Gameday Thread: Baylor (5-3) Heads to Norman to Face Oklahoma (5-3)

The Baylor Bears (5-3) hit the road to face Oklahoma (5-3) in Norman at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CT and will be aired on ESPN+.

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Quotes of the Week

Head Coach Dave Aranda

"I think that you could feel the cohesiveness kind of from the beginning of the [Tech] week, all the way through. I'm hopeful that that continues now, because I think it's the praise that I'm worried about. We weren't really praised last week," Aranda said. "Which that's really when you think about it, going into a game. That Kansas game, you probably want it that way, where you get the win and it's not that impressive, and so that you still have an edge. Whereas when you get praised now you really have to have some maturity to deal with it. And that has been an issue for us." 

Freshman Safety Devin Lemear

"It was a confidence builder, for sure. We're a young secondary, so I feel like we're all waiting to make plays for the team and it was just nice to do it, especially against our old coach, whose whole movement was Take 3, so an extra added motivation for that."

Senior Kicker John Mayers

"Just ready for OU, in the wise words of Bryce Petty."

Analysis of the Week

SicEm365 Analyst Grayson Grundhoefer

On offense the gameplan needs to be the same as against Tech or at least very similar. Establish the run by taking advantage of a Sooner defense which is allowing 190 rushing yards per game which ranks 114th in the nation. People are going to be fooled into thinking the defense improved massively off of the bye against Iowa State but the Cyclones rank 119th in rushing yards per game. So I am not taking much away from the Sooners performance as Baylor is a different animal in the run game. Once Baylor establishes the run then the big shot plays will open up as well as the wide open short passes off play action that move the chains.

On the defensive side the run game is going to have to be emphasized in a big way compared to Tech where Baylor was focused on the pass far more. Oklahoma wants and needs to run the football as they are 16th in the nation averaging 217.5 yards per game. The run sets up the pass for the Sooners and more so than that if they can't run the ball then it is going to be difficult for them to move the ball at all. I was impressed that they ran for 182 yards on the Cyclones this past weekend as Eric Gray continues to have a monster season for OU. Dillon Gabriel has posted some big games but in the four games where they have ran for over 200 yards he is averaging 300 yards passing with 13 touchdowns and one interception. In two games where they have rushed for less than 200 yards he is averaging 222 yards with four touchdowns. Keep in mind the Sooners are 5-1 when Dillon Gabriel plays at least 1.5 quarters this season so this isn't a bad team but they are far more explosive and efficient offensively when they can run the ball at a high level. This will be strength on strength the Baylor DL vs the OU OL.

Videos of the Week