Matt Rhule seemed different in his season opening press conference

There was something different about the time I spent upstairs in the BANC on Monday.

I was the first of the media to arrive after driving to Waco from East Texas. I sat down in my usual spot and prepared for Matt Rhule’s season opening press conference. I’ve been to each of the three season opening press conferences since Rhule’s first in 2017 and wasn’t anticipating anything to feel different today.

About 10 minutes had passed and Grayson and the other media members began to steadily file in. The different feeling had moved to the back of my mind at that time. Then, with my eyes focused on my computer screen, the light buzz of those there to ask question grew almost dead quiet. I looked up and Rhule had arrived. 

Okay, that might sound cheesy, but in retrospect it was definitely a mood setter. As always I was expecting Rhule to be captivating. He has the ability to catch your attention no matter how many times you’ve heard him speak. What I wasn’t expecting was what he told us and the things he didn’t tell us.

Remember, even before Baylor’s bowl season in 2018, Rhule’s season opening press conference was filled with notes of suspensions, injuries and concerns. Rhule continued to mentioned that his team was learning how to practice. 

Starting with his answer to question No. 1 on Monday, things felt different.

“I think that we look like a team that's not going to beat ourselves, but we have to actually go out there and do it. And I think the biggest thing is just maturity. You know, when I stand up in front of the team and talk and when guys go in their position rooms and talk, you have a bunch of veteran players that are bought into not just what we're doing but how we're doing it and that that's important to me.”

It was after a few other noteworthy items — don’t worry, I’ll come back to those — that Rhule dropped a note that caught even more of my attention. Truthfully, as a former decent high school athlete myself, it was something that I don’t know I have ever heard.

Rhule said he called off practice early. No, this isn’t like Jimbo Fisher calling off pactice because of the effort from his team. Rhule literally said his team was practicing so good that he ended practice early. 

And he did it multiple times during fall camp.

“No, we practiced harder than we did last camp. It was the same schedule, the guys just practiced harder.” 

“It’s night and day (different). It really started in the middle of last season. We went through the bowl game, went through the spring and, you know, good teams make the coach stop practice early. Sometimes as a coach you will be like, you know what, that's enough. And I've done that several times. That’s really the seniors, the older guys. Some of our younger guys still need a lot of reps, but for our vets, we still need a lot of work, don't get me wrong, but I think that they try to attack practice and somewhere along the way you stop thinking it is a practice.”

Practice harder and no significant injuries to speak of? That’s good news in and of itself. Maybe I shouldn’t read too much into it, but Rhule has preached that part of the process is his players developing physically. 

In 2017, Baylor’s offseason focus was getting stronger. In comparision to lifting and weight gain, they limited their cardio and speed work. It showed on the field, but it was a necessary evil to get from point A to point B... like OL/TE/DT Rob Saulin has shown. The 6-foot-6 redshirt sophomore showed up at 250 and is now pushing 310 pounds two years later.

Baylor’s personnel is beginning to match what Rhule wants to do on the field. Not only are they recruiting bigger and stronger players, but their offseason work to continue gettin bigger and stronger is helping to help prevent injuries while playing a different physical style of football.

“We came out of camp healthy. Some of the young guys have some things, but for our vets, we came out of camp really, really healthy. And I would expect that all our guys will be ready to play this week.”

Now let’s back up and focus in on some more specific topics. Ask me or any Baylor fan the two areas Baylor needs to improve the most to improve their performance from a year ago and the answer would be the same 95% of the time: offensive line and the running game on offense and eliminating big plays on defense. 

Let’s start on defense. Baylor’s shift of their base defense to the “50 front” was made specifically to get better athletes on the field and help fix the explosive play issue. 

How is this for different on defense?

“I feel a hundred thousand percent based on what I've seen in practice that it is (the right move). That being said you know, we were a four-down front for so long that we kind of knew what people were going to do to attack us, so we could practice those things.”

“These guys, Chris Miller, Henry Black, the Jameson Houston, all those guys have played a lot of football for us, and now it's time for us to go out and play great defense and we feel like we have the talent to do it. We feel like we have the scheme to do it, we feel like we have the toughness to do it, but we have to go do it.”

On the offensive line, Baylor’s available depth is there in terms of bodies available like it hasn’t been since the 2015 season. The catch is that doesn’t automatically mean that those bodies were actually capable of competing at the level needed.

Rhule has stated previously he would like 7-8 offensive linemen to be playing at a level to be used at any point. As of Monday, that number is being surpassed by a good stretch.

“We'll compete Tuesday, we'll compete Wednesday, but I feel good about where the offensive line is at. I think Prince Pines is a fascinating story. He missed all last season and was able to come out this year and so far he's been really, really consistent. Now he needs to go play. And when you play you see some mistakes, but you fix them. But you know, guys like Xavier Newman, Jason Moore, we feel like we were 10 or 11 guys deep on the offensive line. And that's certainly, the first time we’ve felt that way.”

Different? Indeed.

Rhule has been transparent, good or bad, since arriving in Waco. What I sometimes considered coach speak or motivational tactics in year one proved to be pure honesty from Rhule. 

So there I was today sitting in the BANC knowing something felt different, but not being able to really put a finger on it before Rhule started telling us the truth about how he feels about his team in 2019. 

How will 2019 play out? I wish I knew. But whatever happens, there will never be a break in an effort to move forward from this team in their current state.

“So, to me I'm very happy and at peace with where we are but, Coach Paterno used to say ‘run scared,’ and man, I am running scared right now. We need to have a sense of urgency and we've got to find a way to get this done this week and get it done at a high level and then relax on Saturday night. Then win, lose or draw, wake up Sunday and start running again. I'm running right now and hopefully our whole team is.”