Gameday Thread: Baylor Kicks Off Season against Tarleton

Jackie Marshall on Dave Aranda calling plays

“To me, he’s the GOAT…I think everyone really cares about him and wants to play for him” pic.twitter.com/MmKzkvdvqs

— Cam Stuart (@realcamstuart) September 1, 2024

O-line was not good- leading to QB locking in bad habit of throwing off back foot - Deja vu….

Baylor coach Dave Aranda on calling plays again

“I was angry a lot of times. I don’t want to give anybody anything.”

He then compared it to flying a fighter jet with so many weapons, but with people out there who want to kill you. pic.twitter.com/HqrQHMOoes

— Cam Stuart (@realcamstuart) September 1, 2024

bear2be2 said:

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IBleedGreenandGold said:

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Finn is what I expected. A so-so passer but a good athlete that'll give us a chance to win.

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I think Finn's value to the offense will really be seen once we're playing better defensive fronts and he's buying time and extending plays with his feet.

Finn has been one of the best quarterbacks in America at avoiding sacks for his career. Shapen was one of the worst. A lot of those sacks that Shapen would take that would kill drives are going to be gains with Finn.

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Shapen didn't throw into quadruple coverage while he had time to make another decision. Finn made repeatedly bad passing choices.

Defense looked solidly improved.

Offense maybe marginally better than last year.

It's going to be a long season.

Karab said:

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bear2be2 said:

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IBleedGreenandGold said:

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Finn is what I expected. A so-so passer but a good athlete that'll give us a chance to win.

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I think Finn's value to the offense will really be seen once we're playing better defensive fronts and he's buying time and extending plays with his feet.

Finn has been one of the best quarterbacks in America at avoiding sacks for his career. Shapen was one of the worst. A lot of those sacks that Shapen would take that would kill drives are going to be gains with Finn.

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Shapen didn't throw into quadruple coverage while he had time to make another decision. Finn made repeatedly bad passing choices.

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The sacks he took had the same impact. The difference was he didn't half Finn's playmaking ability.

We did what we should have done. Oline need lots of work. D looked to be in the right position. Didn't see many blown assignments like last year.

To add to the low expectations theme: at least it wasn't the 2023 opener all over again!

This year's team showed up for game 1 in a way last year's didn't seem to. We may not get to six wins, but they look like they might show up for four quarters and that is less painful to watch!

Guess we had pretty similar results with FCS opponents

We'll get to six wins .

Tech
Houston
BYU
Air Force

That's 5 right there.

W

Following the first home game in 2024, Dave Aranda addressed the relationship between the football team and Baylor fans following a 3-9 season.

"We're going to have to win some games so that we can be cool enough to hang out with. Today was a start, we've got work to do there." pic.twitter.com/hBzIDTapMp

— Eric Kelly (@EricKellyTV) September 1, 2024

Four-star Baylor wide receiver commit Jacorey Watson is in Waco for Baylor’s home opener vs. Tarleton State pic.twitter.com/gMGpUhARFk

— Will Turboff (@WillTurboff) August 31, 2024

boognish_bear said:

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Four-star Baylor wide receiver commit Jacorey Watson is in Waco for Baylor’s home opener vs. Tarleton State pic.twitter.com/gMGpUhARFk

— Will Turboff (@WillTurboff) August 31, 2024

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I'm pretty sure Michael Turner was there, too. We need to win some games so we can get these guys on campus. If we don't and Aranda gets fired, we'll be starting from scratch a la Houston in 2025. I'd rather not have to do go through that.

Had an amazing visit at one of my top schools in mind @BUFootball thank you for having me @CoachK_Johnson @WacoUFootball @THE_CoachMojica @CoachFoster77 pic.twitter.com/7yOjae9THk

— Armani Franklin (@ArmaniFranklin_) September 1, 2024

Booboo Bear said:

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At least we're not Houston tonight.
At least we're not Tech tonight
At least we're not Arizona tonight

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Texas State also. Projected the be a CFP dark horse with like 20/1 odds had 150 yards of penalties and struggled to control the line of scrimmage on inside runs against Beaumont Normal School

Zactly! Week 1 against FCS is where you make film and tease out any technical issues before the opponent gets bigger.

We won. There is no such thing as a bad win. New QB and more, new coordinator and assistants, all good.
If a game goes off the rails I'm all for having a meltdown. But we won. We learned a lot and have been gifted a week to improve and tighten some things on offense and build confidence WITHOUT the pain of a loss.

