It’s open season on Bears
Critics slam schedule, but stretch starting with Oklahoma this week will decide fate
WACO — A rare Saturday off gave Baylor players a chance to relax and reflect on their season but also hear many doubters, too.
Freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham spent most of the day in a deer blind with his friends and family, decompressing after his first college start two days earlier at Kansas State.
Most of his other teammates were back home in Waco, unwinding as they watched action from around the country.
While there, they also couldn’t miss hearing doubts about their 8-0 team, ranked No. 6 behind one-loss teams Alabama and Notre Dame in the first two College Football Playoff polls.
It’s led the Bears to arguably be the most scrutinized and polarizing team in college football heading into their key game Saturday against Oklahoma.
That game begins a brutal three-game stretch in 13 days that also will include road games at Oklahoma State and TCU.
“People are going to talk regardless,” Baylor junior wide receiver Corey Coleman said. “There’s always going to be some negativity. But you’re doing things right if they are talking about you.”
CFP committee chairman Jeff Long admitted as much last week, saying the Bears were the toughest of any national title contender to gauge because of their weak schedule to date.
ESPN analysts David Pollack and Desmond Howard led the
chorus of doubters, even after the Bears’ 31-24 road victory at KSU. That narrow triumph and Baylor’s previous schedule made it difficult for them to be taken seriously as legitimate national title contenders, both analysts said.
Other Baylor players claimed they weren’t listening too closely, but they still knew all about the national narrative on their team.
“If I’m not mistaken, ESPN is for the Entertainment Sports Network, and they are just trying to entertain people,” Baylor senior tackle Spencer Drango said. “Some have good points, and others don’t. But I don’t really pay that much attention to any of the talking heads.”
The Bears will have a golden opportunity Saturday night to burnish their national reputation and shut up some of their doubters when the Sooners visit. ESPN’s “College Game Day” will set up shop in Waco this week, giving Baylor all of the inherent advantages of being the prime game in the national spotlight this weekend.
“There are going to be a lot of eyes on us,” Baylor sophomore nickel back Travon Blanchard said. “We’re going to be
playing against a really good Oklahoma team. This could be a statement game for everyone who doesn’t think that we have a really good defense or for anyone who doubts our team as a whole.”
The Bears have the nation’s longest home winning streak at 20 games and can boast success in late-season games. Since 2011, Baylor is 21-4 in games after October.
“You can say what you want, but when you look up in November, we are still around,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “When you play us, it is going to be a tough out regardless of the location or the nature of the game. We are going to stay, we are going to fight, and we are going to find a way to win.”
Many were doubting Stidham before his first college start, necessitated by a season-ending neck injury to starter Seth Russell. But after Stidham passed for 419 yards and three touchdowns against Kansas State, fewer are wondering about him today than last week.
“It definitely put a chip on my shoulder,” Stidham said. “I came to Baylor to play as soon as possible. This circumstance happened, here I am starting and everything, and I definitely want to play with that chip on my shoulder. We’re going to keep rolling on all cylinders, like I was telling the guys last week.”
The Bears have faced no ranked opponents to date, with non-conference foes SMU, Lamar and Rice accounting for a schedule strength of 89th in the most recent Sagarin ratings. It is the lowest of any school in a Power Five conference.
But Baylor’s remaining schedule — its opponents are a cumulative 27-7 — ranks seventh among FBS teams.
“All the people talking are just saying the competition we’ve had earlier in the season wasn’t as competitive as other teams we’re going against,” Baylor junior running back Shock Linwood said. “But this backstretch is going to help us out tremendously. “We couldn’t ask for a better finish. And coming up after this week, we’ll really see who’s going to be the Big 12 champions.”