Big 12 Media Days have Rhule in biggest spotlight of career

“When people talk about Baylor, we want them to take notice and to listen. It's easy lip service. It's something we've got to prove on the field. What we have to do is change the image of Baylor football. That's our objective.”

That wasn’t Matt Rhule at his introductory press conference but rather, part of Art Briles’ opening statement at the 2008 Big 12 Media days. It set the tone for the Bears over the better half of the proceeding decade after being the omni-laughing stock of the conference. Now, instead of being the runt of the pack picked on by the conference, Baylor is the bully every one wants to take behind the shed.

It’s up to Rhule at the media days to turn that around, showing Baylor’s reputation is just a thing of the past and his new set of Rhules (sorry, that pun needed to get out of my system) will put the program back on track.

Rhule has done an exceptional job shifting the national perception of the school, repping Baylor on NFL Network during the draft among a number of spotlights the past eight months. He showed he’s an ultra-quotable speaker since his “dad’s a preacher and [his] mom is Italian,” from the very first words he said as Baylor’s coach in December.

But there hasn’t been this big of a spotlight on him yet, the first chance he has to measure up against the rest of the conference. This was where Briles began his ascension to household name status. It wasn’t bowl appearances at Houston that had people talking about Briles but his quick-witted quotes and good ol’ fashion lip service.

Right out of the gate, Briles’ southern drawl was headliner worthy. It grabbed everyone’s attention and before long, he had done the impossible task of building Baylor into a bowl eligible program. His sales pitch to top recruits in 2008 helped reel in players like Robert Griffin and Kendall Wright but the media days gave him a bigger platform to spread his vision.

Briles was able to keep a crowd’s attention, masking what was then just lip service during consecutive four-win seasons. His ability to sell a heater on the Fourth of July in Houston was transcendental and turned into back-to-back Big 12 titles four years later.

As Baylor’s strength on the field grew thanks to the curb appeal he afforded a desolate Baylor, so did Briles’ personality and quotability.

This is Rhule’s chance to grab the conference’s attention more than he already has. There’s been great press about what he’s done to eradicate the previous issues that surrounded the Briles era (something Jim Grobe wasn’t able to accomplish on a moments notice last year) but it’s dangerous to get caught in an echo chamber.

Baylor was recently voted the most hated program among Big 12 schools, stripping Texas of that lovely crown. There’s fair reason for that turn but it’s something that can’t plague Baylor any longer. There’s obviously work to be done to shift an entire nation’s view of what Baylor represents but it all starts at the mic on Tuesday in Frisco, Texas.

If Rhule can throw down some Childish or Kendrick with Taylor Young laying down a beat, that’d certainly win some favor like when Briles did his best Drake impression.