Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

CONNECTICUT 30, BAYLOR 22: Second half turnovers doom Bears in setback to Huskies

By Denton Ramsey, Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas – Despite the pre-game hype and a hyper home crowd, the Baylor Bears (1-1) dropped an eight-point heartbreaker, 30-22, to the Connecticut Huskies (2-1) on Saturday evening at Floyd Casey Stadium.

After falling behind by six at halftime, the Bears came out in the second half and handed the Huskies 14 straight points on back-to-back turnovers in the red zone as U-Conn built a 20-point lead.

“We came out in the second half ready to get things going and we shot ourselves in the foot twice,” Baylor sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin said. “Things just did not go our way. We just have to rebound for that and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Just a few minutes after Connecticut pushed their lead to 27-7, Baylor answered with a touchdown of their own on a five-yard run by Griffin to pull within 27-14. However, U-Conn tacked on a 34-yard field goal midway through the final quarter to take a commanding 16-point lead.

“I think the momentum changes were the two back-to-back turnovers to start the third quarter,” Baylor Head Coach Art Briles said. “At the half we were still in the middle of the football game, a 13-7 football game might as well be a 0-0 ballgame. You have to fight through it. What you can’t do is go and give up 14 points. You’d like to not turn it over. We’d like to feel that if we get it on the other teams 20-yard line you’re going to get points. If we wanted to point fingers, all I have to do is get in front of the mirror. I need to do a lot better job of making sure our mentality and execution are where they need to be.”

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Shortly after the Huskies built a 30-14 lead, Griffin and the Bears marched down the field and scored a quick touchdown and two-point conversion to pull within eight at 30-22. But a failed onside kick on the ensuing drive and successful running by Connecticut resulted in a disappointing loss for Baylor.

“It is disappointing — players make plays; coaches are not out there playing,” Griffin said. “Coach Briles, he likes to take the fall for a lot of things, but players have to go out there and make plays.”

For Briles, Griffin, and the rest of the Baylor Nation, Saturday’s loss was truly a disappointing one — though by no means does it change the Bears ultimate goals for the season.

“It is football,” Griffin said. “You don’t get all your goals all of the time, so we are 1-1 now. We will be judged on the rest of the games this season, not just this game.”

On the bright side, Griffin did rack up 119 yards in the air on Saturday as the Bears garnered 266 total yards of offense (while also going 4-of-10 on third-down conversions and scoring on both opportunities they entered the red zone).

Baylor returns to the gridiron on Saturday, Sept. 26, against Northwestern State — in a game slated to kickoff at 6 p.m. at Floyd Casey Stadium.

“We understand that we’ll be judged in December and not in September,” Briles said. “We have a lot of football in front of us. This is why you play the game because you don’t know what’s going to happen. We need to learn from this, re-group and have to get ready to play Northwestern State next week.”

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

BAYLOR VS. CONNECTICUT PREVIEW: Bears aim to claw to 2-0, host Huskies for Parent’s Weekend…

By Denton Ramsey, Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas — In less than 24 hours, the Baylor Bears (1-0) will kickoff their 2009 home opener against the University of Connecticut Huskies (1-1) for Parent’s Weekend — slated to begin at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday, Sept. 19, at Floyd Casey Stadium.

Baylor enters their home debut fresh off a bye-week after a three-point road victory over Wake Forest to open the season, and will face a U-Conn team that comes into Saturday’s contest with a 1-1 record after beginning the season with a 23-16 win at Ohio prior to a two-point loss to the overrated UNC Tar Heels last weekend in North Carolina.

“We’re glad to be back on a regular schedule,” Baylor Head Coach Art Briles said. “What we tried to accomplish during the off week is what we tried to accomplish before the Wake Forest game. We have a long stretch in front of us so we have to be ready to go to work and take care of business. U-Conn is a very good football team. From playing them last year, we know that there style of play is something that we respect and we have a good feeling for them as an opponent.”

Once again, Briles and the Bears coaching staff will look to sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin and his young and talented surrounding cast to lead the charge as Baylor hit’s the field for their first home game of ‘09.

“They came off a hard loss [against UNC] so they’re going to be playing hard and we know that,” Griffin said. “They aren’t going to overlook us and one of our goals is to not give them one sack. I expect them to come after me, but our o-line can take care of that and I can, as well. When you have two teams attacking, someone has to win and I think we have a good shot at that this weekend.”

On Saturday, the Bears get a chance to avenge last season’s three-point loss to the Huskies — although Griffin and company are just ready to move on to this season.

“You have to be able to erase it [the loss] in that season,” Griffin said. “After that game you have to move on to the next game. However, this year we are going to be hungry from last year. We are going out there to dominate the game and put it away early. That loss from last year will be there but we have a new season and a new team and we’re ready to go.”

For those unable to make it to Saturday‘s game, fans can visit baylorbears.com for a live video webcast produced by BaylorVision — which can be viewed with the purchase of a Baylor All-Access package ($6.95/month).

“Any time you open at home, you want to come out and put on a good show for them,” senior linebacker Joe Pawelek said. “I think that with our situation, coming in and getting that first win and then seeing the big picture of things, this is a big game for us.”

For the Baylor Nation, tomorrow afternoon couldn’t come sooner as the Bears aim to continue their quest for a bowl and beyond.

“We are excited to be at home; it’s a big deal,” Briles said. “It’s exciting to be at home and show our fans what we have on our home turf. You have very few opportunities to do that in the game of football so when you have that opportunity to be on the top side, you need to take advantage of it and that’s what we’re hoping to do.”

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

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