I hear talk of "give Rhule three years" Or "four years and he'll git er done."
Dear friends, as cheerful as it sounds, that is not reality.
As most of could point out, I attended my first Baylor game in Forth Worth in a driving rain, in 1955, at the age of six and watched Jim Swink and his Texas Christian Horny Toads run it up our ass all afternoon long. I've been attending every year since and for the most part it hasn't gotten any better.
Oh, there have been some bright spots along the way. Del Shofner and company beating the Tennessee Volunteers at the Sugar Bowl on January 1st, 1957. I wasn't there but my folks were. Dad said the Baptists hit New Orleans with the Ten Commandments and a ten-dollar bill and didn't break either one.
Bridgers early years with Trull, Elkins, Ronny Goodwin, Ronny Bull, Bobby Green, et al. I was a student in the twilight of Bridgers' career and always thought he could have done better with a little more in the way of money and facilities. All of my classmates were recruited by Bridgers. By then Baylor regents had given up on John.
Then came Bill Beall. Baylor hired him on the cheap ($27,000 per year). He was recommended by almost nobody. The best thing that could be said about him by his two former college bosses (Jess Neely at Rice and Charlie McLendon at LSU) was that he was always on time to practices. (that is no lie.) He was hired by a faculty committee who said he looked very organized because he made neat looking notebooks. And he attended church regularly. Baylor got just what they paid for.
He was 0-10 his first year. He won two games his second year. He won one game his third year. The only positive thing he did was bring Roger Goree to Baylor and he turned out to be the toughest player ever to wear a Baylor uniform. Beall had been Roger's little league baseball coach. Many thanks for that, Bill.
The BOR hired a coach from New Mexico named Rudy Feldman to replace him Fortunately for Rudy and Baylor he decided not to fly to Waco to take the job.
Athletic Director Jack Patterson called up a guy from Snyder and McMurry who was coaching ball over at San Angelo named Grant Teaff. Teaff was mainly a motivational speaker and he spoke at every schoolhouse, church, Rotary Club and Cub Scout meeting within fifty miles of Waco the first year he was here.
The rest of the story is history and Baylor became a team you depend on to at least be in the game for the next 21 seasons. Life was pretty good. He'd make you pull your hair out, but by God, we always had a chance to win the dadgum ball game.
Then we began wandering in the wilderness. Again, the regents got cheap. Nobody could match Teaff's optimistic program. Add em up, here. Tell me how many years the Bears wandered in the desert.
Ground Chuck Reedy -4
Dirty Dave Roberts -2
Kevin Steals -4
Nice Guy Morriss -5
Then Briles part 1 -4
____
19 mostly sh*tty years. Sad years, suffering years of more blowouts than I care to remember. Talk about throwing good money after bad. But we loved Baylor
and we believed so we kept the faith and kept spending the money.
.
Then Art Briles caught fire with RG III. It was sweet till his ride came to an end. Us old guys knew it couldn't last but we all hoped it was last longer than it did. And when it all went down, it went down in flames.
So here we are. Back on the corner again. Back where we've always been. Back where we belong.
So Matt Rhule is the new messiah.
Excuse me, but a bunch of us old timers feel like we've met this guy before. Nineteen years was the pattern this time. Nineteen years when it wasn't any fun to be a Baylor Bear fan. Most of you can't even imagine how bad it got in those years. Our golden days have been few and far between.
So, Baylor fans we give you Matt Rhule. I'm sure he is a beautiful guy. A hale fellow well-met. Sunday school teacher, part-time preacher. Family Guy. Teller of inspirational half-time tales. Tougher than a junk-yard dog.
But can the man coach? So far his coaching exhibition shows me that he is bull-headed and unable to adapt to the type of players he inherited. He apparently has the support of his AD and regents to ignore his talent and break them down into some sort of Penn State and B1G model or be damned trying. If that's what he is, then our AD and regents did a piss-poor job of evaluting this young man.
He has found himself at the rock-bottom of a conference where you must score forty points a game or you don't win ANY games.
And right now that's where he is dragging Baylor.
The worst part is, I find myself closing my eyes while he speaks and thinking that I am listening to one Kevin Steele. Same bs. same rap. same, the Good Lord, same building character, same let's take it down so we can build it back up.
This ain't gonna get no better folks. If you are buying this boy's process you've just signed on for 18 more years of wandering the wilderness. We older guys have read this book and seen this movie.
It will not get better anytime soon.
Pay him off and send him back where he came from. Baylor will be better off in the long run.
There has to be somebody that can coach this football team better than this.
