This isn’t your older brother’s Baylor University football team. The days of Big 12 football fans everywhere penning a “W” next to the name on the pocket schedule before the season starts no longer apply.
Before taking the spanking last Saturday that every conference team takes from the University of Texas, Baylor was riding a three-game Big 12 winning streak, a feat Kansas University never has achieved.
The Bears of Guy Morriss are tied for first in the nation with 20 takeaways, including 13 interceptions. Moving to the other side of the ball, Baylor has an explosive passing game, using a spread offense similar to that of Texas Tech.
Oklahoma State’s Adarius Bowman, often matched up against speed-challenged linebackers, torched KU’s defense for 300 yards and four touchdowns. Baylor has two of the Big 12’s top receivers. Trent Shelton has 600 receiving yards and five touchdowns. Dominique Zeigler has 331 yards and one touchdown.
KU’s ability to stop the run is close to irrelevant against this opponent, which has 274 net rushing yards seven games into the season. Baylor’s strength, a passing game led by steadily improving quarterback Shawn Bell, plays into KU’s weakness.
The Jayhawks aren’t going anywhere for a bowl game unless they can defend the pass. Confidence will play a role in their ability to do so, and the better the passing team that’s shut down, the better they would feel about themselves. Looking at it that way, it’s not a bad time to be playing Baylor because of how a victory could help KU the rest of the way.
“The kids realize, hey, they’re coming after us, they are going to throw the ball a lot,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “They realize they are really going to test us. We have to be at our best.”
Bottom line: If KU is good enough to win in Waco, it’s reasonable to believe it could win two more against a remaining schedule of home games against Colorado and Kansas State and visits to Iowa State and Missouri.
A loss in Waco would put KU eight weeks into the season winless on the road and in conference, and with the signature victory being 13-7 at home over South Florida. It also would mean KU would need to win three of its final four to get to six victories, the minimum required for a bowl bid. Mathematically, Saturday’s game isn’t a must-win for a bowl bid. Realistically, it is.
Save the speech about a 2005 team that also was 3-4. Those Jayhawks had senior leadership on a defense that featured a trio of players (Charlton Keith, Nick Reid and Brandon Perkins) who made a habit of hurrying the quarterback.
Weaknesses, such as safety Jerome Kemp’s speed when trying to cover the pass, could be hidden with all that talent. There is no hiding anything on this defense.
“We tell the players this is what we’re faced with and you have the opportunity to step up and continue to improve, or you can go into a shell, and if you do that as a young player, we’re really going to be concerned about you as an older player because those are habits that are hard to break,” Mangino said. “It’s part of their makeup. We don’t anticipate we have any kids like that.”
But do the Jayhawks have the talent to win?