Win=Great. Sic'em

Not much to tell one way or the other from a glorified scrimmage against a small school.

Defense looked more athletic but a P4 defense playing against the 3rd team QB of an FCS school with fat, squatty linemen should look more athletic than a team like that or we would be in mounds of trouble. Marshall and Thomas stood out and give me hope we will be a bit tougher on that side of the ball.

I'm not ready to give up on them this quickly since big uglies need a game or two to come together but everyone should have mountains of concern over the fact they allowed constant penetration from the shortest, fattest, less athletic D line they'll see all year. This week will tell us a lot because Utah's D line is probably the most fundamentally sound line we will face all year.

Finn showed shades of really good athleticism but also some really stupid decisions. I'm hoping some of it was due to the vanilla look we presented because if that defense confused him as a starting QB or if he continues to throw into double and triple coverage going forward then he is in for a mountain of trouble against everyone else on our schedule sans Tech and UH. Trigg and Hawkins impress me. They have talent.

I don't think we will beat Utah but we also shouldn't lose by 18 or more. If we do then we are well on our way to another 3-9 or maybe a 4-8 year.

johnnychimpo said:

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Booboo Bear said:

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At least we're not Houston tonight.
At least we're not Tech tonight
At least we're not Arizona tonight

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Texas State also. Projected the be a CFP dark horse with like 20/1 odds had 150 yards of penalties and struggled to control the line of scrimmage on inside runs against Beaumont Normal School

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GJ Kinne's teams rival Briles' for a lack of discipline.

Jackson Blackwell was a guest at DKR.
He was a prospect guest there for the beginning of the game before heading up to Waco.

boognish_bear said:

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Guess we had pretty similar results with FCS opponents

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Our box score should be similar or better. Still, I'm happy we got the win and I'm optimistic we can start well and end well this season.

Nice video clips of our receivers being physical

Im most proud of how physical we were on the perimeter🥹🥲😭✊🏾👏🏾🙌🏾. All we do is talk about toughness in the GOON room. I was coached this way, so I coach this way. The ENTIRE room was physical. Really does make my heart smile. GOON mentality NOT WR. No matter the size😤 pic.twitter.com/ZuloUDslaA

— Dallas Baker (@CoachDBaker81) September 1, 2024

boognish_bear said:

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Nice video clips of our receivers being physical

Im most proud of how physical we were on the perimeter🥹🥲😭✊🏾👏🏾🙌🏾. All we do is talk about toughness in the GOON room. I was coached this way, so I coach this way. The ENTIRE room was physical. Really does make my heart smile. GOON mentality NOT WR. No matter the size😤 pic.twitter.com/ZuloUDslaA

— Dallas Baker (@CoachDBaker81) September 1, 2024

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That will be good if we can ever get a running back to the second level.

Karab said:

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bear2be2 said:

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IBleedGreenandGold said:

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Finn is what I expected. A so-so passer but a good athlete that'll give us a chance to win.

---

I think Finn's value to the offense will really be seen once we're playing better defensive fronts and he's buying time and extending plays with his feet.

Finn has been one of the best quarterbacks in America at avoiding sacks for his career. Shapen was one of the worst. A lot of those sacks that Shapen would take that would kill drives are going to be gains with Finn.

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Shapen didn't throw into quadruple coverage while he had time to make another decision. Finn made repeatedly bad passing choices.

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Yea, Shapen just decided not to throw or take the sack ... so just as detrimental. We will see how the coaching handles Finn. I think some of our fans look forward to/secretly wish for this team to fail. No we werent perfect against Tarleton state, but we did dominate the game. Give the team time to mature and gel

ImwithBU said:

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Karab said:

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bear2be2 said:

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IBleedGreenandGold said:

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Finn is what I expected. A so-so passer but a good athlete that'll give us a chance to win.

---

I think Finn's value to the offense will really be seen once we're playing better defensive fronts and he's buying time and extending plays with his feet.

Finn has been one of the best quarterbacks in America at avoiding sacks for his career. Shapen was one of the worst. A lot of those sacks that Shapen would take that would kill drives are going to be gains with Finn.

---

Shapen didn't throw into quadruple coverage while he had time to make another decision. Finn made repeatedly bad passing choices.

