Tag Archives: Baylor

No. 46: Baylor

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Robert Griffin III is gone, off to Washington, where he has already won the hearts of the burgundy-and-gold clad faithful, to no one’s surprise. He’ll be seen again in Waco, but only in highlight montages — he has time… launches it into the end zone… touchdown! — and on the odd fall Saturday, should he be free of all N.F.L. obligations. All that’s left are records, plenty of records, along with a duplicate of the greatest individual award in amateur sports, as well as the sort of imprint that comes only with being the finest player in program history. That’s no hyperbole: There’s Griffin, followed by a solid gap, then there’s Mike Singletary, then there’s Don Trull, and then there’s everybody else. So how does Baylor recover from losing the most transcendent figure in program history, not to mention losing him one year ahead of schedule?

Conference
Big 12

Location
Waco, Tex.

Nickname
Bears

Returning starters
14 (6 offense, 8 defense)

Last year’s ranking
No. 64

2011 record
(10-3, 6-3)

Last year’s
re-ranking
No. 15

2012 schedule

Sept. 2
S.M.U.
Sept. 15
Sam Houston St.
Sept. 21
at La.-Monroe
Sept. 29
at West Virginia
Oct. 13
T.C.U.
Oct. 20
at Texas
Oct. 27
at Iowa St.
Nov. 3
Kansas
Nov. 10
at Oklahoma
Nov. 17
Kansas St.
Nov. 24
Texas Tech
Dec. 1
Oklahoma St.

Last year’s prediction

Baylor will again be carried by this offense. Griffin is in the Heisman mix, though his team’s record is probably going to prevent him from being too viable a national candidate. Baylor might be even more potent offensively than it was a year ago, in fact. But the defense is a question mark: replacing Taylor will be a chore, and Baylor needs several sophomores to step up and produce in major roles. But this isn’t the Baylor of 2006 or 2007; this is the Baylor of 2011, which has the talent and coaching to go toe-to-toe with the rest of the Big 12. There are some issues to address, but I’d be very surprised if Baylor doesn’t get to at least six wins and return to bowl play.

2011 recap

In a nutshell This wasn’t the best team in program history. That title goes to the Singletary-led and Grant Teaff-coached team from 1980, which won the Southwest Conference and might have been in the line for the national title had it not — somehow — lost to San Jose State in early November. Last year’s Bears were the second-best team in school history, however, and certainly featured the best offense and best player since the program’s inception in 1899. How many other F.B.S. teams can say the same about their 2011 offense? I count five, including Baylor: Houston, Southern Mississippi, Louisiana-Lafayette and Oklahoma State. And no team, other than Baylor, can say that they were led by the best player in school history. Just how good was Griffin? His impact was so broad, so vast and so wide-ranging that it will be felt in Waco for generations. You know that $250 million stadium Baylor’s planning to build along the Bravos? Try this: Griffin Field at Baylor Stadium.

High point Beating Oklahoma, something Baylor hadn’t done since, well, ever. Zero wins against 20 losses heading into 2011; one win against 20 losses heading into 2012. Beating Texas the way it did — with such ease and confidence — sent a pretty clear message: If you were still on the fence, the win proved that this wasn’t your older brother’s Baylor.

Low point Baylor still went 1-3 in Big 12 road games, highlighting the sort of road deficiencies that have plagued the program for a generation. The final loss on the season, a 59-24 defeat at Oklahoma State that was even worse than the final score indicated, dropped the Bears to 4-3 overall, 1-3 in conference play.

Tidbit Just how good was Baylor’s offense last fall? The Bears scored a school-record 589 points, which is only 96 fewer points than the program scored over Kevin Steele’s entire four-year tenure from 1999-2002. The offense as a whole has taken an enormous step forward under Briles’ direction. Last year’s total ranks first in the school’s record book; the 406 points scored in 2010 ranks second; and the 336 points scored in 2008, Briles’ first season with the program, ranks sixth.

Tidbit (defense edition) In a way, Griffin was able to win the Heisman because of the impotency of Baylor’s defense – to win games, the Bears needed the offense to run a full tilt for nearly 60 minutes every Saturday. Just how bad was this defense? Baylor ranked 118th nationally against the pass, 102nd against the run, 116th in total defense and 113th in scoring. As if that’s not bad enough: If you remove from the equation Baylor’s one game against an F.C.S. opponent, a 48-0 win against Sam Houston State, the Bears would have ranked last in the F.B.S. against the pass (305.2 yards per game), 107th against the run (206.8 yards), 119th in total defense (511.9 yards) and 117th in scoring (40.3 points per game). Actually, that’s not much worse – though Baylor couldn’t drop much lower.

Tidbit (line pipeline edition) Baylor, Wisconsin and Iowa are the only three schools in the country to have had at least one offensive lineman taken in each of the last four N.F.L. Drafts. The Bears and Badgers are the only two to have a linemen taking in one of the first four rounds in each of the last four years. Baylor’s run began with Jason Smith, who was taken second overall in the 2009 draft; center J.D. Walton was taken in the third round a year later; guard Danny Watkins in the first round in 2011; and center Philip Blake in the fourth round and guard Robert Griffin in the sixth round during this past April’s festivities. I always referred to the latter as RG336, his listed playing weight — I’m pretty sure that it never caught on.

Tidbit (recruiting edition) This past winter’s recruiting class was the program’s first under Briles without at least three JUCO prospects. The Bears signed three players off the JUCO ranks in 2008, followed by four in 2009, three in 2010 and five in 2011. But Briles inked one only JUCO recruit in February, and did so only at a position of extreme need, linebacker. This winter’s class was also the third straight to rank among the top 50 nationally, according to Rivals.com. In so many ways, this is not the Baylor of old – or even the Baylor of the very recent past.

Former players in the N.F.L.

19 S Mikail Baker (Kansas City), C Philip Blake (Denver), K Matt Bryant (Atlanta), LB Elliot Coffey (Denver), RB Terrance Ganaway (New York Jets), WR David Gettis (Carolina), WR Josh Gordon (Cleveland), OG Robert Griffin (New York Jets), QB Robert Griffin III (Washington), DT Nicolas Jean-Baptiste (Baltimore), DE Tracy Robertson (Houston), OT Jason Smith (St. Louis), TE Justin Snow (Indianapolis), DT Phillip Taylor (Cleveland), C J.D. Walton (Denver), OG Danny Watkins (Philadelphia), LS Jon Weeks (Houston), CB C.J. Wilson (Dallas), WR Kendall Wright (Tennessee).

Arbitrary top five list

Redskins’ quarterbacks saviors since 1990
1. Robert Griffin III.
2. Heath Shuler.
3. Jeff George.
4. Jason Campbell.
5. Patrick Ramsey.

