Player's Club: Recharged and Refocused Bears Gear Up for Rivalry Clash with TCU

Following a perfectly placed bye week, the Bears are re-energized, re-focused and are looking to put it all together, just as they did a year ago when they rattled off six straight wins to close the regular season following their mid-season bye week.

“We definitely needed this break,” senior wide receiver Kobe Prentice said on Tuesday. “We had a lot of guys banged up, but we had a lot of guys healing up with that off week. It’s been really good and beneficial to us.”

Senior safety Devyn Bobby added, “It was a very good time for us. Everybody is playing faster now. Everybody’s got their recovery and got their bodies back a little bit, so we’re ready to explode.”

At the halfway point of the season, the Bears are toward the bottom of the Big 12 in nearly every defensive category and are allowing 29.7 points and 403.7 yards per game. During the bye week, Dave Aranda’s defense focused on improving communication, which they believe is the source of most of the problems.

“Communicating, by doing that, we eliminate the explosives and missed assignments,” Bobby said. “Working on communicating and telling your brother to your left and right what we’re in and what we’re doing on the motion and things like that.”

On offense, however, the Bears are finding much more success, ranking toward the top of the league in nearly every category, averaging 36.3 points and 494 yards per game. Despite the big numbers, Jake Spavital’s crew has also struggled with self-inflicted wounds such as penalties, fumbles and sluggish starts in the first and third quarters, all of which were inspected closely during the bye week.

“Trying to be consistent and doing the little things right, as far as playing physical and playing fast on every play,” Prentice said. “Not taking any plays off, not just on offense, but on the whole team, and playing for each other.”

With a rivalry game against TCU up next on the schedule, Aranda noted on Monday that there’s an extra layer of motivation “boiling underneath,” pushing the players in preparation for the matchup against the Horned Frogs. The players, while understanding the importance of the game, feel the added intensity but won’t let it negatively impact their play.

“The energy is probably going to be different,” Prentice said. “It’s probably going to be a little more personal for them and the fans, but we don’t worry about that stuff. We just worry about us and worry about doing our jobs to the best ability that we can do it.”

Bobby noted, “You can’t get too high when it’s a rivalry game. If you get too high, that’s when things can go left. We’re just trying to stay level-headed and stay at the same pace throughout the game, and we’ll be fine.”

So far this fall, three of Baylor’s six games have been decided by three points or less, which is hypothetically helping Aranda’s squad prepare for an anticipated close game against TCU; three of the last four matchups between the Bears and Horned Frogs have been settled by less than three points.

“We prepared for that since the offseason,” Bobby said of close contests. “Hard times happen like that all year long. We’re made for it. If that happens, we’re going to be prepared.”

After transferring in from Alabama this offseason, Prentice is no stranger to bad blood and big games. The Crimson Tide has heated rivalries with LSU and Tennessee, but most importantly, with their in-state counterparts in Auburn. Those rivalries are helping give Prentice a road map of what to anticipate this Saturday in Fort Worth.

“A lot of chatter,” Prentice said of what to expect in rivalry games. “There’s going to be a lot of talking, but we’ve got to do a good job of focusing on us and not worrying about what the other team says. We expect those extra tugs after the play and all the disruptiveness, but we’re just worried about us.”

He later added, “When you’re recruited here at Baylor, a lot of people will tell you, ‘If you don’t win any other game, we want you to beat TCU.’ But that’s pretty much it, as far as the extra on it. We attack this game like every other game, just trying to get better and take advantage of the opportunity in front of us.”

The Bears (4-2, 2-1) will travel up Interstate-35 to face rival TCU (4-2, 1-2) at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18, at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. The game will be televised on ESPN2.