Six starts into career, turnovers can't define Zach Smith any longer

If he's ready to take the next step, Baylor's offense could be ready to take the entire team to the next level with eight games remaining in the 2017 season.

Through the first five starts of his college football career, Baylor sophomore quarterback Zach Smith had a knack for the deep ball, but he also had a knack for turning the football over at a rapid pace, including at least one interception in each of his first five starts.

Jim Black

Denzel Mims aided Smith's performance with 11 catches for 192 yards and three touchdowns.

In starts against Kansas State, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Boise State and Duke, the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder connected with the opposing team a total of 10 times, giving him an average of two interceptions in his five starts.

If you were a Baylor fan and question why Smith didn't open the season as Baylor's starting QB, there's your answer. Matt Rhule confirmed as much on Monday in the Big 12 Coaches Media Teleconference, saying "at the end of the day, the number one job for us as a quarterback is just not to turn the football over."

Baylor was forced to turn to Smith against Duke in the final non-conference game when grad transfer Anu Solomon failed to consistently move the chains and score points against UTSA, and though he found some success against the Blue Devils two weeks ago, the turnovers still plagued the Grandview prospect in his fifth start.

Turn the clock to 10 p.m. Saturday in Waco and the interception trend had come to an end and the buzz was no longer on Baylor's defensive unit. Instead, it was focused on Smith's dissection of No. 3 Oklahoma's defense from start to finish to the tune of 41 points and 523 yards, a unit that held a highly regarded Ohio State to 16 points and 350 yards.

The stats didn't come along with a win, unfortunately, but it signified Jeff Nixon and Glenn Thomas' offense was not in as much trouble as some might have thought.

Smith connected on 66-percent of his passes for 463 yards and 4 touchdowns. His only turnover of the game came in the final minutes when he was sacked and fumbled on third down as the Bears were hoping to tie the game after recovering an onside kick.

Despite personal feelings from aggravated Oklahoma fans, there was nothing fluky about the way Smith picked apart the Sooner secondary. It was a performance that even 2014 Bryce Petty would have been jealous of outside of the end result.

"The biggest thing would be protecting the football," Rhule said of why Smith wasn't awarded the starting job out of fall camp. "That was why Saturday was such a huge step other than the last play of the game. To throw the ball that many times and be accurate and protect the football, that’s what we’re kind of looking for from him. He’s a young guy so he’s learning it."

"To go out and play on that stage against that team and do that, that was something that didn’t happen in his first start the week before [against Duke] and that wasn’t always what we were looking for in the preseason. To do it now, hopefully he can build on that and continue to make the big plays without being careless with the football."

While moral victories shouldn't be accepted by a fanbase that has seen two Big 12 Championships come through in the last five seasons, it's hard to not at least be a little excited as both the offense and defense have shown significant signs of life despite the 0-4 start.

Led by Smith, the offense should be awarded credit in a sudden flip of momentum for Green and Gold faithful in terms of hope for the future.

"I thought he was fantastic," Matt Rhule said. "I thought he was courageous. He even ran it a couple of times on plays where, you know, we would hope he would just hand the ball off. I think he was just out there and playing, and I think he trusted his receivers."

The Bears controlled the clock in the game, holding onto the ball for 31:07. Making it impressive was the fact that the Bears couldn't find a consistent running game against the Sooners, forcing Smith to lead the way through the air and convert third downs, a major concern in games 1-3 where the Bears did so only seven times.

The offense converted 9-of-21 third downs Saturday.

"We were doing our best to keep Oklahoma off the field and I think he was just methodical in the way that he did a lot of those things," Rhule said.

The conversions were partially from Smith's own doing, but also a host of others stepping up their play, most specifically wide receiver Denzel Mims and the offensive line.

"One of our challenges to our team, is we challenged the team to allow (Smith) to play well," Rhule said. "Get him protected so he can throw the football and go catch the football in the air. I thought Denzel Mims and Tony Nicholson, and some of our other receivers really did that and enabled Zach to get comfortable and into a groove."

"But I think the biggest thing that I think I took away is that he is courageous and that he can make the big-time throw that a lot of people can’t make. He fit some balls in there that I haven’t seen a lot of people fit in. We just have to build on that. I’m proud that he was protective of the ball, didn’t throw interceptions, wasn’t careless with the ball."

Smith's 33 completions in a game tie former Bears Shawn Bell and Robert Griffin III for the most completions in a single game and the 463 yards were the fourth-best performance by a Baylor quarterback in program history.

Jim Black

Zach Smith will start his seventh game against KSU on Saturday.

Though the bullet points on the resume are great, the drive behind Smith will be the fact that he is 1-5 as a starting quarterback for the Bears dating back to last season. The good news is that process which allowed him to get to the point of torching the Sooners will only be magnified moving forward.

"I think the other thing is he’s in (the facility) as much as we are as coaches," Rhule said. "He’s a film junkie, he’s gym rat. So, for that to pay off, I think that will only push him forward in that regard."

Baylor will need six wins in their next eight games to get back to a bowl game for an eighth-straight season, and though it seemed impossible roughly 72 hours ago, Smith's performance against the Sooners coupled with a small amount of new-found energy from the Baylor fan base might be just what is needed.

"I think you saw leadership from him and I just think execution," Rhule said. "At the end of the day, football is won and lost on the field by the players play and I just think he played really, really at a high level."

"That’s something I know he’s excited to build on."