Coaching

Art Briles (Texas Tech ’79), 25-25 after four seasons with the Bears. After a pair of four-win seasons, Briles got the Bears back into bowl play in 2010 after a 16-year absence. Last fall, Briles led Baylor to what can safely be called the most satisfying finish in school history – though I do think that Baylor’s 1980 squad was the best in program history. Sound easy? Not quite: Baylor has so long been a Big 12 afterthought that this Briles-led transition entailed not only rehabbing an entire roster but also the psyche of an entire program. His debut season, 2008, was a good start. The Bears scored 336 points (28.0 points per game), their most since scoring 362 in 1994, and made great strides as a team despite playing a schedule that featured six ranked opponents, three of which were ranked in the top 10. The program’s overall improvement has already been felt on the recruiting trail, as Briles has hauled in five of the most impressive Baylor recruiting classes in recent memory. While at Houston, Briles inherited a program two years removed from an 0-11 campaign and went 34-28 over five seasons (2003-7), making four bowl appearances. In 2003, Briles led the team to a 7-6 finish with a trip to the Hawaii Bowl, making him only the second coach in school history to reach postseason play in his first season with the program. After going a combined 9-14 from 2004-5, Briles went 10-4 in 2006 and 8-4 in 2007, again leading the Cougars to bowl play. Prior to being hired at Houston, Briles spent three seasons as the running backs coach at Texas Tech (2000-2) under Mike Leach. Briles also spent 12 highly successful seasons as the head coach at Stephenville High School in Texas (the alma mater of Kevin Kolb, his record-setting quarterback at Houston), where he won a pair of back-to-back Texas state championships in 1993-4 and 1998-99. His prep experience has paid enormous dividends in recruiting, as Briles remains a popular and respected figure among the all-important Texas high school coaching ranks.

Players to watch

Baylor will replace Griffin with senior Nick Florence, and a team could do worse when it comes to a first-year starter. That’s because Florence isn’t a neophyte, having taken significant snaps in each of the last three seasons and, in 2009, starting seven of the year’s final eight games after Griffin suffered a knee injury. He threw for at least 200 yards in six of those starts, including a 427-yard performance in Baylor’s upset win over Missouri to open November.

Briles had hoped to provide a year of separation between his unquestioned starter and top backup by putting a redshirt on Florence in 2011. That plan went out the window at halftime against Texas Tech, when Griffin slammed his head to the turf when scrambling outside the pocket late in the second quarter — after sitting a play, Griffin returned to the field in time to score on a three-yard touchdown run. In came Florence, who led the Bears to four offensive touchdowns over the game’s final 30 minutes. On the afternoon, and in one half of work, Florence completed 9 of 12 attempts for 151 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added another 14 yards and a score on the ground. Not Griffin, but certainly Griffin-like: cold and rusty, expecting his redshirt season to continue, Florence had the best half of his college career. Ratchet up the expectations surrounding his senior season, right?

Well, let’s get this out of the way: Florence is no Griffin. And no one is — or few are, seeing that Cam Newton was pretty good, and pretty good fairly recently. What Florence is, however, is the end result of three full seasons spent ingesting every aspect of Art Briles’ offense, and that should be enough to keep things interesting on the offensive side of the ball. Florence’s ascension to the full-time starting role underlines the most salient fact surrounding this team heading into 2012: Baylor must trust the system. It’s a system that works, and doesn’t necessarily need a Griffin at the helm to win games in conference play. That never hurts, of course, and that Baylor only had two other quarterbacks on the roster in 2011 does indicate that the program wasn’t entirely expecting Griffin to leave after his junior season.

While Briles has yet to officially anoint Florence as his starter, there’s very little chance that he doesn’t hold the top spot when Baylor kicks off its season in September. Beyond holding more experience than your normal first-year starter, Florence is far more well-versed in this system than sophomore Bryce Petty, his competition for the starting job. Florence will be fine – he won’t be Griffin, but he’ll be fine.

Baylor’s response to losing two starters off last year’s very strong offensive line was to take the three returning starters and move them into new positions. If that sounds illogical, well, think again. What the Bears have done is create a rock-solid interior: Ivory Wade moves from right tackle to center, replacing Philip Blake; Cameron Kaufhold moves from right to left guard, replacing Robert Griffin – the other one; and Cyril Richardson moves from left tackle to left guard, taking over for Kaufhold. For a team that must run the ball effectively to win games during Big 12 play, these changes create a trio that should move defenders between the tackles.

So it’s a series of moves that make sense, even if they run contrary to traditional thought – typically, a staff will stick with the status quo and simply promote last season’s reserves into starting roles. The lone negative, of course, is that the Bears are going to move forward with two very inexperienced starters at left and right tackle. Redshirt freshman Spencer Drango, once a national recruit, steps in on the blind side; sophomore Troy Baker has the inside track to the starting role on the strong side. With a less mobile quarterback taking snaps, the lack of proven production at tackle is a bit of a concern. But the benefits of creating a superb interior outweigh the drawbacks.

With all the talk of the one who got away – Kendall Wright, with bonus points for would-be starter Josh Gordon, who would have played a huge role had he not been dismissed from the program last summer – it’s easy to forget just how much Baylor returns at wide receiver. In all, the Bears bring back six of last season’s top seven at the position; this is a group led by senior Terrance Williams (59 receptions for 977 yards), junior Tevin Reese (51 for 877) and senior Lanear Sampson (42 for 572).

At the moment – and on paper – what this group lacks is a attention-grabbing top target. The health of the passing game hinges on Williams’s ability to fill Wright’s shoes as Florence’s go-to receiver. He was overshadowed by Wright last fall, but Williams has the ability to post an all-American-caliber season: 90-plus catches, around 1,350 yards, 10 or more touchdowns. He lines up outside, flanked on the opposite side by Sampson, the team’s fastest receiver. Reese will again line up inside, as he did a year ago, and must again give Baylor a deep threat in order to open up the intermediate passing game. Joining Reese inside will be sophomore Levi Norwood, who made six grabs last fall to go with solid work in the return game. The Bears recently added another target in Michigan transfer Darryl Stonum, though it’s hard to predict whether he’ll be able to crack the two-deep so late in the game. No Wright, no problem: Baylor has enough weapons to keep the passing game humming.

Baylor’s defense left 2011 on a low note, even if the Bears were able to outscore Keith Price and Washington in the Alamo Bowl. As at U.W., the putrid bowl performance was no exception to the rule; this defense was incompetent from late September on, not just in San Antonio, and must make some significant strides this fall to offset what should be a decline in production on offensive side of the ball. In Baylor’s favor is experience, with eight returning starters; proven production, with eight of last year’s top nine tacklers back in the fold; and the fact that this fall marks the program’s second season under defensive coordinator Phil Bennett.

You’ll see an improved effort in 2012. For one, the Bears’ talented core is rapidly accumulating valuable experience both in the starting lineup and in key reserve roles; last year’s two-deep included six sophomore starters and another seven freshmen and sophomores in backup roles. As elsewhere – and this is applicable even in the high-flying Big 12 – these youthful defenders, many of whom were top-ranked recruits, are entering the point in their careers when the light turns on.

The greatest growth will take place in the secondary, where Baylor returns the entire back end of its 4-2-5 defense – I’m counting among this group junior Ahmad Dixon (89 tackles, 5.5 for loss), a hybrid safety-linebacker. Dixon fills the in-the-box role among Baylor’s three safeties; the more traditional roles are held by senior Mike Hicks (105 tackles, 3 interceptions) and junior Sam Holl (113 tackles, 3 interceptions), two reigning all-Big 12 picks. In fact, Dixon, Holl, Hicks and cornerback K.J. Morton (75 tackles, 4 picks) earned all-conference accolades last fall – a surprising fact when considering how poorly the Bears defended the pass.

