Where's the Baylor Gear

Took an afternoon field trip to the PGA Superstore in Plano, TX today. It's quite the place (I think I had the same feeling that my girls has when I took the to American Girl Place). They have an entire wall devoted to various collegiate apparel. You can get Virginia Tech gear, Auburn gear, TCU gear (surprise!), OU gear, Boone State gear, Duke gear, They had Iowa State stuff (?), Red Raider stuff, Cash Machine U stuff. Nebraska? check. Kansas? Check.

Baylor? No check. Nada.

They even had North Texas stuff. Seriously. Have you even seen anyone wear North Texas gear with pride? Or even without pride. I didn't even know North Texas licensed their stuff. Figured they stopped when Hayden Fry and Mean Joe Greene left town in the early 70s. But nope, you can get it at the PGA superstore.

But Baylor? Nah. The store's in the middle of Plano, TX, home of Six Flags over Jesus (aka Prestonwood Baptist) and several other immense Baptist churches, and the good folks at the PGA superstore don't want to waste the wallspace with little Baylor Bear headcovers, puttercovers, etc, ballmarkers, etc.

I don't know who to be disgusted with...the Baylor faithful, for not buying enough of their stuff to create a market, or the PGA superstore folks who thumb their nose at Art Briles, Reverend Rob and the rest of the Bears.

Big 12 Preview - Baylor

Art Briles and Robert Griffin return for their second season in Waco, and they’ve also added Coppell stud Tyler DeLoach to the roster this year. Bruce Feldman had a nice article in ESPN the Magazine about the Baylor resurgence, and I can't figure out how to link to it. Defensive stalwarts Pawelek and Lake return on the defensive side for another year of Bear excellence. I see the Bears finishing 7-5 this year for their first winning record since 1995 and first trip to a bowl game since 1994. The Bears will win their four non-conference games, then go 1-3 in their next four against OU, Iowa State, Boone State and the Bugeaters. The Bears will then beat Mizzou, scare Texas before falling, beat the Aggies in College Station (this first Bear W in College Station since 1984) and then lose to the Dust Pirates at Cowboy Stadium to end the regular season. The big news at the season finale will be either a) Bear fans in shock that parking at Cowboys Stadium costs more than a ticket at Floyd Casey, and b) they made a home game an away game by allowing all the DFW based Tech alumni easy access to a Red Raider game.

The problem for the Bears will be they will be participating in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, where the Baylor fans will hit the casinos and hope not to be noticed by their Baptist brethren. It’ll look like Halloween in with all the people wearing Art Briles masks. The last time a group of people were so excited to be in Shreveport was 1999, when the Sooners went there in the first year of Stoops reign.

Briles' focus on fundamentals will be the key to the Bears resurgence this year.

Baylor Bears stop shooting 3s

Been meaning to do this for awhile. The Baylor Bears are mowing down opponents toward the NIT championship. A buddy was complaining to me earlier this year that the team was infatuated with the three, and wouldn't take the ball to the hole.

Bill Simmons, aka the Sports Guy, goes on a minor rant about the three pointer, talking about how it doesn't give you a change to make an assist for a higher percentage shot, or to get the defender in foul trouble. All good points.

Well...
Baylor men's team record when shooting 22 3 pointers or less: 14-5
Record when shooting 23 3 pointers or more: 9-9

If you pull out the Paul Quinns and UT-Arlingtons from their schedule, the difference is even more.

22 or less: 10-5
23+: 4-9

It wouldn't surprise me if other teams had similar records, but I'm too tired to look it up.

Gentlemen Bears win postseason game

The Baylor Bears won their first postseason game since 1950 on Wednesday night, when they defeated the Georgetown Hoyas. To give you a sense of how long 1950 ago was, the federal budget deficit for 1950 was $3.1 billion, and total expenditures were $42.5 billion.

$42.5 billion can’t even get you a good bailout anymore.


Congrats to the Bears.