Dear friends, as cheerful as it sounds, that is not reality.
As most of could point out, I attended my first Baylor game in Forth Worth in a driving rain, in 1955, at the age of six and watched Jim Swink and his Texas Christian Horny Toads run it up our ass all afternoon long. I've been attending every year since and for the most part it hasn't gotten any better.
Oh, there have been some bright spots along the way. Del Shofner and company beating the Tennessee Volunteers at the Sugar Bowl on January 1st, 1957. I wasn't there but my folks were. Dad said the Baptists hit New Orleans with the Ten Commandments and a ten-dollar bill and didn't break either one.
Bridgers early years with Trull, Elkins, Ronny Goodwin, Ronny Bull, Bobby Green, et al. I was a student in the twilight of Bridgers' career and always thought he could have done better with a little more in the way of money and facilities. All of my classmates were recruited by Bridgers. By then Baylor regents had given up on John.
Then came Bill Beall. Baylor hired him on the cheap ($27,000 per year). He was recommended by almost nobody. The best thing that could be said about him by his two former college bosses (Jess Neely at Rice and Charlie McLendon at LSU) was that he was always on time to practices. (that is no lie.) He was hired by a faculty committee who said he looked very organized because he made neat looking notebooks. And he attended church regularly. Baylor got just what they paid for.
He was 0-10 his first year. He won two games his second year. He won one game his third year. The only positive thing he did was bring Roger Goree to Baylor and he turned out to be the toughest player ever to wear a Baylor uniform. Beall had been Roger's little league baseball coach. Many thanks for that, Bill.
The BOR hired a coach from New Mexico named Rudy Feldman to replace him Fortunately for Rudy and Baylor he decided not to fly to Waco to take the job.
Athletic Director Jack Patterson called up a guy from Snyder and McMurry who was coaching ball over at San Angelo named Grant Teaff. Teaff was mainly a motivational speaker and he spoke at every schoolhouse, church, Rotary Club and Cub Scout meeting within fifty miles of Waco the first year he was here.
The rest of the story is history and Baylor became a team you depend on to at least be in the game for the next 21 seasons. Life was pretty good. He'd make you pull your hair out, but by God, we always had a chance to win the dadgum ball game.
Then we began wandering in the wilderness. Again, the regents got cheap. Nobody could match Teaff's optimistic program. Add em up, here. Tell me how many years the Bears wandered in the desert.
Ground Chuck Reedy -4
Dirty Dave Roberts -2
Kevin Steals -4
Nice Guy Morriss -5
Then Briles part 1 -4
____
19 mostly sh*tty years. Sad years, suffering years of more blowouts than I care to remember. Talk about throwing good money after bad. But we loved Baylor
and we believed so we kept the faith and kept spending the money.
.
Then Art Briles caught fire with RG III. It was sweet till his ride came to an end. Us old guys knew it couldn't last but we all hoped it was last longer than it did. And when it all went down, it went down in flames.
So here we are. Back on the corner again. Back where we've always been. Back where we belong.
So Matt Rhule is the new messiah.
Excuse me, but a bunch of us old timers feel like we've met this guy before. Nineteen years was the pattern this time. Nineteen years when it wasn't any fun to be a Baylor Bear fan. Most of you can't even imagine how bad it got in those years. Our golden days have been few and far between.
So, Baylor fans we give you Matt Rhule. I'm sure he is a beautiful guy. A hale fellow well-met. Sunday school teacher, part-time preacher. Family Guy. Teller of inspirational half-time tales. Tougher than a junk-yard dog.
But can the man coach? So far his coaching exhibition shows me that he is bull-headed and unable to adapt to the type of players he inherited. He apparently has the support of his AD and regents to ignore his talent and break them down into some sort of Penn State and B1G model or be damned trying. If that's what he is, then our AD and regents did a piss-poor job of evaluting this young man.
He has found himself at the rock-bottom of a conference where you must score forty points a game or you don't win ANY games.
And right now that's where he is dragging Baylor.
The worst part is, I find myself closing my eyes while he speaks and thinking that I am listening to one Kevin Steele. Same bs. same rap. same, the Good Lord, same building character, same let's take it down so we can build it back up.
This ain't gonna get no better folks. If you are buying this boy's process you've just signed on for 18 more years of wandering the wilderness. We older guys have read this book and seen this movie.
It will not get better anytime soon.
Pay him off and send him back where he came from. Baylor will be better off in the long run.
There has to be somebody that can coach this football team better than this.
I'm a Bearbacker