Morton holds the key. Last fall, the former JUCO transfer began turning a corner over the year’s final four or five games; he seemed more at ease and far less tentative than he was over the season’s first two months. Morton is also the closest Baylor has to a stopper at cornerback, and it’s impossible to overvalue the trickle-down effect a clear-cut all-conference cornerback would have on the rest of this defense. He’s joined at cornerback by junior Joe Williams (43 tackles), who started the final eight games of last season.

Secondary play will define Baylor’s season. So why should the Bears’ secondary do a better job in 2012? One reason is the increased experience. A second is Morton’s projected development; thrown into the fire last fall, his development throughout the season bodes well for his future in Waco. A third is the increased depth, which is a byproduct of all this returning experience. One final reason is the increased knowledge of what it takes to run Bennett’s system. There’s little doubt that players like Morton, Dixon and these safeties will be far more comfortable running his scheme in 2012.

A bigger issue is the heart of this defense: Baylor breaks in new starters at tackle and at middle linebacker. When it comes to the line, Bennett and the Bears won’t have to look far for answers. Kaeron Johnson and Nick Johnson, both seniors, move into the starting lineup at nose guard and tackle, respectively, after backing up Nicolas Jean-Baptiste and Tracy Robertson a season ago. Both are intriguing prospects: Kaeron opened his career at fullback, starting four games as a sophomore, before being moved to defense heading into last season; Nick, a former JUCO transfer, gave Baylor some burst last fall as the third tackle.

They won’t be asked to do much: just occupy blockers. Doing so would not only keep Baylor’s linebackers clean but also open up lanes for ends Gary Mason Jr. (26 tackles, 8.0 for loss) and Terrance Lloyd (36 tackles, 7.0 for loss), who must do a better job bringing pressure off the edge. One player who could make an impact on passing downs is junior Chris McAllister, a converted linebacker entering his second season with his hand on the ground. As a team, getting to the quarterback is one of this defense’s major weaknesses.

The Bears will break in a pair of new starters at linebacker, barring a shakeup in August. On the weak side, JUCO transfer Eddie Lackey vaulted to the top of depth chart with a great spring – Lackey is yet another example of how enrolling early can pay enormous dividends, especially when it comes to a player coming off the JUCO ranks. Sophomore Bryce Hager (13 tackles) will step in at middle linebacker, replacing Elliot Coffey. If Hager makes one big play for every ounce of praise heaped upon his play during the spring… well, he’ll be an all-American.

There’s also some solid depth at linebacker, as in the secondary – defensive backs like Prince Kent, Chance Casey, who is working his way back from a knee injury, and Josh Wilson will see the field in certain packages. Hager will be backed up by senior Rodney Chadwick (68 tackles), a starter at outside linebacker in 2011. Once again, junior Brody Trahan provides support on the weak side.

It’s important to keep things in perspective. Baylor is going to get an improved effort out of its defense in 2012, but this group is not going to jump from Kansas territory into Texas territory, to use a Big 12 example. But improvement is improvement; the Bears are not going to rank among the bottom 20 nationally, it’s safe to say, and could even make a move into the top six in the league if the secondary plays up to its overall talent. Most of all, this group will help offset a projected decline from Baylor’s offense.

Thanks to four years of very solid results on the recruiting trail, Baylor’s special teams should be the best of Briles’ tenure. Junior kicker Aaron Jones had an off year last fall – even if set a new school record for points – but showed his leg in 2010, when he made five of eight kicks of 40-plus yards. He has a big leg, as does sophomore punter Spencer Roth; the Bears also have more snappers than they know what to do with. All that this group needs is a bit more explosiveness in the return game.

Position battle(s) to watch

Running back Any chance that Florence has of ably filling Griffin’s shoes – and, by extension, any chance this offense has of scoring enough points to win five games in Big 12 play – hinges on the wherewithal of a running game that must replace Terrance Ganaway, one of the nation’s most underappreciated skill players as a senior. Why Ganaway flew in under the radar is simple; he was sharing a backfield with the most acclaimed quarterback in the sport, after all. But his importance cannot be overestimated: Ganaway’s play gave the Bears tremendous balance on offense.

Briles will obviously continue to place heavy emphasis on the running game. For one, his offense has always been slanted towards the run – especially in Griffin’s first season, back in 2008, and again last fall, when Baylor’s offense was among the five best in the country. Secondly, even if Florence is more experienced than your typical first-year starter he’ll need significant help on the ground. Three backs will be tasked with maintaining Baylor’s success on the ground: senior Jarred Salubi (331 yards), junior Glasco Martin (268 yards) and sophomore Lache Seastrunk.

Salubi has played a fairly big role in each of the last two years, backing up Jay Finley in 2010 – rushing for 215 yards on 8.7 yards per carry – and Ganaway a season ago. He’s proven; Baylor knows that he’ll produce, even lending some support as a safety valve for Florence as a receiver, but Salubi has yet to indicate an ability to serve as the Bears’ every-down back. Martin runs to his size, which is great to see, and should occupy a role as Baylor’s short-yardage option. Then there’s Seastrunk, the former Oregon transfer, who was clearly the team’s most capable big-play threat during spring ball.

There’s talent here, as well as a nice blend of experience and potential, but questions remain. For one, will Baylor be forced to go with a by-committee approach all season? Of the three options, Salubi and Seastrunk seem the most capable of shouldering 20 carries per game – something Ganaway did six times last fall, including 42 carries in the win over Texas Tech. Seastrunk gives Baylor the best chance at a momentum-changing play, which counts for something. But all three will play until one distances himself from the pack.

Game(s) to watch

The non-conference slate is easy enough to allow Baylor’s offense to get on the same page before starting a beastly Big 12 schedule. The push for bowl eligibility begins on Sept. 20, when Baylor opens with conference games against the league’s two new faces – West Virginia and T.C.U., with the latter hungry for another chance at the Bears after last fall’s season-opening loss. While the Big 12 schedule starts with a bang, the Bears do end the year with home games against Kansas State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State; in addition, Baylor gets Kansas and Iowa State, with the Jayhawks at home, over back-to-back weeks in October and November. Overall, the key will be starting strong and taking care of business at home; if Baylor opens 3-0 and goes 3-2 in Waco, well, this is a bowl team. Whether the Bears can match last season’s success – a very long shot, admittedly – depends on how this team fares against the Big 12’s best. One thing is sure: Baylor isn’t beating Oklahoma in Norman. Then again, many said the same heading into last year’s date in Waco.

Season breakdown & prediction

In a nutshell Baylor lost a transcendent, once-in-a-century, Heisman-winning, program-defining quarterback – not to mention an all-American receiver, one of the nation’s most underrated running backs, two-fifths of its offensive line, the interior of its defensive line and its starting middle linebacker. These are losses that point to one thing: Baylor is not winning another 10 games in 2012. Instead, the Bears will win seven games in the regular season, dominating during non-conference play, taking care of business against the Big 12’s bottom half and struggling to mount a consistent effort against the league’s best. Instead of being a realistic threat to the Big 12’s upper echelon – those elite programs shocked to see the Bears climb up the standings last fall – the Bears will simply be a nuisance.