Stolen Thoughts 02-14-09

Baylor is recruiting athletes with weed - I mean speed - to burn

Texas Tech and Texas will play Sat night on Sep 19. This game will be in the middle of a murderer's row of games for the Horns, Louisiana-Monroe, then Wyoming (on the road!), then the Dust Pirates, and they close out the month with the UTEP Miners in Austin. Texas had done a good job of avoiding a repeat of last year's Oklahoma-Missouri-Oklahoma State-Texas Tech gauntlet. Looks like they flipped Central Florida and Texas Tech. This is taking a tip from the SEC, where most teams sneak in a Sun Belt or Southern conference foe in the middle of the conference grind.

According to some, Matt Simms, younger bro of Longhorn alum Chris Simms, is eyeing Oklahoma after a stint at juco this fall.

the Sixth Seal: Cosmic Disturbances

Baylor wins 41-21. They let up on the Aggies. This game is historical for the Bears. It's only the 6th time in 105 contests that the Bears have won by 20 or more. It's the first time for a 20+ margin of victory in Waco since November 28, 1901. According to the internets, that day is also marked by the date that the Alabama constitution was modified to require literacy tests to vote. This was viewed as a way to disenfranchise African Americans. Fortunately for all, the Alabama constitution does not require literacy to play football for the Tide, nor is it required to be a Tide fan.

Barring an epic upset by the Aggies over the Longhorns in two weeks, the Bears will be 5th in the Big 12 at the end of the season. It will mark only the second time in the history of the Big 12 that Baylor has finished 5th in the big 12. The other instance was in 2005, when GuyMo's Bears finished ahead of Boone State in Coach Hair Gel's first season as head coach.

The Cash Machine is broken

Baylor scores again to take a 41-7 lead over TAMU. For you historians, this is the second time in 105 games that Baylor has exceeded 40 points. The other times were Nov 28, 1901, when the Bears won 46-0, and Oct 18, 1980, when the Bears won 46-7.

OU - BU Preview

Fox Sports showed the 2005 Baylor-OU game last night, it was a 37-30 Sooner win in OT.

I didn't need to be reminded of that. Let's see how they match up this year.

Offense		Led by Coach Art Briles and Reverend Robert, the Bears are 26th in total offense and 30th in scoring offense. They'v edone this against some decent defensive foes, like Wake Forest and U Conn. While a tremendous improvement, the Sooners still hold the edge.
Defense		Baylor is 36th in total defense and 65th Scoring defense.Last year they finished 110th and 112th in these categories. These numbers will drop as they get into Big 12 play. The Sooner defense ranks higher, but has been relatively untested.
Special Teams		The Sooners ranking in net punting, punt returns and kick return defense reads like my test scores in Theory of Coaching: 95, 86, 104.
Dual Threat QBs		Reverend Robert won the Big 12 hurdles last year (when he shoulda been at the prom. He leads his team in rushing and is 10th in the nation in pass efficiency. At a similar stage in his career, our dual threat QB was so good at working Big Red Sports he did it double time. He's lighting it up as a senior at Sam Houston State, though.
Guaranteeing Wins		All the info right here.
Coaching		This got a whole lot closer this year.
Bowl Game Records		Did you know Baylor is 3-2 in it's last 5 bowl games. Did you know Grant Teaff was the last BU coach to coach a victory in a bowl game, and the 5 bowl games takes you back to 1985.BU has gone to bowl games in consecutive seasons 3 times in their history. OU has gone to a bowl game the last 9 years.

The Sooners are 17-0 against the Bears.
It should get to 18-0 on Saturday.

Signs of the Apocalypse, part 2

Here's a blog of a U Conn football player who praises the speed of Baylor and Robert Griffin.

