Baylor was a common dark horse pick for 2019, at least to be a competitive team if not a legit B12 title contender, due to the accumulation of three factors. Charlie Brewer as QB, a third offseason for Rhule to establish his program, and then a favorable schedule. We’re seeing that third factor play out … [Read more…]
Nickel became the standard “base defense” for the Big 12 sometime around the turn of the decade. Honestly I haven’t done the research to pinpoint the exact year but Texas went base nickel in 2008, Oklahoma State was starting Shaun Lewis as their “star” LB in 2010, and of course Oklahoma rolled in nickel as … [Read more…]
The other day I posted this thought on Twitter: So the tiers would look like this: Tier 1: Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa State Tier 2: Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech Tier 3: West Virginia, Kansas State 50 feet of crap… Kansas I got a good follow up question from Jay Jordan over at Cyclone Fanatic: … [Read more…]
Of course the Baylor staff is as well aware of the 2018 defense’s shortcomings as anyone in the media and understand that there’s an opportunity with the 2019 schedule to make another leap as a program if they can solve some of their problems from a year ago. The Bears play seven home games in … [Read more…]
Baylor is a trendy dark horse pick in the Big 12 for this coming year. Perhaps not as a champion but at least as a contender. In my estimation the group they have to beat out for that consists of Texas Tech, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Oklahoma, and Texas. I’m already ready to rule … [Read more…]
Matt Rhule has been fairly obvious about his process for the Bears. From the beginning he was making moves that indicated a preference for rebuilding the program and roster from the ground up. They didn’t force a 22 personnel offense on the spread roster or choose schemes that were a needlessly bad fit for their … [Read more…]
Finally, I have a short interaction I had with Matt Rhule about the Baylor defense. This came after a few questions in which he praised Taylor Young for helping lead this team through the 2017 season and in which he accidentally indicated that he has a high level of trust in Charlie Brewer. Also after … [Read more…]
If you haven’t heard from fans of other conferences, the Big 12 hasn’t been doing so well in the NFL draft of late. This was a big story in 2017 when only one player (Pat Mahomes, Texas Tech) was drafted from the conference into the first round. I figured that the league would rebound strongly … [Read more…]
With the season and recruiting classes firmly in the rearview mirror I was keen to check in on something I didn’t devote much time to previously, the status of the #RhuleofLaw defense. I studied Temple fairly intensively last offseason partly because they were an interesting team that won a fascinating league and partly because Baylor … [Read more…]
I don’t know that I want to try and rank them all again. Last year I developed a system for weighting the grades I handed out and then added it all up. This year I think I’m done with that. It’s fun content and makes for good debate but I’m not sure how valuable it … [Read more…]