A nuisance that wins seven games – in the Big 12, without Griffin, Ganaway and company, while returning the backbone of one of the nation’s weakest defenses. This is Baylor today: Briles has acquired enough high-level talent to make the program more about the sum of its parts than just the one piece who seemed to single-handedly carry the program to largely unknown heights over the last 24 months. This team will be weaker without Griffin, of course, but has enough talent and experience to reach a third straight bowl game. Give Briles an incalculable amount of credit for doing what so many other could not; he’s actually developed Baylor to a point where it could not only land a player of Griffin’s caliber, but also survive once this talent walks out the door – in Griffin’s case, one year ahead of schedule.

What you’ll see in 2012 is a team that begins approaching greater balance between its offense and defense. The offense will take a step back without Griffin and Wright, though the latter’s departure overshadows the fact that Baylor returns a tremendous amount of talent at receiver. But the defense is ready to step up in its second season under Bennett: the front four is a concern, but there’s speed on the second level and tremendous talent and depth in the secondary. This defense is going to do its part to lift Baylor to another bowl berth. The Bears are prepared for life post-Griffin.

Dream season Baylor posts another nine-win regular season. The losses come to T.C.U. and at Texas and Oklahoma. What does that mean? That the Bears win at West Virginia – welcome to the Big 12, Mountaineers – and beat Kansas State and Oklahoma State at home.

Nightmare season I stand corrected: Baylor isn’t ready for life after Griffin. After two years of growth, the Bears slide to 4-8, 2-7 in the Big 12.

In case you were wondering

Where do Baylor fans congregate? I have nothing but love for those independent sites, so be sure to take a trip to Baylor Fans, where you can find chatter on Baylor football, basketball and baseball. For recruiting information, take a look at Sic Em Sports and Bears Illustrated.

Baylor all-name nominee CB Lynx Hawthorne. (Baylor recruited Hawthorne as an athlete, so I’m using his all-around skills at a position of need.)

Word Count

Through 79 teams 310,586.

Up Next

Who is No. 45? The county that houses tomorrow’s university shares its name with 11 other counties in the United States. The oldest of the 12 was founded in 1812; the county in question was created in 1838, making it the fifth-oldest with its name in the Union.

TCU to begin Big 12 football at Kansas

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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU opens its 2012 season at home Sept. 8 against Grambling State, a week before the Horned Frogs make their Big 12 debut at Kansas.

After the Sept. 15 game at Kansas, the Horned Frogs play non-conference games against Virginia and at SMU before their first Big 12 home game Oct. 6 against Iowa State.

The Big 12 finally released its 10-team, round-robin schedule Tuesday after West Virginia, the Big 12′s other newcomer, settled a lawsuit with the Big East to clear the way to begin play in the Big 12 next season.

TCU plays at West Virginia on Nov. 3.

Texas Tech, Kansas State and Oklahoma are the other Big 12 home games for TCU. The Frogs also play at Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas.

Fanatic Sports Morning Update February 12, 2012

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Fanatic Sports Morning Update on February 12, 2012

Wi leads by 3 at Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods 4 back

Wichita St. sends Creighton to 3rd straight loss 89-68

Tennessee upends short-handed No. 7 Florida 75-70

Moser, No. 16 UNLV hold off San Diego State 65-63

No. 5 North Carolina beats No. 20 Virginia 70-52

Jardine, No. 2 Syracuse pull away from UConn 85-67

No. 6 Baylor loses 72-57 at No. 4 Missouri

Kentucky holds off Vandy, stays perfect in SEC 69-63

Mavs hang on for 2OT victory against Blazers 97-94

Knicks 100, Timberwolves 98 Jeremy Lin with 20 points

Richardson’s 9 3s rally Magic by Bucks 99-94

Baylor QB Robert Griffin III going pro

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Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III is informing Baylor coach Art Briles Tuesday that he has decided to turn pro, according to a family source, and an announcement is imminent.

The Heisman Trophy winner’s next task is to choose an agent and he is in the process of finalizing his choice of representatives, which could come as early as Tuesday night.

Griffin is projected as a top-10 pick and several personnel officials believe he could go high as the first or second choice depending on his pre-draft workouts and evaluations.

Full Story on ESPN

2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Week 5 Rankings – AP Top 25

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2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Week 5 Rankings – AP Top 25

1 Kentucky (47) 8-0 1,606
2 Ohio State (18) 8-0 1,575
3 Syracuse 8-0 1,491
4 North Carolina 6-2 1,328
5 Louisville 7-0 1,325
6 Baylor 7-0 1,283
7 Duke 7-1 1,264
8 Xavier 6-0 1,133
9 Connecticut 7-1 1,120
10 Missouri 7-0 1,009
11 Marquette 7-0 982
12 Florida 5-2 923
13 Kansas 5-2 833
14 Wisconsin 6-2 665
15 Pittsburgh 7-1 660
16 Alabama 7-1 635
17 Mississippi State 8-1 493
18 Georgetown 7-1 491
19 Creighton 7-0 352
20 Michigan 6-2 312
21 Memphis 4-2 216
22 Texas A&M 6-1 199
23 Gonzaga 5-1 197
24 Illinois 8-0 193
25 Harvard 8-0 191

Others receiving votes: UNLV 188, Vanderbilt 141, Michigan State 135, San Diego State 50, Virginia 26, Saint Louis 25, Stanford 23, Purdue 12, California 11, Cleveland State 9, Florida State 7, Kansas State 6, Arizona 5, Indiana 4, Murray State 2, Northern Iowa 2, Oregon State 2, UC Santa Barbara 1

Dropped from rankings: UNLV 18, Vanderbilt 20, Saint Louis 23, California 24

Baylor’s Robert Griffin has Heisman chance against Texas

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Robert Griffin III has one last chance to impress Heisman Trophy voters when No. 19 Baylor plays Texas on Saturday.

Whether it will also be the final home game for the Bears’ program-changing quarterback remains to be seen.

Griffin has carried Baylor (8-3, 5-3 Big 12) to heights not seen in Waco in a generation, and just the idea of a Bears quarterback being mentioned in the Heisman conversation would have seemed preposterous. He will soon decide if he will return to school next season or go to the NFL.

Griffin says he hasn’t decided his future yet. His play against the Longhorns (7-4, 4-4) could help a lot of Heisman voters decide just who is the best player in the country.

“I’m not trying to make a decision anytime soon. I’ll push it off as long as I possibly can,” said Griffin, a fourth-year junior who graduated in three years with a political science degree. “For me, I don’t want it to be a matter of money, or whether or not I’m not a high enough (draft) pick so I need to come back. … It’s just about if it’s time for me to go, then it’s time to go.”

In a season in which many saw Stanford’s Andrew Luck as the standard for college quarterbacks, Griffin has been phenomenal at Baylor, passing for 3,678 yards and 34 touchdowns for a Bears team gunning for its first nine-win season since 1986.

A finalist for the Davey O’Brien Award given to the nation’s top quarterback, Griffin’s 34 touchdown passes average a whopping 35 yards per completion. He and former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow are two of just four players in major college history with at least 9,000 yards passing and 2,000 yards rushing in a career.