Job 1:20

Back when President Red Andrews covered the B over at Bearmeat, he often related his coverage of the football game to Scripture. Out of respect for Red, we're doing the same tonight. Job 1:21 says "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

Twice the Bears made defensive stops in their own territory, picking UConn passes off to avert a score. Early in the fourth quarter, the Bears were given a new life with a roughing the passer penalty that erased a Robert Griffin interception. The Bears marched the rest of the way to the end zone, capped off by Griffin's third TD pass of the night to take a 28-24 lead. The Bears even held the Huskies to a three and out on their next possession, but a 55 yard punt pinned the Bears in the shadow of their own goalposts. Three plays and a near safety later, the Bears punted from their own 9. A 35 yard punt was fumbled by the Huskies, but Jordan Lake was penalized for kick catch interference. A replay of the play showed a Husky attempting to block Lake was the one to run into his own player, causing the melee that pushed the ball back into Connecticut territory. Nonetheless, the penalty stood. Instead of a Husky drive starting on their side of the field, they were now starting on the Bear 29.

The B defense had made necessary stops all night, but wasn't able to on this occasion, and UConn took a lead they would never relinquish. Griffin drove the Bears to the UConn 29 late in the fourth, but a fourth down pass to Kendall Wright fell incomplete and Connecticutt ran out the clock.

Robert Griffin has to be exceeding all expectations. I had figured the Cream, as Art Briles calls him, would be starting QB this year, but I had estimated he would be a typical freshman, with a maddening mix of phenomenal plays and astoundingly inept plays. His inept plays are few and far between, and the superior plays by far outweigh them.

Griffin is not the only good football player on this team. Pawelek is a force as a linebacker while Wright, Gettis and Finley are genuine offensive threats and are benefiting tremendously from Griffin on the field and Briles pulling the strings on the sideline.

UConn is a good football team. This team went 9-4 in 2007, and beat Rutgers and South Florida last year. The Bears nearly pulled off a road win against a team of this caliber, and they've definitely shown they're going to cause some trouble in the Big 12 this year.

Maybe that writer who picked them ahead of the Aggie in the Big 12 South new something after all.

Baylor Motivational Poster Revisited

Upon further consideration of the Baylor season, I have revised my Baylor motivational poster. This is done for two reasons: 1) to see if poopsandwich is still alive; and 2) the forbidden mancrush I have on Coach Art Briles.

Big 12 South #6

Today we kickoff our previews of the Big 12 South. We're avoiding actual facts and stuff and previewing using motivational posters created with the tools at diy.despair.com, and pictures commandeered from the internet.

We'll start off the South Division with the Bears from Waco, Texas. They've got a new coach, a little bit of Weed, and a five star QB on campus, as well as a murderous schedule. We know at Baylor, they pursue Excellence. And sometimes they touch it.

Hope for Baylor Fans

Earlier this week, we here at LandTheives unearthed this photo of ESPN internet sensation Erin Andrews doing her version of the Sic Em Bears cheer. So what if she's using the wrong hand.

This is just another example of the Baylor Bear program is getting national attention.

LandThieves contacted Ms. Andrews to see if she would elaborate on how she became familiar with the Sic Em Bears cheer. Erin seemed very personable as she said, "Who? What?", then she hung up.

Brent Musberger then called me back and threatened to beat me with the bags under his eyes.

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

Here at LandThieves, our #1 non-Sooner player is Baylor senior John David Weed. Today, we decided to do a little research to see how the Weed is faring this spring. I was hoping he was blossoming into a starter.

A perusal of the WacoTrib site indicates John David Weed is playing receiver. Or he would be, but has a broken hand. A review of the Baylor roster on the web site indicates JDW is playing two different positions; IR per the alphabetical sort and QB per the numerical roster. Frankly, I know what IR is in pro football, in Art Briles schemes, IR could mean Injured Reserve, Inside Receiver, if I Retire you can play. I did find out today that to develop weed, they develop stronger outside. I'm sure that's the reason JDW was moved out from under center. Here at LandThieves, we'll keep you posted.

LandThieves also noted that Coppell great Tyler Deloach is listed in two different positions as well, once as QB, once as a WR.

With Briles devising plays, he might just put 5 QB/WRs on the field at once, and rotate them at all positions. The double reverse pass could become commonplace in the Big 12 South.

Dang, that was fun...

