Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

SPORTS ADDICT: With a bye-week on the horizon, Bears can take a momentary sigh of relief…

By Denton Ramsey, NCAA Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas – A bye-week couldn’t come at a better time for the Baylor Bears football team.

Following a Friday night heartbreaker in Connecticut, all the Bears needed after a safe ride home was some time off to reflect – as well as prepare – on a season on the brink of Big 12 action.

Just ask head coach Art Briles, who’s welcoming the off-week with open arms.

“It is a real good time [for a bye week],” Baylor football head coach Art Briles said. “I think it is good because the inconsistency of the schedule to start our season. With the Thursday, Saturday, Friday and Friday [games], the bye allows us to get on a consistent basis and look at what we have – and what we have is eight Saturdays ahead of us.”

Not only eight Saturdays, but eight Big 12 Saturdays… Either way, coach Briles is happy his Bears will be hitting the field on a routine basis.

“I think consistency is the key to success,” Briles said. “That is in everyday life and not just football. Whatever you do, you have to form good habits. That is what we are in the process of still doing here. We are excited about playing on Saturday [for the rest of the season].”

Briles is right on the money, because consistency is definitely a key ingredient to winning games.

Another key ingredient would have to be fan support. As an example, let’s look back to the Baylor road game at Connecticut last Friday night.

“I give them [Connecticut] credit for knowing how to get ready for a football game,” Briles said. “For their fans, they know how to get ready for a football game. What we can’t let happen here is to show up on October 4^th against Oklahoma and have more people out in that parking lot that have OU on their car than we do Baylor people.

“We have to show up and we have to be ready before the game starts. [When the Connecticut fans showed up at 3 p.m.,] that is how you do it; that is college football. They make it a big time event.”

Team effort has also been vital to the Bears success thus far – and win or lose, Baylor aims to keep that tradition alive.

“Nothing has changed since Friday night [against Connecticut],” Briles said. “What I am proud of is the effort and attitude that our players played with. We are not going to be a team that is intimidated by anything, anywhere or anyplace. Our guys rose up and put themselves in a position to win the football game. That is what we have to do; now we just have to cross the bridge and win it.”

Protecting freshman quarterback Robert Griffin will also be a necessity as the Bears prep for a Big 12 showdown with Oklahoma to kickoff conference play.

“I have got to do a better job of taking some of the load off of him [Griffin]; that will help us as a team,” Briles said. “[Pressure on the quarterback] will be one of the things that we will assess in our open date. The open date comes at a great time for us, both mentally and physically.”

The bye week also comes at a time when the Bears seek to grow from a challenging road game at Connecticut – a match-up where a momentary lapse of reason could shape the final score – and bounce back mentally prepared for the season ahead.

“I think it [a tough road game] certainly allows us to understand how important each play is – whether it is special teams, offense or defense,” Briles said. “How critical that change of field position might be, converting or not converting, stopping a drive or maintaining a drive… I think those things are glorified more in a close game because you certainly understand what could or could have been.

“I think we saw that when we play hard and fight hard for each other, we are going to have a good opportunity to win each game that we are in. We are going to continue to do that. If it is an intangible, we are going to control it.”

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

CONNECTICUT 31, BAYLOR 28: Bears fall to Huskies in Friday night heartbreaker

By Denton Ramsey, NCAA Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas – Despite a three-point loss to undefeated Connecticut on Friday night, Sept. 19, the Bears showed up to play – and brought some fireworks along for the ride – in front of a Huskies crowd and an ESPN audience.

With a freshman quarterback bearing a name no one had ever heard of until last week, Robert Griffin led Baylor’s football team like a veteran – while his counterparts did a near perfect job in both the secondary as well as the offensive and defensive lines.

And with a sports-frenzied hype surrounding Griffin entering Friday night’s affair – a coach’s worst nightmare – Griffin brought everything he had in him, and then some, to face the Huskies.

“You really can’t compare him to anyone else,” Baylor tight end Justin Akers said following Friday night’s loss at U-Conn. “The things that he does, the way that he cuts back, moves his body and the way he can throw on the run very accurately is something we really need in this offense.”

However, and regardless of the fact that Baylor fought to the finish and continued to keep a final drive alive until the game’s closing seconds, the Bears came up just short in a 31-28 setback at Connecticut.

“Any time you don’t win, it’s hard,” Baylor head coach Art Briles said following the Bears defeat. “That’s why we play the game. I feel terrible for our seniors and our guys who are fighting to be a bowl-eligible team. We had a great opportunity tonight to take a positive step toward bowl eligibility, a positive step toward the respect that we’re after and we came out where it didn’t work out right there in the end.

“I don’t think I did a good job right there at the end of the game of allowing our guys to get in position to get a field goal. I was thinking ‘touchdown’ and not thinking ‘field goal’ because we didn’t come up here to tie and go into overtime.”