Baylor coach Art Briles, who had recruited Griffin to Houston, persuaded the quarterback to follow him to Waco when he took the Baylor job. Now he’s wondering whether Saturday and Baylor’s bowl appearance will be their last games together.

“Oh, you’re talking to the eternal optimist,” said Briles, who clearly has enjoyed what he called his “journey” with the talented quarterback. “We’ll sit down and talk and ultimately it will be Robert and his family’s decision. But I know he’s happy here. He’s having a good time.”

Texas coach Mack Brown sees Griffin as a once-in-a-lifetime player who can carry a program on his shoulders. Brown compared him to former Longhorns quarterback Vince Young, who was 30-2 as a starter and led Texas to the 2005 national championship.

“He’s their heartbeat,” Brown said. “When he walks in that huddle, they all believe they’re going to win the game and that’s something that culture has changed. That wasn’t that way at Baylor (and) it started his freshman year.”

Texas and just about everyone else in the Big 12 pounded the Bears until Griffin got there. Brown won his first 12 games against some awful Bears teams by an average score of 48-11 with four shutouts.

That changed last season. Griffin rallied Baylor from a 19-10 third-quarter deficit to a 30-22 win — the Bears’ first victory in Austin since 1991 — running for a touchdown and throwing for two more.

Griffin was knocked out of Baylor’s 66-42 win against Texas Tech last week when he took a hard blow to the head near the end of the first half. Baylor officials said Griffin had concussion-like symptoms, but Griffin has said he’ll be ready to play against the Longhorns.

The Texas defense could be his toughest test yet this season. The Longhorns lead the Big 12 in total defense, scoring defense, and rushing and passing defense. Griffin has passed for at least 300 yards eight times this season and topped 400 yards four times. Another big game against the Longhorns could convince undecided Heisman voters that Griffin is the best player in the country.

Texas players say they want to knock him out of the Heisman chase, not help him win it.

“That’s not going to happen because where our defense is at, he hasn’t faced us,” senior linebacker Keenan Robinson said. “He’s played other defenses, but Texas defense, we have a name for ourselves and we have to protect that name.”

Griffin downplayed the warning from Texas.

“It’s not about trash-talking,” Griffin said. “I’ve heard it before (and) will hear it again. It’s our job to go out and execute and show them, not just show them, but put points on the board and let our play do the talking.”

Copyright Associated Press

Baylor delivers stunning blow to No. 5 Oklahoma 45-38

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WACO, Texas (AP) — Robert Griffin and Baylor created even more chaos in the national championship race with a stunning blow against fifth-ranked Oklahoma.

Griffin threw for 479 yards and four touchdowns, including a 34-yarder to Terrance Williams with 8 seconds left and 25th-ranked Baylor beat the Sooners for the first time, 45-38 on Saturday night.

The Sooners (8-2, 5-2 Big 12) had overcome a two-touchdown deficit to tie the game on Blake Bell’s fourth touchdown run, a 6-yarder with 51 seconds left.

The Bears then went 80 yards in five plays, with Griffin scrambling for runs of 22 and 8 yards before then finding Williams in the back corner of the end zone and throwing before he got knocked down.

“One of the offensive linemen came and told me we just won the game. It was a pretty exciting moment,” Griffin said. “We don’t consider it an upset. It was good for our team to come out and show the resiliency we have and keep pushing forward.”

The Sooners’ loss came a night after Big 12 rival and No. 2 Oklahoma State suffered its first loss, and right after No. 4 Oregon became a two-loss team.

Baylor (7-3, 4-3) had been 0-20 against the Sooners, and most of those games weren’t even close.

“At the end of the day, they coached better than we did, and they played better than we did,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

When the game ended, students and fans – most in gold T-shirts – stormed the field to surround Griffin and the Bears after arguably the biggest win in school history.

It was the highest-ranked team Baylor defeated since winning 20-13 at third-ranked Southern California in 1985.

“They said we needed that signature win,” Griffin said. “We got it.”

Oklahoma had scored two quick touchdowns after halftime to take a 24-17 lead, then Baylor got a fortunate bounce to get even again

Griffin’s pass over the middle deflected off the hands, then the helmet of intended receiver Tevin Reese. The ball went about 20 yards farther down field, and was grabbed out of the air near midfield by Kendall Wright, who sprinted to an 87-yard touchdown.

Griffin dropped to a knee, then looked down before thrusting his arms into the air. The quarterback was shaking his head seemingly in disbelief at what had just happened.

That is how Stoops and the Sooners felt after the game.

Griffin completed 21 of 34 passes while setting single-game school records for passing yards and his 551 total yards. Wright’s 208 yards receiving was also a school record, on eight catches.

“Another day at the office for Robert,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “Very talented, very gifted.”

Williams, who had earlier dropped what would have been a touchdown, had five catches for 99 yards. Terrance Ganaway ran for two scores.

Landry Jones completed 36 of 51 passes for 447 yards with an interception. He gave way close to Bell, the freshman short-yardage specialist who had TD runs of 3, 1, 4 and 6 yards.

Even in their first game without injured record-setting receiver Ryan Broyles, Oklahoma finished with 605 total yards. That was 15 fewer than Baylor.

After Trey Millard’s 5-yard TD run on Oklahoma’s first possession of the second half, Baylor faced fourth-and-1 at its own 33. Griffin took the snap and was stood up in the backfield by David King.

Jones then threw a 31-yard pass to set up Bell’s 1-yard keeper that put the Sooners up 24-17 less than 4 minutes into the second half.

When Baylor got the ball back, Williams was behind a defender inside the 10 when he reached up and got his hand on the ball. He looked like he had pulled in as he got close to the end zone, but it suddenly fell to the ground and the Bears punted.

The fortunate bounce came on the next drive, then the Bears went up 31-24 when Griffin hit wide-open tight end Jordan Najvar for a 13-yard TD. That came a play after Williams made a diving 23-yard catch while being grabbed by a defender to convert fourth-and-11.

Ganaway’s 11-yard run early in the fourth quarter made it 38-24 before Bell’s last two TDs.

Baylor led 17-10 at halftime after a 69-yard TD catch-and-run by Reese, who got wide open several yards behind the Oklahoma secondary. He caught Griffin’s pass in stride near the 30 and sprinted to the end zone on the first play after the Sooners had tied the game.

That was Baylor’s second quick-strike score in a row, with a long touchdown drive by the Sooners between those.

The Bears needed only 36 seconds for a three-play scoring drive. Wright turned a short crossing pass into a 55-yard gain before Terrance Ganaway had two runs up the middle, for 13 yards and then a 15-yard score.

Oklahoma tied the game with an 11-play, 73-yard drive that ended with Bell’s 3-yarder.

The Bears came out throwing deep right from the start. On the second play of the game, there was an 80-yard pass to Wright that would have been an easy touchdown except for the holding penalty that wiped it out. Griffin was pleading with referee for an explanation before Wright had even gotten to the end zone.

Baylor ended up punting, even after penalties helped convert third-and-22 and then third-and-19.

Oklahoma also punted on its opening drive after having a 29-yard TD pass brought back because of an illegal block.

The team traded field goals later in the first quarter before the Sooners lost a fumble at the Baylor 31.

