Football 2010

After the most impressive beatdown we gave to Kansas last week, it's hard not to feel ecstatic about the possibilities for this year. We are now sitting at 4-1, and 1-0 conference.

We seem to be improving each week, making great strides every time. I think Robert Griffin has gained back a huge amount of confidence in his knee, and the whole team is really clicking right now. I think his rushing will only get better as well!

I think we can take advantage of this year's timing. Think about this: Texas, Tech, and even Oklahoma have gone through changes with key players and/or coaches. Because of these changes, the Big 12 is probably the weakest it's been in a long time. We have been gaining momentum over the past couple of years. I think we can cause some damage this year while some of the marquee names of the conference are "re-loading." Now, what may take the smaller schools like us years to do, the big schools can reload quickly. But, could this be the year that the planets align for us? Can our timing be this perfect?

Maybe it's my green and gold glasses that are causing my biased vision. But... I seriously think we are going well beyond "bowl-eligible" this season. What has been frustratingly impossible over the past years in attempting to achieve the elusive 6 wins, I believe will be well surpassed. I'm looking at our schedule and seriously thinking we could go 8-4 this season. Dare I say, 9-3!?!

I don't think I'm crazy. Who would have thought that, at this point, we would have a better record than all of the other 3 TX/SWC schools? A&M maybe, Tech maybe, but even UT? Texas has not been impressive so far this year. I think we have a real good chance at beating them this year. It's in Austin, but I really think we can do it.

OK, I may be getting ahead of myself, but as I said above... it's hard not to feel ecstatic. After all, there's a lot of pent up emotions that have been suppressed since, well... the Grant Teaff years!

Altogether now... Sic 'em Bears!
Bill

Hello? Is this thing on?

Since it's been two YEARS since anyone made a post, I thought I would rev up the old "Sic 'em Bears" blog on the eve of the Baylor/tcu game.

It's always refreshing this time of year. A new school year. A new football season. I think it's great that we have a number of games versus old SWC rivals. It can't get any better than TCU. I would have to say that's been the biggest drawback of being in the Big 12. One of the oldest football rivalries in college sports (106th meeting), and this is only the 3rd time we have played them since the end of the SWC. That was 1996, right? Has it really been 14 years!?! Hard to believe.

I would love to say I can't wait to kick their butts, but Wow, they're #4 in the country! It's not going to be easy, that's for sure. I figure we will get beat, but never say never. How fun would it be to not only solidify our football comeback, but also to knock them out of National Championship contention in Week 3 of the season? I'll be happy if we can avoid embarrassing ourselves on national television. It hurts to admit that, but I'm also realistic.

Other random notes:
Did you see that Jeff Ireland just took over the GM spot for the Dolphins from Bill Parcells?

David Crowder just recorded a song for the 'Rise Up' football campaign. You can download it free on the Athletic Dept. website if you haven't done so already. It's a good song! How cool is that? What started as some motivational & marketing slogan has turned into something much larger. Go get the song now, you won't be disappointed!

Darryl Middleton will be inducted into this year's class of the Baylor Hall of Fame. That is cool, and not a surprise. What is very cool, and a huge surprise is that he is STILL playing in Europe!! Unbelievable! The guy should get a longevity record. I looked up his stats. I was expecting his numbers to be like 6 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist, etc. He has averaged like 26 minutes and he is putting up solid numbers. Very cool!

Sic 'em Bears!! Beat those Horny Toads!

Good Lord, what a schedule

So 3 good, solid wins against teams we were supposed to do well against. Excellent.

A disappointing loss to kick off the season against then- and still-ranked Wake Forest. A squeaker loss to Connecticut, who entered the rankings immediately following our game. And an expected blowout loss to then number 1 Oklahoma.

So strong 3-0 against unranked teams. A respectable 0-3 (and nearly 1-2) against ranked teams.

Sounds like the start of pretty decent season for the new coach, right?

But then you look ahead. #8 OK State, #11 Missouri, #1 Texas, and #7 Tech. Sheesh!

I mean, it's incredible that we've got 4 top ten teams IN OUR DIVISION, but makes it a little hard to be that team on the rise, don'tcha think? Find myself thinking that if we can beat Nebraska and the Aggies, I'd call 5-7 a phenomenal first season for the Briles era...

Anyone seen any strength-of-schedule rankings this year? We've just gotta be up there...

Quarter Mile U

So, just observing -- with Wariner and Merritt in the finals, we're set for the fourth straight olympic gold medal for Baylor in the 400m...

Another Title... oh yeah, and Basketball Too.

It's only been a 'short' 5 years since our basketball program had reached the lowest of any program in NCAA history. It makes it THAT much more unbelievable that we are now in the NCAA Tournament. In the tourney for the first time in 20 years! 20 years!! Sidenote: Does it sound just as impossible that it's been 20 years since we were in school at the time!?! That is probably a whole different entry for the blog. HaHa

Congratulations need to go out to Scott Drew for bringing us to levels that were rare even before the scandal. Now, we need to reward him and ourselves by locking him into a long-term contract extension for BIG money. He deserves it. We need to make sure we do like we did with Kim Mulkey to make sure he will be with us for another 10 years (hopefully longer).

I think, if we are clicking, we can seriously go past the 2nd round into the Sweet 16. If we play like we have been recently and shoot 30%, then it will be a quick exit. Either way... we have done better than anyone expected. Like I said two years ago, I figured this year we would make it into the NIT and then the NCAA not until next year. So, even being optimistic, I think we are still a year ahead of schedule of an amazing comeback. Hopefully, Jerrells decides to stay in school and comes back for his Senior year. Because he could legitimately go early into the Draft. Next year, we will be even better than we are this year. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? OK, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We just need to come out and play relaxed. If we do that, we can play a game that we are capable of playing. If that occurs, we can win at LEAST the next game. Sic 'em Bears!!