After taking a 14-14 tie into the locker room at the break, Connecticut took a brief three-point lead before Griffin and company stepped up to lead the Bears down the field for a go-ahead touchdown with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter and Baylor on top, 21-17.

But Baylor’s lead was short-lived, as the Huskies answered the Bears score with a touchdown of their own, giving Connecticut a 24-21 lead heading into the fourth and final quarter.

Baylor took a 28-24 lead with 11:13 remaining in the game, and were primed to hold onto the lead until a late stop by Connecticut midway through the quarter forced the Bears to punt out of their own end zone – giving the Huskies a short field with the game on the line.

“It was a bad sequence of events,” Briles said. “The defense did a great job in stopping [Robert Griffin]. We’re starting out of our end zone and they make a couple of plays defensively. We almost popped a screen then had to punt out and then everything happens on top of it. A call not going our way and we get a 15-yard penalty tacked on to it which puts them at our 32-yard line, on a short field. That was the worst part of it.”

Shortly thereafter, the Huskies made one final push – and one final score – to give Connecticut a 31-28 lead with 6:04 left in the game.

But the Bears weren’t through fighting, and neither was their freshman play-caller.

Griffin, sometimes single-handedly, drove Baylor into Connecticut territory and had the Bears setup to score with just minutes left on the game clock.

This time around, though, the Huskies defense stopped the Bears in their tracks – and after having to burn their last two timeouts on a fourth-and-11 attempt inside the Connecticut 40-yard line, Griffin couldn’t connect with his received as the Bears fell in a heartbreaker.

“It’s a tough loss; everyone was out there playing as hard as they can,” Akers said. “Obviously, there are a lot of good things we can take out of it and also, there are a lot of bad things. There’s a few plays we should have had, a few costly penalties and stuff we usually don’t do. In an atmosphere like this, things kind of get into your head; you always want to play up to your potential – all the time – but one thing we have to strive for is to keep our head’s up.

“We have Oklahoma two weeks from now so we just have to stay focused for that. Any time you can play a team like this, play them this close for this long and come down to the last few plays on national TV, someone’s going to notice us. Obviously, someone’s going to have at least a little more respect [for us] than at the beginning.”

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

SPORTS ADDICT: Baylor Football beginning to look golden under Briles…

By Denton Ramsey, NCAA Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas – It’s a toss-up at this point and time for newcomer of the year at Baylor University: Art Briles, or Robert Griffin.

Both have played significant roles in the Bears’ 2-1 start to the football season.

However, one is here because of the other – and because of that, I am going to go ahead and award the reward to Briles.

Briles came here with one main mission: to make Baylor football competitive.

So far, so good.

Despite a rough start, the Bears have bounced back with consecutive blowout victories.

But the real tests lie ahead – in both a road match-up at Connecticut, followed shortly thereafter by Big 12 action.

One thing remains certain: the Baylor football team is a much-improved group with Briles at the helm.

Defining A Good Road Team

At a recent press conference, Baylor head coach Briles was asked about what it took to make a good road team.

“That is something I started to evaluate about eight years ago because if you’re going to be a good football team, you have to be a tough road team,” Briles said. “That is what we are going to stress and that is what we are going to be at Baylor, a tough road team. I think you band together as a team and you rely on each other, you support each other and you fight hard for each other.

“When you get out there on the road, there will be a little section of Baylor people and the rest is going to be everyone else. From that standpoint you have to pull everyone together. Honestly, I love being at home but there is something about going on the road and having everyone wanting you not to do well and then having the opportunity to do well in those environments.

“It’s very inspiring and challenging. I like it and our team will like it. We are anxious and ready to get on the road and face the world.”

Bring on Goliath…

Kicking Game and Field Position

Another important factor stressed by coach Briles and the staff include field position and a special focus on special teams play and the kicking game.

“It’s the difference in the ballgame when you turn the ball over or when they turn the ball over and you get a short field and go score,” Briles said. “Like we’ve always said, field position, turnovers and momentum, if you win those things you are able to win a football game.

“We were able to do that the other night and especially against Northwestern State. We had some other good opportunities we just didn’t take care of them from an offense standpoint. As long as we keep doing that, we will have some happy locker rooms. Right now our guys are confident, focused and energized.”

Exactly what they need heading out to face undefeated Connecticut…

Winning: On Both Offense and Defense

According to Briles, winning takes both offense and defense – and creating offense doesn’t necessarily mean taking pressure off the defense.

“Every time you step on the field you have pressure to perform,” Briles said. “They have done a good job of performing when the time is right by providing turnovers and making stops and plays for the offense.

“I’m not saying that the offense has taken any pressure off the defense at all. I think it is the other way around. I think the defense has given a lot of opportunities for the offense to make plays. Collectively as a group, we saw and talked about it the other day I could see that our defense is really starting to gel as a unit. They are starting to rely on each other, help each other and they are really playing with a lot of confidence.