© 2011 The Associated Press

2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Week 2 Rankings – ESPN/USA Today Poll

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2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Week 2 Rankings – ESPN/USA Today Poll

1 North Carolina (30) 2-0 774
2 Kentucky (1) 1-0 732
3 Ohio State 1-0 701
4 Connecticut 1-0 669
5 Syracuse 1-0 654
6 Duke 2-0 632
7 Louisville 2-0 538
8 Florida 1-0 519
9 Pittsburgh 2-0 502
10 Memphis 0-0 452
11 Kansas 1-0 393
12 Baylor 2-0 390
13 Wisconsin 1-0 359
14 Xavier 1-0 333
15 Alabama 1-0 261
16 Arizona 3-0 254
17 Michigan 1-0 240
18 Texas A&M 2-0 218
19 Marquette 1-0 182
20 Cincinnati 1-0 176
20 Vanderbilt 1-1 176
22 California 2-0 145
23 Gonzaga 1-0 126
24 Florida State 1-0 103
25 Missouri 1-0 88

Others receiving votes: Texas 80, Purdue 55, Temple 54, Washington 49, Villanova 34, New Mexico 27, Creighton 23, UNLV 21, Michigan State 20, Cleveland State 13, George Mason 11, Georgetown 10, UCLA 10, West Virginia 10, St. John’s 8, Oklahoma State 8, Saint Mary’s 6, Butler 6, Drexel 5, Long Beach State 3, Virginia Commonwealth 3, Wichita State 1, Brigham Young 1

2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 6 – USA Today Poll

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2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 6 – USA Today Poll

1 Oklahoma (27) 4-0 1421
2 Alabama (21) 5-0 1410
3 LSU (10) 5-0 1408
4 Stanford 4-0 1237
5 Wisconsin (1) 5-0 1236
6 Boise State 4-0 1186
7 Oklahoma State 4-0 1162
8 Clemson 5-0 1028
9 Oregon 3-1 1017
10 Texas 4-0 879
11 Michigan 5-0 808
12 Arkansas 4-1 788
13 Georgia Tech 5-0 728
14 South Carolina 4-1 559
15 Nebraska 4-1 557
16 Illinois 5-0 541
17 Virginia Tech 4-1 470
18 Florida 4-1 456
19 West Virginia 4-1 436
20 Michigan State 4-1 366
21 Kansas State 4-0 264
22 Florida State 2-2 229
23 Auburn 4-1 217
24 Arizona State 4-1 177
25 Texas A&M 2-2 160

Dropped from rankings: South Florida 14, Baylor 16, TCU 20

Others receiving votes: Houston 97, Baylor 90, Texas Tech 68, South Florida 49, Penn State 37, Washington 30, Notre Dame 13, Pittsburgh 11, Southern Methodist 10, North Carolina 10, Tennessee 6, Iowa 5, Air Force 3, Southern Miss 3, Ohio State 1, Cincinnati 1, Duke 1,

Kansas State stuns No. 15 Baylor, 36-35

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MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Robert Griffin III threw his first interception of the year at exactly the wrong moment.

Arthur Brown picked off Baylor’s star quarterback in the closing minutes Saturday, setting up a 31-yard field goal by Anthony Cantele that sent unbeaten Kansas State to a 36-35 upset over the No. 15 Bears.

Collin Klein threw for 146 yards and two touchdowns and added 113 yards and another score for the Wildcats (4-0), who won their third straight Big 12 opener – this one in dramatic fashion.

Kansas State trailed 35-26 midway through the fourth quarter when Klein engineered a 13-play, 70-yard drive that he capped with a short touchdown plunge.

Still, Baylor (3-1) took over needing only a couple first downs to wrap up its first 4-0 start since 1991. Instead, Griffin missed Brown sliding over across the middle and Kansas State’s defensive captain hauled in the throw after a slight, heart-stopping bobble.

It was the first interception thrown by Griffin all season.

Cantele, who missed earlier in the game from 42 yards, hit the go-ahead field goal with 3:10 left to set off a raucous celebration at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

The Bears still had time, especially given their quick-strike ability. But Brown sacked Griffin on first down moments later, and after two plays covered just 11 yards, Griffin’s fourth-down pass intended for Kendall Wright fell incomplete.

The ending spoiled another virtuoso performance for Griffin, who has emerged as an early Heisman Trophy contender. He came into the game having thrown more touchdown passes than incompletions, and it remained that way until late in the fourth quarter.

Griffin finished 23 of 31 for 346 yards and five touchdowns – and one big interception.

Most of Griffin’s offense was directed at Wright, who caught nine passes for a school-record 201 yards and three TDs. Gerald McNeil had held the previous record since 1981.

None of the Bears’ five scoring drives took more than 2 minutes, 36 seconds, even though all of them covered at least 48 yards. That included a two-play, 75-yard drive that took all of 20 seconds late in the first half that gave them a 21-19 lead at the break.

Kansas State pulled ahead early in the third quarter, thanks to Klein’s 63-yard run and Angelo Pease’s 12-yard touchdown scamper, but the Bears quickly found an answer.

Griffin connected with Wright on fourth-and-5 on the Bears’ ensuing possession, with Wright laying out in the end zone to make a diving over-the-shoulder grab as he slid out of bounds for a 34-yard touchdown catch. Officials upheld the play and Baylor led 28-26.

The Wildcats put together another promising drive, but Klein was picked off by Baylor safety Sam Holl at the Bears’ 33. Griffin immediately hit Wright for 23 yards, and seven plays later, the pair connected again for a dazzling 35-yard touchdown reception. It capped an eight-play, 79-yard drive that took just 2:36 off the clock and pushed Baylor ahead 35-26.

Too much time was left, as it turned out.

Behind another gutsy performance by Klein, the Wildcats marched downfield for a touchdown to get within 35-33, and the defense – which stopped Miami four times at the goal line in a 28-24 win a week ago – once again made the biggest plays of the game when they mattered most.

© 2011 The Associated Press

2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 4 – AP Top 25 Poll

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2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 4 – AP Top 25 Poll

RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Oklahoma (37) 2-0 1471
2 LSU (14) 3-0 1424
3 Alabama (7) 3-0 1402
4 Boise State (2) 2-0 1309
5 Stanford 3-0 1212
6 Wisconsin 3-0 1170
7 Oklahoma State 3-0 1092
8 Texas A&M 2-0 1043
9 Nebraska 3-0 911
10 Oregon 2-1 899
11 Florida State 2-1 896
12 South Carolina 3-0 891
13 Virginia Tech 3-0 830
14 Arkansas 3-0 781
15 Florida 3-0 669
16 West Virginia 3-0 579
17 Baylor 2-0 521
18 South Florida 3-0 496
19 Texas 3-0 402
20 TCU 2-1 273
21 Clemson 3-0 272
22 Michigan 3-0 266
23 USC 3-0 260
24 Illinois 3-0 106
25 Georgia Tech 3-0 59

Dropped from rankings: Michigan State 15, Ohio State 17, Auburn 21, Arizona State 22, Mississippi State 25

