Josh Hoover

Baylor lost a commitment from Pinson Valley (AL) High School quarterback Zach Pyron after he had been committed to the program for six months and became a leader for the class. Unfortunately these things happen but I am going to start off with my understanding of the situation and then I will talk a little bit about the impact on this class, future classes, and the roster.Pyron did not de-commit because of the offense Baylor ran on Saturday, he loves the offense that Jeff Grimes and Shawn Bell are putting together and it would be a good fit for him. Plus that is the offense he gave his original commitment to along with the fact that Baylor wanted him to be their guy long before any other big schools so don't blame Saturday it had nothing to do with it. There are two factors that seem to be playing a large role in this decision the first is conference prestige. The potential additions of Cincy, Houston, BYU, and UCF did not move the needle for him and I think there was pressure on him to go to a "better" conference with more stability. The timing is also kind of an indicator of this process since this decision came just days after that announcement. The second factor is location. Baylor is far from home for him and while he committed to Baylor with the same location issues it became more of a factor in his recruitment recently. Those two things drove this decision for Pyron and my guess right now is that he ends up somewhere in the SEC as schools have been communicating with him quite a bit from that conference. Arkansas and Vanderbilt have already offered today.As far as Baylor goes here is the situation. The staff feels like they have a loaded quarterback room because they do with Bohanon, Zeno, Shapen, Drones, and Rogers so as of right now I do not foresee them settling for a quarterback outside of Pyron flipping back or something crazy like Cade Klubnik decommitting from Clemson. The staff is not going to take someone just to take someone as they felt like Pyron was a true difference make a top 10 quarterback in the country for the class. They loved Pyron but also based on the roster knew that it would take him some time before he became the guy which is noteworthy and shows how good they feel about the guys at the positions, strong group.Right now the likely scenario is that Baylor does not take a quarterback in the 2022 class and rolls with the guys they have on campus. CJ Rogers is a guy who they have a ton of belief in and there is a chance he becomes the de-facto 2022 quarterback in the class because he is a Power Five caliber quarterback. This is even fine if you end up losing a quarterback in the room because the quality of the depth is thought to be very good.The one name who seems to be the most likely to be scouted or offered if the staff feels they have the room would be Rockwall-Heath QB and Indiana commit Josh Hoover. As of right now I do not expect that to happen but he seems to be the one who will get the longest look. Outside of him it seems like the focus will turn to the 2023 class where Dripping Springs signal caller Austin Novosad appears to be the priority. In all honestly this could help if Baylor does not take a quarterback in 2022 and only one in 2023 that could be huge for him to understand just how big of a priority he actually is.Is this a loss? Yes. But it is not as monumental as some fear it to be. The staff would like to have him on the Baylor roster and will continue to stay in contact but they also are prepared to roll with the solid group they have been grooming the past nine months.