OK... let's not let all this Basketball coverage cause us to overlook the fact that the 4x400 Relay team won ANOTHER National Title. THREE in a row!! The Athletic Dept website has a good article. This is only the 4th time any school has ever won 3 in a row. And, YES, we were already one of those schools. So, we actually have 2 of those 4 times. I know everyone remembers it well, since we were in school at the time. We have the record with 5 in a row. Second best is 'only' three in a row. Well, now we have 3 and counting.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong... but, I believe we did it this time with a backup line-up, right? Quentin Iglehart-Summers didn't run. Is he still nursing injuries? He is probably our best runner (and only a Junior). So, this time it was with one Senior, 2 Sophomores, and a Freshman. We beat our own best time in the world for the year by more than one second. Hmmm... I smell number 4 coming!

Sic 'em Bears!!

The Art Briles Era

Well, I'm still not 100% sold, but I must admit, I did like what I saw in the press conference.

Taking Singletary out of the equation, I like what I see in Art Briles. I've been making posts along with reading a lot of them on various websites. It seems like there is a lot of opinions, pro and con, regarding Briles. Most of the people who seem to be familiar with Briles really think Baylor made a good move. Now, with that being said, I will still believe that Singletary should have been the one. I am holding Ian McCaw responsible for screwing it up. However, since we don't have a choice, I WILL get on the Briles Bandwagon.

He has come up through the ranks and been successful at each level. He took a Stephenville HS team that had not made the playoffs in 37 years to being a powerhouse. 4 Texas state championships in 12 years of coaching there. A UHouston team that only won 8 games in 3 years to a bowl game in his first year. It seems like he is a motivator, which is definitely what we need. He is a Christian, which of course, fits in at Baylor. But, it appears he does things clean and correctly.

Apparently, he is good at adapting to a team's strengths, not trying to fit square pegs into round holes. He is very offense-oriented, and does his own play calling. I think that one of the stats said he led a Houston team to have a 1,000 yard rusher, a 1,000 yd receiver, and a 3,000 yd passer on one team, which has never happened in the NCAA before. A multi-dimensional offense, no doubt. Houston was 4th in Offense this year.

Even though he may not have the 'Wow' factor that Singletary has, I guess he is a real good recruiter. That is something we probably need most of all. He is a former head of the Texas HS Coaches Assoc, and has a lot of respect among HS coaches throughout the state. He already has good in-roads for recruiting. One thing that I didn't realize until yesterday, is that this looks like it is going to be a package deal. Briles had a verbal commitment to UHouston from HS QB Robert Griffin. It was alluded to in the press conference, but without mentioning names. I guess he IS switching his commitment to Baylor now. Rivals has him as a 4-star recruit and has him listed as the #3 Dual-Threat QB in the country. That's COUNTRY, boys! Holy Crap! One of the best quarterbacks in the country coming to good 'ole BU. I liked what Szymanski did against the smaller teams, but he didn't do squat against the big boys. I don't think he is the answer. This Griffin kid could probably come in and start as a true Freshman.

So, to wrap up this 'short' post, I am starting to warm up to Briles. I will probably always have Singletary in the back of my mind. (I hope I never meet Ian McCaw since it will be too hard to resist telling him my opinion.) However, I do think we got the best of what was available. I think Briles WILL improve this team. I think he will be a good fit at Baylor. And, yes, I will be supportive of Briles. But, hopefully, he will surprise me and prove me wrong and take us to the Big 12 Championship. Always hoping!

Sic 'em Bears!

What the F#&@!?!

I can't believe the news I've been reading over the past few days. I figured Singletary would have had his press conference by now. Instead, we are wondering what has been going on. It's hard to know, exactly, what has been truth or rumor. But, it appears that they botched the job (IMHO). I have fired off e-mails and even made some posts. We need to be heard... and quickly.

I thought this summed up my opinion pretty well. The following is a post I made a few minutes ago on the Waco Trib's website:

"President John Lilley needs to step in and hire Mike Singletary. As far as I can see, I think Ian McCaw has done a fine job up until this point. But, let's face it, none of the winning coaches in other programs have been recruited and hired because of Ian McCaw. It appears that he has failed with Baylor's most important coaching position.

In my opinion, he has dropped the ball big-time with Mike Singletary. Here you have a respected alum that loves Baylor. He is a Christian. He WILL have the head job of an NFL team in the near future. He would vault us into the upper elite as far as recruiting. He is a motivational speaker (something our team could really use right now)! He would make fund-raising for the university a MUCH easier job for everyone from President Lilley to the Athletic Department to the Alumni Association.

I am trying to figure out how Ian McCaw has failed to have Singletary hired by now. Singletary has a love for Baylor and it's football program and even has one of his own sons playing on the team already! Hiring Mike should be like trying to get a hungry dog to take a cookie. Ian McCaw couldn't even get it done in a 5 HOUR meeting!

Alumni, donors, and fans of all ages are getting fed up with mediocre results. President Lilley needs to step in before it's too late and we are stuck for another 5+ years and in a deeper rut."
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Well, that's my opinion. Other candidates? Art Briles: has done decent things in Houston and has a good recruiting base in Texas. I think he could bring us up to respectability, but not much further. Fedora: I think he has done good things at Oklahoma State. He already recruits Texas and he was an assistant coach here at Baylor in the 1990's. Houston Nutt: Oops, too late. Patterson at TCU: he won't move over. Tommy Bowden: why would he even consider?

I think they need to start kissing Singletary's a$$. Ian McCaw shouldn't try to dictate how Singletary coaches. He should just hire him and get out of the way. Hopefully, it's not too late.