The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from Baylor's Week of Sports
The final curtain falls on the ’22-23 sports campaign as Football picks up a significant pledge amidst a vital recruiting weekend and a sprinkling of other individual notes.
Here’s a look at The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from the past week in Baylor Athletics.
THE GOOD
New QB Commit — The Bears landed a potentially massive pledge for the future with 2025 QB Adam Schobel’s pledge on Sunday. The four-star Columbus, TX standout kickstarts the ’25 class in style and puts an exciting exclamation point on a major recruiting weekend. It was otherwise quiet decisions-wise, but it’s recruiting, which can change at any moment. Elsewhere, a number of new offers for the upcoming 2025 and 2026 classes went out. Understandably, some will be gun-shy about getting too excited over a big-time QB prospect when the ’25 Signing Day is so far away, but you have to celebrate wins when and where you can and then fight and hold on tight. This offseason, the coaches replenished the position’s current depth and set up the next couple of classes on paper.
Track & Field — The season ended at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with more All-Americans and a trio of medalists. Sophomore star Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi earned bronze in the javelin, improving upon a fifth-place finish as a freshman. Nathaniel Ezekiel grabbed bronze in the 400-meter hurdles, and senior Ben Conacher earned All-American honors in the high jump. The men’s team finished in 19th place, giving the program a second consecutive Top 20 finish. The women’s 4x100 (5th place) and 4x400 (8th) relay teams didn’t medal but also finished with All-American honors.
Kolby Branch — The baseball Bears are a long way from Omaha, but freshman Kolby Branch is a player for Mitch Thompson to build around moving forward in that pursuit. The talented shortstop earned Collegiate News Freshman All-American honors last week. He joins the likes of Max Muncy, Shea Langeliers, Nick Loftin, Jared McKenzie, and Logan Vick as the program’s Freshman All-Americans since 2010.
Tennis — Joey Scrivano and the women’s team announced the addition of Poland’s Zuzanna Frankowska to next year’s roster.
THE BAD
That’s A Wrap — With the NCAA Track & Field Championships’ conclusion, the 2022-23 Baylor Athletics season is officially a done deal. There were some memorable moments and fun wins, but it was nowhere close to a Year of the Bear candidate or an unforgettable ride. A&T won another Natty, Softball showed some promise and was the only team to beat juggernaut Oklahoma, and both hoops squads had some huge wins. On the flip side, football flailed, hoops didn’t last long in the postseason, and baseball had a rough maiden voyage. In general, the Bears didn’t collect a lot of hardware, particularly not in comparison to other recent seasons. By no means was it all for naught, but overall, there seemed to be a lot of falling just short of greater expectations or accomplishments. The success of other rivals hasn’t helped that perception either. TCU is headed to Omaha as the Year of the Frog continues, and Texas may join them if they can knock off Stanford in a Game 3 tonight. Go Big 12? No.
THE UGLY
I didn’t see anything that would seem to apply this week, but as always, please chime in below if you have your own suggestion.