I wanted to do a little dive into the 2015 season. I know, I know, it's already been talked about before but I'm bored so humor me.

Before Seth Russell got hurt the offense was averaging 61 points, 347 passing and 338 rushing yards per game. They averaged 32.8 points, 221 passing and 314 rushing yards per game after the injury.
Before the injury they averaged 5 passing and 3.28 rushing td's per game. After the injury they averaged 1.5 passing and 3 rushing td's per game.

This can be taken with a slight grain of salt as their historic numbers early on in the season were going to go down some eventually as they reached the back half of the schedule.

Players that left the program that could have contributed:

Robbie Rhodes, Trevon Armstead on offense
Javonte Magee, Sam Ukwuachu on defense.

This one is interesting because if they had all stayed they would have almost all been Juniors or seniors and had experience. I feel like Rhodes was due for 1000 yds and 10 td's at some point. Trevon was so unique because he was a former o-lineman who was athletic and converted to tight end. I know Art Briles didn't use tight ends much in the passing game but he had a lot of potential to be a threat in that area. Nonetheless l, he was basically an extra offensive lineman at 6'6 275.

I don't know if Ukwuachu would have contributed much that year but Magee would have provided good depth at defensive tackle.

I'll never forget sitting there at the ut game in Waco watching us stink it up early on and then Art goes to the Wild Cat formation and we start moving the ball. Come out second half moving the ball and then for whatever reason start trying to throw it and we stall out. I still believe had CAB stuck with the Wild Cat we would've beat Texas. Hated losing worse in those days than now. Guess I've gotten used to it.

ImABearToo said:

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I'll never forget sitting there at the ut game in Waco watching us stink it up early on and then Art goes to the Wild Cat formation and we start moving the ball. Come out second half moving the ball and then for whatever reason start trying to throw it and we stall out. I still believe had CAB stuck with the Wild Cat we would've beat Texas. Hated losing worse in those days than now. Guess I've gotten used to it.

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That Johnny hefferson fumble that was a guaranteed TD in the 2nd half kept Art Out of losing the sugar bowl

That was a tough loss to a very bad Texas team. Knocked us out of the Sugar Bowl. I was pissed Briles was running the read option with our third team QB and then he proceeded to get knocked out of the game.

We learned a couple of things that day. Lynx Hawthorne had the heart of a lion and the arm of Taylor Swift. Johnny Jefferson was an amazing talent. A shame his demons kept him from achieving bigger and better things after his record-breaking bowl performance. I wonder what he is doing today? Hope he was able to turn things around.

Had no idea that would be the last game ever for Art Briles at McLane Stadium.

That Texas game had some great moments despite the frustrations and disappointing ending:



Here are a selection of clips of drives and individual plays highlighting some of the games best moments:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOHY_E1BcinqcuEFD6ep52IJ5FfcIvZ2f&si=873L-dZC2D5u099g

Our Daily Bears did this article. You can Google it.
J Squared: The Johnny Jefferson Story
By Andrew Miner on Feb 6, 2017, 7:06pm CST 1

FYI: Andrew Minor is one of the guys behind The Sign (he's the one holding it in this pic):

Cool. Man I hope I live long enough to see Baylor football be as much fun again as it was back during Art's time. Closest it's come was the streak in 2019 and of course 2021. But even then it wasn't exciting, although winning close games kept it fun.

Agreed

I trust the "all knowing" powers that be were sensing the pressure to put a similar product on the field by next season. They've made such a big deal of "going back to the uptempo spread offense" and "the coaches have watched BU game film from 2012-2015." Maybe it's pandering in hopes of luring those that abandoned BU football post CAB but for sure they heard the cry from us minions and made sure to position the changes as "a return to what made us great." Honestly, anything other than a Grimes style of offense gets my attention. That was gosh dang awful and hard to sit through. Tx St came to Waco last year and I for one wanted us to buy them out and replace what we had with their players, coaches and offensive style. I'll be in the stands for the legendary match up with Tarlton State with the hope for a return to greatness for the Bears.

