.
The indoor track season begins Jan. 16.
>The Baylor volleyball team (16-12, 4-10 Big 12) fell to the 5th-ranked Texas Longhorns (23-2, 13-1 Big 12) on Wednesday at the Gregory Gymnasium, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21. A season-high 12 service errors and a 10-5 blocking deficit proved to be too much for the Bears to overcome, playing in front of a packed house.
Baylor faces Iowa State on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.
>The Baylor equestrian team (7-1, 2-1 Big 12) picked up a big 10-7 road win over the No. 10 SMU Mustangs (2-5, 1-1 UEC) on Friday at the Sleepy P Ranch. Baylor pauses for the winter break, picking back up with the spring schedule on Jan. 30, 2016 at Auburn in Auburn, Alabama
Let’s make it a great week!
Last edited:
