Baylor's No. 8 not content with close losses

He's proud to wear No. 8, the final single-digit number assigned to the Baylor football team this season, but it means little to Zach Smith if the team he's leading isn't finding victory. The sophomore has thrown for 754 yards and five touchdowns in the last two games, but the Bears have missed opportunities to capitalize on the improved offensive play

Jim Black

"Every game we’ve had the ball to go tie or win, something like that, so I think that it helps a little bit," Smith said. "It’s really frustrating knowing that, also, that we’ve had the ball to go win and we haven’t. I think that we know as a team how good we can be and how good we are, so we just got to keep working."

That's where wearing No. 8 truly comes into play.

It's a symbol of a leader and one of the toughest players on the team, and a sign of a player that is respected by his teammates. Smith is not only willing to go to battle for each of them on the field, he's also willing to be the one who leads them in the midst of the battle.

That starts with getting the offense back on track when things get sideways.

"The next play, next play, next play, next play," Smith said of moving his team forward. "First first down. Get the first first down and keep rolling. What’s behind us is behind us, got to move forward. Got to keep plugging away and keep grinding. I think we’ve done a decent job of that, fighting back, but we just got to start earlier. Start faster."

With zero tallies in the win column through five weeks of the season, all issues become magnified, however small or large they might actually be. Until that first win comes, finding a way to stay on course starts with holding teammates accountable.

"I think everyone has each other’s backs and we go out there and fight," Smith said. "Obviously, we are 0-5, but I think we are doing a pretty good job of staying together and being unified."

"Of course 0-5 is never good in any competition or league, you know what I’m saying? But I think we’re a strong team, we’ve got a strong coaching staff, and I think we’re pretty unified."

With seven games remaining, Baylor will face No. 15 Oklahoma State and No. 23 West Virginia, games three and four of a four-game stretch against opponents currently ranked in the top 25 or receiving votes. In Baylor's most recent losses to No. 3 Oklahoma and Kansas State (RV), busted mental assignments and catastrophic, preventable mistakes were the undoing of late-game pushes.

"We’ve been that close with a ton of missed assignments," Smith said. "Everybody missing a bunch of stuff. I’m missing a couple of throws, missing a couple of blocks, tackles, stuff like that, and we’re still a one-possession game. We know how close we are and how good we can be, it’s just getting there and that last step."

"But the end result, it’s not fun losing."

Following games at OSU versus WVU, Baylor has contest versus Texas, at Kansas, versus Texas Tech (Arlington), versus Iowa State and at No. 8 TCU. If improvement continues, there are plenty of opportunities to earn a victory in the final seven games, but until it happens, no one, including Smith, will be satisfied with close losses.

"We’ve got our head on straight and we’re trying to go get this first win," Smith said.