“We were really confident going into the Washington State game by the way they had practiced. We could tell that they are growing and getting better and that they are ready. Same thing this week, we are going into this game where the offense is good, they are very structured offensively and their quarterback had his best half of football he has had since he has been at U-Conn. That to me is a great chance for us to challenge ourselves and see what we can do.”

Come Friday night, we’ll see just how much the Bears have to offer against a competitive and undefeated U-Conn football team.

A win for the Bears would definitely keep the momentum going – something Baylor needs as Big 12 action awaits – and could very well signal a new era for BU Football.

The answer is right around the corner, and the lingering green and gold question will be answered beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN2…

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

BAYLOR-CONNECTICUT PREVIEW: Bears hit the road to face Huskies in Friday night showdown on ESPN2

By Denton Ramsey, NCAA Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas – After a lackluster opening game, the Bears have been on a roll behind freshman phenom Robert Griffin – rattling of two straight blowout victories to improve to 2-1 on the young season.

Baylor aims to keep the momentum going when they face the U-Conn Huskies (3-0) on Friday night, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

“They [Connecticut] are a good football team; they went 9-4 last year, won the Big East and went to a bowl game,” Baylor head coach Art Briles said. “They have 19 of 22 starters back. They are 26-8 at home over the last four years and they have won the last eight or nine in a row. They are a tough team.”

Friday will mark the Bears first road trip of the season, but having an entire week to prepare for the Huskies – despite the reason being Hurricane Ike – has been quite a blessing for Briles and company.

“Having a full week of practice after playing Friday really turned out great,” Briles said. “That was our thing going into the game last week; if we could take care of business and get a good win it would put us on the equal week. It was a good fortune for us without a doubt because we were able to start on Connecticut last Saturday.”

So, will Friday’s ESPN-coverage of the game weigh more heavily on the Bears than their prior match-ups thus far?

“Every game is important and they are all big games,” Briles said. “It doesn’t matter when you’re playing, who you’re playing or whether it is on television or not. Every time you step on the field you have a chance to prove yourself as a player, a team and a program and that is what we want to do.

“We are in the process of doing it. When people talk about Baylor football, we want them to talk about it with respect and the only way we are going to get that is if we do things the proper way. We are going to take full advantage of these chances we have in the upcoming weeks.”

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Work In Progress

Baylor’s Bears have, no doubt, improved upon Briles taking over the green and gold pigskin program.

However, there’s still a lot of work ahead if Baylor hopes to remain competitive come Big 12 time – a time quickly approaching.

“I think we are still a work in progress,” Briles said. “I think as we get to know each other a little better and understand our personnel, we may be able to hang our hat on something. Right now we are still searching what fits everyone on the field best.

“The thing that helps us from an offensive and defensive standpoint is that we are really playing well up front on both sides of the ball. If we continue to do that, we can find a niche offensively and we will keep great turnovers from the defensive standpoint. It all starts up front.”

Despite the rough road ahead for the Bears, Briles – as well as Baylor fans across the nation – have begun to see improvement.

“The thing I am most proud of is that we are learning to play fast, and that is what we are really stressing and taking a hold of,” Briles said. “We want to be known as a fast, physical football team with discipline and intelligence. We look for effort and speed, and when you play with great effort and speed you have a chance to have a good football player.”

Running the Offense

A key ingredient to the Bears’ early season success has been their ability to run the football – something the coaching staff aims to continue as Baylor moves on through the season with first-year coach Briles at the helm.

“The running game all starts up front,” Briles said. “We were able to dominate up front [last week]. We played physical, fast and intense and we had good tempo. When you have those things working in your favor, you have a chance to rush the ball up and down the field.”

According to Briles, the upperclassmen on the squad have also helped to be an inspiration to their younger Baylor football teammates.

“They all have to work well together and those guys that have had good experience have done a good job for us as far as leading and practicing hard,” Briles said. “Every time we recruit a player, I find out how he practices. You practice more than you play and if you practice hard you play well.

“The older guys have really practiced hard and are really teaching the younger guys how to practice hard and prepare, and then it turns into performance on game day. We don’t feel that we have arrived, we have a long way to go, but the encouraging part is that we’re climbing and that is what you have to keep doing.”

Another key to Baylor’s 2-1 start lies in the hands and arms of one of the newest players on the team – a guy by the name of Robert Griffin, who will be making his first road start of the season against U-Conn on Friday.

“We are working on a silent count on offense and we will have some crowd noise in practice today, tomorrow and Thursday,” Briles said. “Other than that we just have to be us. We have to be Baylor and we have to take care of ourselves.

“We are going to play our game and we are not going to change what we do. We have to do what we do and do it really well. We are going to go up there and expect to come home with a win.”

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com