Watched the game last night and what a doozy that was. First of all, I felt horrible for Curtis Jerrells. He played an outstanding game up to the point where we went 0-2 from the line with :01 second left in OT. Second, first time I've watch an entire Baylor game. They are fun to watch. I was quite impressed with the way BU rallied after the scrum at 4:58 where Mark Shepard was ejected. Drew took the Bears to small ball and they roared back into the game. the Bears scored 21 points in the last 4:30 of regulation. If my calc's are correct, the Bears made 6-9 from the field during that stretch. Never mind the matador D the Sooners played during that time.

Blake Griffin had a monster game against the smaller Bears, scoring 29 and grabbing 17 boards. BG went 13-17 from the line,which is remarkable for him. The ESPN highlights on the web don't show a couple of spectacular dunks by Griffin, one on a fast break, bounce it off the backboard (assist by Austin Johnson), the other on a great give and go with Longar Longar.

The four point play by Crocker came on a three pointer that looked like Crocker spent more time looking for contact than he did trying to make the shot, but he managed to make the shot and draw contact.

Other random thoughts on the game. Bears reserve to be named later was ejected for coming off the bench in a peacemaker role. I understand the need for the rule, but I hate it when someone gets kicked out for brining the peace. The Sooners were 4-5 from 3 point land in OT, an impressive feat.

Next up for the Sooners are the dreaded Horns.

Congrats to the Baylor Bears

the Baylor Mens BB team appears to be for real this year, and I must acknowledge this for the Bear fans that "invest" their time at landthieves. They just finished beating Cash Machine U at College Station, in a 5 OT game. No TV here in the Dallas area for the game. It'll probably be an instant classic on WBAP radio.

We'll see if the Sooners can't fare better at the Ferrell Center on Saturday.

Baylor QB Update

There's an old joke about a Sooner moving to Texas and improving the IQ of both states. That joke came to mind when I read this morning that Kirby Freeman enrolled at Baylor and has one year of eligibility remaining. But seriously folks, Freeman was a highly touted recruit way back when, and I'm not sure he received the best instruction at the U that last four years. If Briles can coach him into a servicable QB for the Bears - or coach up one of the existing QBs in the mix, based upon how they looked last year - he will be worth more than the money the B is paying him.

Guy Morriss's next gig...

has not yet been determined. Many of you Baylor fans are sure to spend your days and nights following old Bear coaches. Well, seems like GuyMo, as our friend President Red Andrews called him, was contemplating an offer to become the Head ball coach at Boyle County High in Kentucky, but has declilned. Seems like the team liked to get High (#16), but that was negated by a Priest (#74) and a Mormon (#75) on the squad.

Going where no man would go...

not many Sooner sports blogs are covering the Baylor Bears like we do here. Frankly, when my options for coverage are 1) season review of women's volleyball; 2) analysis of the mens bb loss to Stephen Freaking Austin; 3) covering women's hoops, I'm going to say, "hey, what's up with Baylor?"

part of that is the fascination with BU coach Art Briles. I loved watching Stephenville play when Briles was a h.s. coach, and Houston's been a treat to watch with Briles at the helm. Today the Waco Trib posted a couple of interviews with Briles, and one comment caught my attention.

Jerry Hill asked, "What's the between our offense and the offense we'll see
under you?" Briles response was, "The difference is we finished 10th in the
nation in rushing this year (239.92 yards per game). That’s one of the
differences. But at the same time, we’ve thrown for over 3,000 yards every
season. Which isn’t great, but it’s not bad. It’s throwing it around a little
bit."

Being the investigative journalist that I am, I decided to look at the BU record book. The Bears have thrown for over 3000 yards in a season twice - in 2006 and 2007. Things could be looking up for the Bears.

Baylor Hires Art Briles

As I had mentioned earlier this week, I think this is a great choice for Baylor. Around the state and nationally, folks are saying "Good hire" on Briles. One of my fav sites, www.coacheshotseat.com, has a good analysis of Briles that is encouraging to the Bear faithful. Hopefully, Briles will still be there in 8 years when my older daughter gets there. Not that she'll care.