Last year was a flyer. No one had any idea the staff would be as dysfunctional as it was. I don't expect to see the type of play we saw last year for three reasons: O line had no clue of assignments (apparently) and questionable technic even if the effort was there; WR play was non-existent in terms of routes, separation, blocking (maybe it was lack of passion/effort?); a full spring with new staff, even with Covid disruptions. Thats all due to the new staff being on the same page as well as teaching these guys what is expected and needed. That said, I'd guess 6 wins as a floor. If the D plays like I believe it will, and Grimes, Bell and Mateos continue to make progress with the O, these guys could be pretty dangerous the last half of the season, even without great QB play.
Expectations for Baylor football
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Last: 2 yr ago by Oldgrizzly
GET 6Baylor Pride said:
6-6
I remember after Rhule's first 1-11 season he said we will "absolutely" be going to a bowl game next year. Damn if he didn't make that shizz happen.
"" Not one to shy away from his prediction, Rhule handed Verkedrick Vaughns an award at the Green & Gold game and said, "He will lead our defense this fall as we go to a bowl game together.""
We went 6-6 and beat Vandy in the bowl game for our 7th win.
"" Not one to shy away from his prediction, Rhule handed Verkedrick Vaughns an award at the Green & Gold game and said, "He will lead our defense this fall as we go to a bowl game together.""
We went 6-6 and beat Vandy in the bowl game for our 7th win.
Last year was a freak covid year for a new coach and staff. Limited practice and games. Looking for 8 to 9 wins. Oklahoma will be the team to beat. Nobody else scares me.
My bad Proud 1992 Alum. Not enough sunshine for ya? Here you go, Baylor football has been nothing but all rainbow ice cream since 1992......Proud 1992 Alum said:
Zun & Timbear should ride off into the sunset together with all their negativity and bogus claims.
Baylor sports, except for football, are going great, even fantastic, and football should be winning again soon. My comment was based on a growing unwritten expectation that all coaches should be outspoken about their faith, not just be Believers. Every coach is different. We have many fans who don't care if our teams place a priority on winning as long as the coach gives a good personal testimony.
MrGolfguy said:
Making a bowl game should be the minimum expectation and there are 6 winnable games on the schedule (2 non-conf plus some combo of BYU, KU, Tech, KSU, Tcu, WVU). There is also a slim possibility BU snags an upset win over someone they're not supposed to beat (if that team also has an off-night).
Well said! My thinking exactly.
historian said:MrGolfguy said:
Making a bowl game should be the minimum expectation and there are 6 winnable games on the schedule (2 non-conf plus some combo of BYU, KU, Tech, KSU, Tcu, WVU). There is also a slim possibility BU snags an upset win over someone they're not supposed to beat (if that team also has an off-night).
Well said! My thinking exactly.
In my view we start the season with three wins. Two non conference and Kansas. If we lose against Kansas next year with their nee first year coach something has gone so wrong that we need to shut the university down and start over with a different name.
That means we have to win three out of those winnable ones you mention. How can we not say Texas and Iowa st are potentially winnable at this point. When is the last time we haven't been in the game with those two and we have rare chance to improve more next year than either of them because of how bad our offense was.
I read your post as saying that Baylor coaches could suck at coaching as long as they are outspoken about their faith. I hope that is not the case. I don't see any evidence that it is the case. I do see evidence that Mack takes seriously the athletic department's goal to create champions for life - meaning developing student athletes in their sport, academics, character and life skills, and faith. It is actually amazing to see a college sports program follow through with its rhetoric. I couldn't be prouder of my Bears.
I wish I were as optimistic about our fortunes in football as I am in MBB, WBB and other sports. I see a 5-7 team at its absolute best, a 3-9 team at its worst, and a most likely outcome of 4-8 that goes 2-7 in the Big 12.
We'll have a really good defense comparatively speaking, but a god awful offensive line and marginal skill position players will leave that defense on the field way too much, resulting in weaker overall defensive numbers than we posted last year. I am confident in Grimes' ability to evenutally get the offense straightened out in a couple of years, but for now it will be as painful to watch as it was last year. Probably even more painful given the inexperience at QB when paired with that horrendous offensive line.
We'll have a really good defense comparatively speaking, but a god awful offensive line and marginal skill position players will leave that defense on the field way too much, resulting in weaker overall defensive numbers than we posted last year. I am confident in Grimes' ability to evenutally get the offense straightened out in a couple of years, but for now it will be as painful to watch as it was last year. Probably even more painful given the inexperience at QB when paired with that horrendous offensive line.
So essentially the offense is about where it was the day we hired Briles it sounds depressingly like, well except we had a decent OL that Morriss had built up.
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
Agreed. If we had bad even the third or fourth worst offense in the league last year we would have likely beaten the two best teams in the big 12 (ou and iowa st). This year I like grimes chances to get us much closer to the middle of the pack in offense and our defense will be near the top barring something very unforeseen. That doesn't make us a big 12 favorite but it should portend a lot of close games.
