More of the same at Baylor
There will be no Big Bang Briles at Baylor. The Art Briles Era began with a thud Thursday night; the Bears lost 41-13 to Wake Forest at Floyd Casey Stadium, and it appears to be another meager season for Baylor football.
Baylor is void of a winning season since formation of the Big 12 in 1996, and Briles is the fifth coach being asked to win in a league in which every other school in the league has more advantages than does Baylor.
Briles did a solid job at Houston U., but strange why anyone thought Briles would be a big improvement over Guy Morriss. Morriss did a good job at Baylor; he didn’t win enough games, but he was a good coach.
Briles probably is, too, though his choice of quarterbacks was dubious. Briles started Miami transfer Kirby Freeman, who looked awful, which is how he looked at Miami. Freeman played at Owen Field last season and couldn’t throw a lick. So he’s supposed to lead Baylor’s pass-happy offense?
Briles soon went to redshirt freshman Robert Griffin III, a fantastic athlete who was a Big 12 hurdles champ last spring. Griffin can’t throw much better but is a load to bring down. He might have a future. Which is more than we might be able to say about Briles.
Wake Forest is a very solid team, thanks to Jim Grobe, as good a coach as there is in the business. Still amazing that the Demon Deacons made it to the Orange Bowl two years ago. But no way should Baylor lose by 28 points at home to a fellow Baptist school.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
What happened to Blake Szymanski? He threw for 280 yards against OU. I mean against Walker, Harris, Smith, and the bunch he did that…but he didn’t even get a shot against Wake? That makes no sense. No way does Wake have the secondary OU did last year. He also thew for 400 yards three times including against Colorado…I mean Briles knows QBs…look at his last star…but still…not Szymanski? I just don’t understand…unless he was injured.
Berry,
Being a Baptist pastor I can tell you with experience that Baptists are best at fighting one another. And Baylor is only Baptist by heritage and have long since become another Harvard or Yale by giving up its founding purpose and become thoroughly secular. About Wake Forest, I do not know but the name Demon Deacon does not exactly inspire visions of caring undershepherds.
Baylor needs to join CUSA and we need to ask Colorado State to join B-12.