Oct. 16, 2000
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Jim Montgomery appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.
Turning around a moribund football program is a slow process. Kevin Steele's Baylor Bears were 1-10 last season, stand 2-4 this season, haven't scored a point in the month of October and well could be 2-7 by Veterans Day. Not to mention just three wins in the last 21 starts.
Be that as it may, the aura around the Bears is one of expectations. Steele's young men feel they aren't far from reversing the tide and -- were it not for reputations held by the upcoming likes of Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma -- doing so fairly soon.
"We're very close," freshman quarterback Kerry Dixon said in the wake of a 24-0 defeat at the hands of Texas A&M.
"We're just a couple of plays away," wide receiver Andrew Obriotti said. "We see it in the films, one missed block, one step off a receiver's route. We're so close to breaking plays."
"We almost found it," Steele said.
"We're just inches from turning this program around. I feel it. Not just me. The whole team feels it," said cornerback Gary Baxter.
PERHAPS. REALISTICALLY, Baylor didn't come close to defeating the Aggies. The Bears got no closer to the end zone than the A&M 20-yard line and rarely penetrated the visitors' 40.
But... It was probably the best game Baylor has played this season. If the Bears are still some distance from turning the program around, they aren't too far from making the first (and hardest) corner.
Problem is, the first face they'll see in what could be those new surroundings will belong to what, at this writing deservedly, is the nation's best team. Nebraska.
There could be a better scenario. In a different context, Steele had some appropriate words.
"They took a chance and painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling," he said. "They didn't make it easy and paint the floor."
As for the A&M game, Baylor played well -- generally -- on defense. The Bears shut down A&M's running game, always the basis of an R. C. Slocum team. The Aggies this year have excellent receivers and 25-year-old quarterback Mark Farris found them, given the continuing absence of a Baylor pass rush (one sack so far in 347 enemy offensive snaps).
OFFENSIVELY, the Bears surprised A&M early by running the ball effectively. With just one pass completion they pushed 36 yards to the Aggie 38 with the opening kickoff. Next possession, five straight rushes produced 29 yards and a first-and-10 at the A&M 25.
That was pretty much it for the ground game, and Steele would second-guess himself later on that topic.
"They (A&M) made a few adjustments," he reflected, "and we tried to open things up a little, get a little more balance, and we never got back into the rhythm we had. I'm asking myself, what if we had kept on running?"
Dixon, only 18 but at present obviously best suited to quarterback the Bears, was sacked twice, hurried repeatedly, hit often and finished 11 for 27 for 107 yards with four interceptions. Two of the picks were deflected and another came when A&M blitzers crushed him as he threw.
NONE OF THAT eased Dixon's mind. "Never in my life have I had four interceptions in a year," he said.
"His turnovers," said Steele, "I thought he was trying to make something happen. I'm proud he stepped up and took some chances."
Middle linebacker Kris Micheaux viewed with pleasure the way he and his defensive teammates checked A&M's ground game, 103 yards on 30 rushes, and especially the second-period goal-line stand. A&M had first and goal at the 3, sent 275-pound Ja 'Mar Toombs into the line three times without success and kicked a field goal.
"That was beautiful," said Micheaux, who had two tackles in the Aggie backfield, one on Toombs. "We've been working hard at trying to get better against runs up the middle."
Said Baxter, after a standout day on run support, "We got sick and tired of people pounding and pounding us. We made a statement, especially on the goal line."
Helping on the statement was Mart freshman linebacker John Garrett with seven tackles in his first collegiate start.
"ONE PLAY, he came off a block and closed on a guy, just instantly, from about three yards away," Steele said. "You don't coach that. It's athleticism."
There is considerable athleticism among the Bears, much of it from the younger element. Some of those kids probably won't know they've turned a corner until they do it.
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Jim Montgomery appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.