One or two big 12 teams will likely be decimated by injuries like happens every year (which of course could be Baylor as well), so you never know when an "unwinnable" game can suddenly become winnable. Maybe ou, Iowa st, tcu or ok st loses their starting qb before they play us - odds are at least one won't play the whole year if it more.
Going into 2019 basically no one thought we would be in the big 12 title game. You never know how the season will unfold.
And everyone needs to remember we start the year with three wins this year so only need three more to get bowl eligible.
The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
Briles was ramping up the talent from recruiting though...had things not turned out the way it did, his 2016 and 2017 class would have been a doozies probably top 20 classes. And who knows from there.
Jorkel said:The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
Briles was ramping up the talent from recruiting though...had things not turned out the way it did, his 2016 and 2017 class would have been a doozies probably top 20 classes. And who knows from there.
What I'm getting at is that the talent we had on the 2013 and 2014 teams was largely composed of recruiting classes that were ranked in the mid-40s on average, and that level of talent is much more capable than the four or five win predictions I'm seeing
Briles could do way more with less talent than, well, most any coach. That was his thing.The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
I'm looking for a bowl game this year and a big jump in Year 3. That's a pretty typical progression for a successful coach who wasn't handed the keys to an elite team/program.Bear8084 said:Timbear said:
I thought 8-10 wins until our Spring Game. 6-6 with a Bowl win would be great in Grimes first year.
Spring Games rarely show anything other than getting reps and polishing the different schemes of the offense and defense.
High of 8 wins, low of 6 wins give or take a Bowl victory.
I still don't think this was a rebuilding job after Rhule left and remain disappointed with our record in Year 1, but COVID was real and had a significant impact on our program and transition, and it took a mulligan to find an offensive coordinator/scheme that works for what for we're trying to accomplish philosophically. Now that all that's behind us, we should see a really competitive product this year and a really good one next year.
Robert Wilson said:Briles could do way more with less talent than, well, most any coach. That was his thing.The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
Man, his offenses were firenze'd!
I'll see myself out.
Ewalker80 said:historian said:MrGolfguy said:
Making a bowl game should be the minimum expectation and there are 6 winnable games on the schedule (2 non-conf plus some combo of BYU, KU, Tech, KSU, Tcu, WVU). There is also a slim possibility BU snags an upset win over someone they're not supposed to beat (if that team also has an off-night).
Well said! My thinking exactly.
In my view we start the season with three wins. Two non conference and Kansas. If we lose against Kansas next year with their nee first year coach something has gone so wrong that we need to shut the university down and start over with a different name.
That means we have to win three out of those winnable ones you mention. How can we not say Texas and Iowa st are potentially winnable at this point. When is the last time we haven't been in the game with those two and we have rare chance to improve more next year than either of them because of how bad our offense was.
Every game is a potential win but realistically we can expect some losses and several games could go either way depending on who our QB is, whether or not the OL can improve enough, whether or not the defense remains solid, etc.
The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
Absolutely, we can have 8+ wins this Fall. 2019 was special because of the 9-0 start, the great road wins (especially Stillwater), beating Texas the way we did, going to the conference title game, the first half against OU, & so on. But we have to be honest: we had some lucky breaks & several wins were very close & were almost losses (ISU, Tech, WVU & even Rice seemed dicey for awhile). Despite the great record, it was not the same as 2013-2015.
Robert Wilson said:Briles could do way more with less talent than, well, most any coach. That was his thing.The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
The briles era recruits were typically weighted more toward offensive talent. We got to the top few in the conference in offensive talent. Finding Rg3 obviously jump started everything and Kendall Wright was a huge early find. The defensive recruiting always lagged behind although they got a few big ones at the end. Andrew Billings and Ahmad and a few big ones were coming before all you know what. You know what it's still painful to think about how good they could have been after all these years.
historian said:The Hound said:
We won 11 games two years ago. Not sure where all this negativity is coming from. We aren't Kansas. And BTW, our recruiting has been pretty consistent with what we saw under briles. You can't look at Briles 2014 and 2015 classes and try to act like that was par for him. 6-8 wins is very doable this year.
Absolutely, we can have 8+ wins this Fall. 2019 was special because of the 9-0 start, the great road wins (especially Stillwater), beating Texas the way we did, going to the conference title game, the first half against OU, & so on. But we have to be honest: we had some lucky breaks & several wins were very close & were almost losses (ISU, Tech, WVU & even Rice seemed dicey for awhile). Despite the great record, it was not the same as 2013-2015.
Yes luck and mental toughness and cardiac Charlie.
I'm going 5-7. Maybe 4-8. Mainly due to the huge uncertainty of the qb position and the new offensive scheme.
