Behind Enemy Lines: What Sonny Dykes Had to Say About Baylor

Baylor’s offensive success over the past couple of weeks has been predicated on establishing the rushing attack early. The underlying key to making that possible — but it seems to get lost in the shuffle — is improved offensive line play across the board. 

The offensive line was Baylor’s Achilles heel early on in the season, but that unit has progressed significantly and has caught the attention of TCU head coach Sonny Dykes.

“I think their offensive line is playing really well,” he said. “You can see that it’s a group that is really starting to gel. “They do a really good job of creating movement up front and with their double teams. Baylor has a really good stable of running backs, and they're all different. I think it’s a good offense, and they’ve run for over 600 yards in two weeks, so we have to be able to stop the run on Saturday.”

The Bears have looked like a completely different team coming out of the first bye week of the season. Sawyer Robertson (RJr.) has played like one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12, and he’s finally getting consistent contributions from his playmakers. Dykes has been impressed with how Baylor has been able to turn the corner heading into this matchup.

“I think the story of their team has been a continual improvement,” he said. “To me, they’ve gotten better every single week, and that’s what you want to see from a football team. It’s a completely different team now than it was early in the year. They’ve played the two top teams in the Big 12 right now in BYU and Iowa State, and both of those games were very, very competitive late in the second half, and they obviously had Colorado beat.”

He added, “They’ve played really, really good football the past two weeks against Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, and they’ve really dominated those football games. It’s an improving football team that is playing with a lot of confidence, and they’re just a really good football team right now.”

Baylor still has room to approve across the board, especially on defense. Opponents have still been able to score on the Bears and create some big plays, but with the offense scoring now, there is some wiggle room to overcome those defensive inefficiencies.

Dykes can see the schematic changes this season with Baylor’s defense being called by Dave Aranda compared to the last time these two programs met.

“That defense now is definitely more Dave. You can tell that it’s stuff he likes to do. He’s a big simulated pressure guy, and Baylor is going to do certain things on certain downs that they're really good at,” Dykes said.

“One thing about Dave is that he does a really good job at self-scouting. In other words, it’s hard to get a read on what they’re doing and when they’re going to do it. Play callers have a tendency to do certain things in certain moments, and he does a great job of not giving you an indication of what’s coming,”

Aranda must draw up another good game plan for the Frogs this week, as their offense relies heavily on generating big plays through the air. TCU quarterback Josh Hoover (So.) can be efficient with the ball as he ranks fifth nationally in passing yards (2,614) and has 37 completions of at least 20 yards.

The Frogs struggle to run the football and rely on wide receiver Savion Williams (Sr.) taking reps out of a Wildcat package to move the football on the ground. TCU has two other explosive receivers, Jack Bech (Sr.) and Eric McCalister (Jr.), which Baylor’s secondary must contain.

Saturday will mark the 120th meeting between the two programs. TCU (5-3, 3-2) leads the all-time rivalry over Baylor (4-4, 2-3) 59-53-7 and has won four straight over the Bears. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Be sure to watch the 365 Sports Pregame Show from 9-10:30 a.m. on YouTube and KWTX.