Rhule: There isn't a lot of good to take from Saturday

As anyone connected with Baylor can feel right now, losing stings. Dropping eight games to open the season isn’t something any Baylor fan has ever experienced. That’s Kansas-level shame circa 2015.

But to put a different spin on it, follow me into the press room.

Every game this year has brought at least some enthusiasm. The storming fourth quarter against West Virginia, the incredible theatrics against Oklahoma, and virtually every other game had feelings of hope. The wait for Matt Rhule to adjust his mic at the podium didn’t take long.

After losing 38-7 to Texas, there was a good delay (at least it felt) in his walk to the stand. This isn’t to create a conspiracy of what was said to the team or that Rhule’s been deflated himself, making it a chore to discuss the team’s many faults. On the contrary, Rhule delivered one of his best pressers of the year. 

He gave a silent wakeup call to the “sunshine pumpers” while still being cautiously optimistic and properly reflective.

Perhaps that says enough about the game, that the storyline that’s emerged isn’t about what happened on the field. The failed rotation between QBs, the stalled stable of halfbacks, the gradually worn down defense; They’re all good talking points and worth questioning but Rhule’s postgame performance is where the most can be built upon.

It’s the first time his disappointment in the team has been explicitly shown.

“There wasn’t a ton very good today that we can take away from it,” Rhule said. “The truth is always somewhere between, so to sit here now and say we’ll turn on the tape and we’ll see some people play better, we’ll see some guys didn’t do — as I said to [the team after], I said when you go through this, sometimes some guys will come in and say, ‘Oh, it’s not my fault, why are we doing this why are we doing that?’ Other guys will say, ‘Boy, if I just do X, Y, and Z, we can win.’ So you hope that guys will come out of that today and say we can do a lot better.”

The general feel of the players says as much.

Blake Lynch said every loss stings, but losing to Texas is especially disappointed. Charlie Brewer said he feels for the other guys in the locker room, “Everyone is a little disappointed. We just need to find a way.”

Finding “a way” to win has been a futile chore. If the run game is at a high, something entirely separate is lost. If the defensive line is getting pressure, the passing game off-kilter without any connection. Rhule said he was reminded himself one performance doesn’t mean the job is over for the next week.

“Like last week we only had four penalties to their 11, so we thought, okay we’ve got that figured out,” Rhule said about following a formula to win. “We thought we had a lot of those things corrected.”

It’s not that there weren't any positive takeaways, they were just few and far between. He said the defense played as well as it has all season with the multiple fourth down stops, QB pressures and sacks, and tackles for loss were a new level for the defense. Players like James Lynch “continue to make plays,” as does Eric Ogor who Rhule said has “a chance o be a difference maker.”

Flying in the face of Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, Rhule said this team is “much better than our record says we are.” But because that 0-8 record tells everyone else this is a rock-bottom team, there’s added pressure to dig deep into the everyone’s shortcomings. 

“I told [the team], we’d find out on Monday. I told them they’ll come in on Monday and there will be a lot of truth being told,” Rhule said. “We have to go beat Kansas, and to go beat Kansas really starts now with what our minds do between now and Monday. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us, so we have no time to feel sorry for ourselves. Nobody is going to give us anything, so we have no time to ask for handouts.”

There was no talk about “the process” or patience. There’s only a sense of emptiness only a win can fill, and even a win at Kansas will be a temporary patch.