Others receiving votes: Michigan State 42, Auburn 29, Houston 25, Miami (FL) 23, Iowa State 19, Utah 19, Ohio State 16, Maryland 15, Mississippi State 14, Missouri 10, Arizona State 9, San Diego State 8, Vanderbilt 8, Notre Dame 8, Georgia 7, Florida International 4, California 3, Navy 3, North Carolina 2, Tennessee 2

2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 4 – USA Today Poll

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2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 4 – USA Today Poll

RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Oklahoma (50) 2-0 1463
2 Alabama (4) 3-0 1402
3 LSU (5) 3-0 1373
4 Boise State 2-0 1212
5 Stanford 3-0 1208
6 Oklahoma State 3-0 1126
7 Wisconsin 3-0 1121
8 Texas A&M 2-0 1033
9 Nebraska 3-0 966
10 South Carolina 3-0 876
11 Virginia Tech 3-0 852
12 Arkansas 3-0 851
13 Oregon 2-1 804
14 Florida State 2-1 801
15 Florida 3-0 670
16 West Virginia 3-0 529
17 South Florida 3-0 485
18 Texas 3-0 464
19 Baylor 2-0 391
20 TCU 2-1 310
21 Michigan 3-0 243
22 Clemson 3-0 181
23 Michigan State 2-1 119
24 Georgia Tech 3-0 118
25 North Carolina 3-0 99

Dropped from rankings: Ohio State 16, Arizona State 18, Auburn 19, Mississippi State 25

Others receiving votes: Ohio State 92, Illinois 90, Houston 60, Miami (FL) 39, Iowa State 27, Missouri 22, California 21, Penn State 19, Utah 17, Arizona State 16, Auburn 14, San Diego State 14, Florida International 11, Vanderbilt 11, Mississippi State 8, Tennessee 5, Texas Tech 3, Notre Dame 3, Washington 3, Ohio 2, Northwestern 1

2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 3 – USA Today Poll

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2011 NCAA Football Rankings Week 3 – USA Today Poll

RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Oklahoma (44) 1-0 1453
2 Alabama (8) 2-0 1410
3 LSU (7) 2-0 1372
4 Boise State 1-0 1214
5 Florida State 2-0 1211
6 Stanford 2-0 1165
7 Oklahoma State 2-0 1072
8 Wisconsin 2-0 1033
9 Texas A&M 1-0 1001
10 Nebraska 2-0 911
11 South Carolina 2-0 863
12 Virginia Tech 2-0 842
13 Arkansas 2-0 825
14 Oregon 1-1 754
15 Michigan State 2-0 639
16 Ohio State 2-0 566
17 Florida 2-0 498
18 Arizona State 2-0 353
19 Auburn 2-0 331
20 West Virginia 2-0 304
21 Texas 2-0 260
22 South Florida 2-0 230
23 TCU 1-1 211
24 Baylor 1-0 171
25 Mississippi State 1-1 125

Dropped from rankings: Missouri 19, Penn State 20

Others receiving votes: Michigan 97, UCF 49, Houston 43, Northwestern 31, Penn State 29, North Carolina 23, Tennessee 21, Missouri 21, Georgia Tech 9, Maryland 9, Clemson 8, Washington 7, California 6, San Diego State 3, Georgia 2, Iowa State 2, Brigham Young 1

Late FG gives Baylor 50-48 win over No. 14 TCU

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WACO, Texas (AP) — Robert Griffin took the final snap and was swarmed by fans wearing Baylor gold.

One of the most-anticipated season openers in school history ended with a 50-48 victory over No. 14 TCU after almost turning into a monumental collapse.

Before Aaron Jones kicked the deciding 37-yard field goal with 1:04 left, Griffin had a 15-yard catch from star receiver Kendall Wright to convert a third-and-10. That was probably the biggest pass play Friday night, even through Griffin threw a career-best five touchdown passes.

“It’s big to show we can come out and win a game like that,” Griffin said.

TCU, which had won an FBS-best 25 consecutive regular-season games, overcome a 47-23 deficit in the fourth quarter to briefly take the lead after new starting quarterback Casey Pachall threw three touchdowns passes. A fumble by Griffin, the Bears’ only turnover, set up a go-ahead 27-yard field goal by Ross Evans, who earlier missed twice from behind 40 yards.

While Griffin completed 21 of 27 passes for 359 yards, including 12 catches for 189 yards and two TDs by Wright, the throwback to Griffin came after two incompletions set up third down. Jones’ kick wrapped up that 11-play, 60-yard drive.

“Honestly, it caught me off guard,” Griffin said. “I didn’t expect Coach to call that on third-and-10. I’m glad he did. It worked. I’m still feeling that hit.”

Yet, it feels so good after the Bears’ first win over a ranked team since 2004.

“This is a good win for us against a quality opponent,” coach Art Briles said. “But we’ve got nine TCUs coming up.”

The Frogs had one more chance, but Pachall’s last pass was intercepted by Mike Hicks and he ran the clock down to 2 seconds before Griffin’s final snap.

Baylor avoided another crushing loss to the defending Rose Bowl champion and its old Southwest Conference rival.

This would have certainly hurt more than the Bears’ 45-10 loss in Fort Worth a year ago because Baylor was never in that game.

“You can’t let six balls be thrown over your head and expect to win,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “You’ve got to give Baylor a lot of credit. You’ve got to understand that they did a good job, Robert Griffin and their receivers getting the ball over our head.”

This is not the same TCU team that was a BCS buster the last two seasons. There are missing pieces on a defense that finished the last three seasons No. 1 overall in the country, and four-year starting quarterback Andy Dalton is now a rookie starter in the NFL.

Pachall was 25 of 39 for 251 yards and four TDs with that one interception. He threw to 10 players, with Josh Boyce making nine catches for 96 yards.

The only time Baylor really appeared to be going backward before TCU’s big comeback was when Wright was excitedly backpedaling after throwing his first pass, a 40-yard touchdown to Williams only 2 1/2 minutes into the game. Wright took a quick pass behind the line from Griffin, drawing the defender and leaving Williams wide open.

TCU allowed only 229 yards per game last season, and the most allowed in the regular season was 361 by SMU. The Bears had 360 at halftime, when they led 34-23, and finished with 564.

“I’m used to winning and stopping people,” Patterson said. “I’ve been telling you guys for almost six months that I’ve not been very happy with the defense.”

It was the most yards and points allowed by the Horned Frogs since Sept. 24, 2005, in their 51-50 overtime victory over BYU, which had 614 yards.

Baylor was 0-4 against Top 25 teams last season, when the Bears finished 7-6 with a bowl appearance for the first time since 1994. Their last win over a ranked team was a double-overtime victory over No. 16 Texas A&M in 2004.

Griffin is back for his fourth year, though he is only listed as a junior after a hardship redshirt for a season-ending knee injury in 2009.

Baylor built a 40-23 lead when Griffin appeared to underthrow Lanear Sampson streaking down the left sideline. But cornerback Greg McCoy, who had some big kickoff returns for the Frogs, misplayed the ball and Sampson caught it for a 64-yard touchdown.

Griffin’s fifth TD pass came on the next drive, a 42-yarder to Williams. And even that wasn’t enough.

Pachall, the sophomore who threw only nine passes behind Dalton last season, threw two TDs in a span of 3:18 early in the fourth quarter.