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Yea, Shapen just decided not to throw or take the sack ... so just as detrimental. We will see how the coaching handles Finn. I think some of our fans look forward to/secretly wish for this team to fail. No we werent perfect against Tarleton state, but we did dominate the game. Give the team time to mature and gel

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I didn't say I wished the team the fail. I was just comparing Finn and Shapen since the previous poster was comparing Finn and Shapen.

Everyone gives Shapen a bit too much flack for having the absolute dog water of an offensive line that caused him way more pressure. This year is significantly improved even with completely different staff and personnel.

All I'm saying is despite that, Shapen had the decision making to not throw into horrendous coverage. Finn, so far, has shown that despite having more time (both because of the OL improvement and his own legs), he likes to just try to Jameis Winston it with a prayer.

ImwithBU said:

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Karab said:

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bear2be2 said:

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IBleedGreenandGold said:

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Finn is what I expected. A so-so passer but a good athlete that'll give us a chance to win.

---

I think Finn's value to the offense will really be seen once we're playing better defensive fronts and he's buying time and extending plays with his feet.

Finn has been one of the best quarterbacks in America at avoiding sacks for his career. Shapen was one of the worst. A lot of those sacks that Shapen would take that would kill drives are going to be gains with Finn.

---

Shapen didn't throw into quadruple coverage while he had time to make another decision. Finn made repeatedly bad passing choices.

---

Yea, Shapen just decided not to throw or take the sack ... so just as detrimental. We will see how the coaching handles Finn. I think some of our fans look forward to/secretly wish for this team to fail. No we werent perfect against Tarleton state, but we did dominate the game. Give the team time to mature and gel

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I"m one of the more negative posters regarding our football program but I'd never ever never wish us to fail. I just do not wear green googles. Some on here think we are SEC or B1G worthy. We are barely Big 12 worthy since Rhule. I do not expect us to suddenly become conference co champs but hopefully we can compete above the 500 mark which seems like forever. By 500 mark I mean conference.

bear2be2 said:

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Aliceinbubbleland said:

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I've never bought in to the deliberate vanilla. You either have it or you don't. We don't. Look at the OU or Ole Miss or Washington St or Nebraska. There is no such thing as slowdown game plan.

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You could count both the designed quarterback runs and RPOs we ran tonight on one hand. And virtually all of them came on the first three possessions of the game.

If you think that's indicative of the offensive game plan we're going to see the rest of the season, I don't know what to tell you.

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About that vanilla game plan. I don't know what to tell ya bit there is no such thing.

Aliceinbubbleland said:

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bear2be2 said:

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Aliceinbubbleland said:

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I've never bought in to the deliberate vanilla. You either have it or you don't. We don't. Look at the OU or Ole Miss or Washington St or Nebraska. There is no such thing as slowdown game plan.

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You could count both the designed quarterback runs and RPOs we ran tonight on one hand. And virtually all of them came on the first three possessions of the game.

If you think that's indicative of the offensive game plan we're going to see the rest of the season, I don't know what to tell you.

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About that vanilla game plan. I don't know what to tell ya bit there is no such thing.

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Tell that to Brock Huard, who mentioned that in his first few sentences on our first offensive possession today.

The Tarleton game plan was super vanilla. Today's issue wasn't the game plan. It was our inability to execute even the most basic parts of it against the Utah defense.

If we can ever get into our full offense, we'll see the things I talk about above. But we didn't come close to blocking those things well enough today and faced a defense capable of taking them away.

The next two weeks will be much more representative of the offense we can expect to see the rest of the year. If we still can't get into any sort of rhythm offensively against Air Force and Colorado, then we're just a hopeless offense.

Aliceinbubbleland said:

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bear2be2 said:

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Aliceinbubbleland said:

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I've never bought in to the deliberate vanilla. You either have it or you don't. We don't. Look at the OU or Ole Miss or Washington St or Nebraska. There is no such thing as slowdown game plan.

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You could count both the designed quarterback runs and RPOs we ran tonight on one hand. And virtually all of them came on the first three possessions of the game.

If you think that's indicative of the offensive game plan we're going to see the rest of the season, I don't know what to tell you.

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About that vanilla game plan. I don't know what to tell ya bit there is no such thing.

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You see that the talking point now has shifted to talking about how much hope there is because of how awesome the defense is. Last week Finn was just a victim of a bad game plan, now everyone admits that he's probably a lost cause