Defense is a 8.5 on a 1 to 10 scale and if offense is a 6 or 6.5 then we win 8 games or maybe 9.
12-0
Will our opponents wish they were back home again done up in turpentine?Quote:
12-0
Illigitimus non carborundum
Depends on how long it takes teams to put 8 in the box and force Gerry or Zeno to make throws. When opposing defenses start forcing our QBs to beat them with reads, timing and accuracy it isn't going to go well. Especially with a suspect OL.
Right now, we don't have a QB on campus that can beat elite teams with their arm. I hope the spring game was an anomaly and I am wrong.
Right now, we don't have a QB on campus that can beat elite teams with their arm. I hope the spring game was an anomaly and I am wrong.
Bruin92 said:
Depends on how long it takes teams to put 8 in the box and force Gerry or Zeno to make throws. When opposing defenses start forcing our QBs to beat them with reads, timing and accuracy it isn't going to go well. Especially with a suspect OL.
Right now, we don't have a QB on campus that can beat elite teams with their arm. I hope the spring game was an anomaly and I am wrong.
We don't need a qb to "beat anyone with his arm" next year to win a lot of games. We need to run the ball, control the clock, and make a few explosive plays. Our defense is going to carry the team and we just need the offense to compliment it. And by the way bohanon and Zeno have the arm talent to POTENTIALLY do that. We are not trying to be Texas Tech under leach or Baylor under briles. This is a defense first team, which can win.
Honest question....why do we feel our defense is going to be so good? Do we see a lot of improvement in the returning players? I know we have 1-2 transfers that we hope will add a lot of firepower. Is the D so dominant we expect them to win us some games on their own? I'm not saying the D won't be that good, just looking for some reasons why we are so hopeful. I'd love it if it happens!
Go watch the spring game. The defense looked like they were playing at half speed (they didn't need to go any faster) and still managed 3 INTs, a fumble, a safety, a couple of sacks, and kept the score low.Ghostrider said:
Honest question....why do we feel our defense is going to be so good? Do we see a lot of improvement in the returning players? I know we have 1-2 transfers that we hope will add a lot of firepower. Is the D so dominant we expect them to win us some games on their own? I'm not saying the D won't be that good, just looking for some reasons why we are so hopeful. I'd love it if it happens!
Ewalker80 said:Bruin92 said:
Depends on how long it takes teams to put 8 in the box and force Gerry or Zeno to make throws. When opposing defenses start forcing our QBs to beat them with reads, timing and accuracy it isn't going to go well. Especially with a suspect OL.
Right now, we don't have a QB on campus that can beat elite teams with their arm. I hope the spring game was an anomaly and I am wrong.
We don't need a qb to "beat anyone with his arm" next year to win a lot of games. We need to run the ball, control the clock, and make a few explosive plays. Our defense is going to carry the team and we just need the offense to compliment it. And by the way bohanon and Zeno have the arm talent to POTENTIALLY do that. We are not trying to be Texas Tech under leach or Baylor under briles. This is a defense first team, which can win.
Who will open holes for this running game with 8 men in the box? So you think teams simply saywe are going to run the ball this year..and it happens magically? You have to be strong up front to make that decision and you need a qb that can keep defenses somewhat honest.
Brewer couldn't even do that most of the time.
Understand, but we also have a new starting qb, new offensive scheme, etc that may have contributed to that. It just sounds like some think we may be the next 2011 Bama D.BayouCity said:Go watch the spring game. The defense looked like they were playing at half speed (they didn't need to go any faster) and still managed 3 INTs, a fumble, a safety, a couple of sacks, and kept the score low.Ghostrider said:
Honest question....why do we feel our defense is going to be so good? Do we see a lot of improvement in the returning players? I know we have 1-2 transfers that we hope will add a lot of firepower. Is the D so dominant we expect them to win us some games on their own? I'm not saying the D won't be that good, just looking for some reasons why we are so hopeful. I'd love it if it happens!
(1) at times the defense was very good last year, despite having to compensate for a D2 offense; the OU game is a prime example where we held them to lowest yard total in years even though our offense could barely get a first down; despite installing a new defense during covidGhostrider said:
Honest question....why do we feel our defense is going to be so good? Do we see a lot of improvement in the returning players? I know we have 1-2 transfers that we hope will add a lot of firepower. Is the D so dominant we expect them to win us some games on their own? I'm not saying the D won't be that good, just looking for some reasons why we are so hopeful. I'd love it if it happens!
(2) we're getting everyone back, including a healthy Terrell Bernard, Gabe Hall. Texada is in his 10th year with the program.
(3) we added a big-time transfer in Siaki Ika that finally let's them play they way they want up front.
(4) The Aranda/Roberts track records. Aranda considered one of top defensive minds in the country
(5) we're fans. We have to hope for something or this whole thing isn't any fun.
I think we will be ranked............................................in the top 75!
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