The Frogs drove 80 yards on 14 plays before Pachall threw a 1-yarder to Logan Brock. Skye Dawson’s 30-yard punt return and a 15-yard penalty then set TCU up at the 12 before Pachall had a 9-yard TD throw to Boyce and they then connected for a 2-point conversion.

After a short punt set TCU up at midfield, Pachall threw a 19-yard TD to David Porter. But another 2-point try to Boyce was incomplete.

Stansly Maponga caused and recovered a fumble by Griffin at the end of the 10-yard run that started the ensuing Baylor drive.

During one span in the first half, there were scores on six consecutive possessions – three touchdowns by Baylor and two touchdowns and a field goal for TCU. Griffin threw TD passes of 35 and 27 yards to Wright during that span, and Pachall had a 23-yarder to Brock.

© 2011 The Associated Press

College football games to watch – Week 1

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This weeks top college football games to keep an eye on.

Thursday September 1st
8:00 PM ET UNLV at No. 11 Wisconsin

Friday September 2nd
8:00 PM ET No. 14 TCU at Baylor

Saturday September 3rd
3:30 PM ET South Florida at No. 16 Notre Dame
3:30 PM ET UCLA at Houston
8:00 PM ET No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 4 LSU*
8:00 PM ET No. 5 Boise State at No. 19 Georgia

Monday September 5th
8:00 PM ET Miami (FL) at Maryland

Are you ready for some mega-conferences?

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ATLANTA (AP) — The Big Ten has 12 schools. The Big East is branching out to Texas. And if that’s not confusing enough, the Big 12 may soon be the Little Zero.

So much for all that grand talk recently from college presidents about reining in their out-of-control cash machines, also known as college football.

Tradition means nothing anymore. Neither do rivalries nor geographical logic. Certainly not the so-called “student-athletes.”

All that matters is money, money, money.

So, if padding the coffers requires some conferences bulking up to 16-team monstrosities and others going away for good , well, so be it. If that means some schools becoming richer than a small country and others left with a few bread crumbs, well, that’s the breaks.

“I see schools that emphasize football so much and athletics so much, kind of breaking away and really dominating the landscape. Whether that’s good or not depends on your orientation about where athletics fits in higher education,” said Stephen Dittmore, an assistant professor of recreation and sport management at Arkansas.

“Is it an integral part of the student experience,” he went on, “or a commercial venture?”

The latter appears to be winning, hands down.

It was only a year ago that talk was rampant about four 16-team super conferences basically seizing control of college football – everyone else be damned.

Now, we appear headed that way again. On Monday, the Texas A&M board regents authorized the school president to do whatever he wants on conference realignment, which clears the way for a possible move to the Southeastern Conference.

But that’s just the first domino, and you might want to cover your eyes while the rest of them fall into place – especially if your favorite school isn’t a chosen one.

A quick primer on how we got here:

Last year, the Big 12 lost two members – Nebraska became the 12th school in the Big Ten and Colorado joined the Pac-10-turned-Pac-12 (along with Utah) – but managed to stay in business by basically selling it soul to Texas.

The Longhorns wanted to form their own television network, or they were bolting if they couldn’t. Go ahead, the Big 12 (actually 10) said, holding up its arms. Take whatever you want, just don’t leave us hanging.

Well, along came ESPN, gladly forking over $300 million to the folks in Austin to help fund their little TV venture over the next 20 years. Uh-oh, thought the other nine Big 12 members, what chance do we have now? Especially when the Longhorn Network announced plans to show high school football games, a rather convenient recruiting tool.

Even though there’s a one-year moratorium on the televising of prep games, that’s apparently not enough to satisfy the folks down in College Station. In case you haven’t heard, they’re not especially big fans of Texas.

So, Texas A&M has started divorce proceedings from one of college football’s greatest rivalries so it can propose to the SEC, which has never been real vague about its intentions of world domination.

The SEC presidents met Sunday in Atlanta to self-servingly declare they’re happy with the current 12-team membership but – surprise, surprise – “future conditions may make it advantageous to expand the number of institutions in the league.”

Translation: We’d love to have you, Aggies, but we need to come up with at least one more team – or, better yet, three – to give our behemoth a more even look.

All this will surely lead to another furious round of courting and cajoling and even threatening, and none of us may recognize the outcome when this round of musical chairs is done.

A nine-team Big 12 will likely become nothing more than a carcass along the highway, ripe for the vultures to swoop in and rip it to shreds. The Pac-12 already tried to lure away four more teams last year, so it’s likely they’ll take another shot at schools such as Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and maybe even Texas.

Hope they didn’t spend too much money on that new logo.

The SEC – which essentially started all this mess in the early 1990s by adding Arkansas and South Carolina, allowing it to launch a lucrative football championship game – could set its immediate sights on a school such as Big East member Louisville to balance out an East-West alignment with Texas A&M.

That, in all likelihood, would mark the beginning of the end of the Big East as a football conference. The Atlantic Coast Conference, which already swiped out-of-region Boston College back in 2004, could resume its northward push by going after Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Rutgers.

Of course, Syracuse and Pitt might be of interest to the Big Ten, which could grow to 16 members by adding a couple of schools in the East and maybe picking up a couple more Midwestern leftovers from the Big 12 (Missouri and Kansas?).

Texas is the real wild card in all this. They could join a new conference or go independent in football, like Notre Dame and BYU.

Confused yet? Don’t be.

When it’s all said and done, we’ll have what everyone projected a year ago: A college football world comprised of the very wealthy haves (SEC, ACC, Pac-Something and Big Ten-In-Name-Only) and the begging-on-the-street-corner have-nots (everyone else in Division I).

Sorry, schools such as Baylor and Iowa State, you’ll likely be getting a demotion.

The NCAA could even be cast aside by these new mega-conferences, which doesn’t sound so bad until you envision what sort of organization they would set up to govern themselves.

In all likelihood, they would drop any charade about being nothing more than pro sports franchises without all those pesky player salaries.

“The expense side of college athletics has become such a focal point,” said Brad Bates, the athletic director at Miami of Ohio, which knows it won’t be asked to come along on the super-conference ride. “But we’ve always got to be true to the work of higher education.

“Our primary purpose,” he went on, “should be to maximize the development of students. Every decision we make should be guided by the overarching aim of student development. If not, quite frankly, we don’t need to be on college campuses.”

Hmmm, now we’re on to something.

© 2011 The Associated Press

Texas Longhorns 2011 Football Schedule

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Texas Longhorns 2011 Football Schedule

Sat, Sept 3 vs Rice 7:00 PM ET
Sat, Sept 10 vs Brigham Young 7:00 PM ET
Sat, Sept 17 @ UCLA 3:30 PM ET
Sat, Oct 1 @ Iowa State TBD
Sat, Oct 8 vs Oklahoma 12:00 PM ET
Sat, Oct 15 vs Oklahoma State TBD
Sat, Oct 29 vs Kansas TBD
Sat, Nov 5 vs Texas Tech TBD
Sat, Nov 12 @ Missouri TBD
Sat, Nov 19 vs Kansas State TBD
Thu, Nov 24 @ Texas A&M 8:00 PM ET
Sat, Dec 3 @ Baylor TBD