O-line depth:

Starters- Spencer drango, Blake Muir, Kyle fuller, Jarrell Broxton and Patrick Colbert.

Back-ups- Maurice Porter, Desmine Hilliard, Blake Blackmar (freshman),

Players who didn't play much (if I remember correctly) - Sean Muir, Rami Hammad, Dom Desouza and Patrick Lawrence

I think that Blake Blackmar was one of the back ups at guard with his size at 6'5 345 lbs.
The other secret to this was that they had 2 tight ends that were actually extra o-lineman in Mcgowan at 6'7 410 lbs. and potentially Armstead at 6'6 275 lbs.

That's the equivalent of about 10 o-lineman that could play if you include the tight ends. Sheesh.

Kaz building that size and strength. What a program.

Defensive line depth:

Starters - Jamal Palmer, Andrew billings and Shawn Oakman

Rotational players - Beau Blackshear, KJ Smith

Back-ups - Brian Nance, Byron Bonds

Potential depth players - Javontee Magee, Sam Ukwuachu

If I remember right they played a mix of 3-4 and 4-3 so you might add Blackshear as a co-starter depending on formation.

It's still incredible to think of the depth they could have had with palmer, oakman, Smith and Ukwuachu at DE. Then Billings, Blackshear and Magee at DT. That would have been a top 15 d-line group.

Wide receiver:

Starters - Corey Coleman, Jay Lee, Kd cannon

Backups - lynx Hawthorne, chris Platt, Ishmael zamora, davion hall, quan jones

Potential player - robbie rhodes

Corey coleman through the first 8 games averaged 147 yds and 2.5 td's per game. He averaged closer to 50 yds and no td's the last 4 games. It's incredible the pace he was on through those 8 games.

I still wonder what it would look like if Robbie Rhodes would have been on this team. If he got close to reaching his potential then who do you stop on offense?

Jay lee had 758 yds and 8 tds. He averaged 14 yds and no td's the last 3 games. KD cannon had 868 yds and 6 td's. He averaged 31 yds and no td's the last 3 games.

Jay lee was on pace for 900 yds and 10 td's.
Kd was on pace for 1000 yds and 8 td's.

Corey Coleman had 1362 yds and 20 td's. He was on pace for 1700 yds and 30 td's.

Seth Russell. Through 7 games he led all FBS quarterbacks with 29 passing td's. That's basically 4 passing td's per game. The secret sauce that made him absolutely lethal was his running ability. He had 402 yds and 6 td's. He also averaged 10.5 yds passing per attempt and 8.2 rushing yds per attempt.

He was on pace for about 4000 yds and 53 td's passing. He also was on pace for over 700 yds and 11 td's rushing.

ImABearToo said:

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I'll be in the stands for the legendary match up with Tarlton State with the hope for a return to greatness for the Bears.

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LOL!!! Yep, the college football aficionados across the nation have this one marked on their calendars.

Yes. He was averaging 5 td's per game. The only knock statistically was his completion percentage, but that was taken down by the Iowa State game in which he had a 43% completion rate. That took him down to 59% on the year. If you exclude that game he was at 64%.

Johnny Jefferson sealed his legendary status in the RAB.

Tight ends.

Laquan Mcgowan was described by Art Briles as a "slot receiver." What he really was, was a 410 pound extra o-lineman that earned big 12 honors as a blocker that year.

Gus Penning had to step up when Trevon Armstead was kicked off the team. He did a solid all around job as a blocker and receiver when called upon if I remember correctly.

Trevon Armstead. I looked back on an article by Our Daily Bears and they hinted that Trevon was going to be a significant part of the passing offense that year from practice reports. I always felt like a legit threat on the short to intermediate routes over the middle of the field was the only thing missing from the Briles offense.

Just for fun, I think he would have had around 400 yds and 5 td's.

Laquan, bigger than life!