Oct. 9, 2000
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Carroll Fadal 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.
The Baylor locker room was a study in contrast after Saturday night's 28-0 loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock. Defensive players, for the most part, were feeling good about themselves, their coaches and their play against Tech's pass-happy attack. But when it came to talking about the Bears' offense, it was a different story.
"Offensively, we were very inept," said a tight-lipped head coach Kevin Steele. "We've got to find a quarterback somewhere. Since we lost Greg (Cicero), it seems like we've had quarterback derby, trying to find the right niche. The offensive line played well at spurts, but we just couldn't make things happen. It's totally inexcusable to get inside the 20-yard line four times, maybe five, with no points. That's just unacceptable."
For the second straight week, starter Guy Tomcheck had a rough outing, completing just one of nine passes for 10 yards before being removed in the second quarter, not to return.
"THE THING THAT bothered me the most at the point that I made the decision to switch quarterbacks is, I'm not pointing fingers at any one player, but for some reason our passing game rhythm had been off. We had hit like one of our last 20 passes, a 1-of-9 run and an 0-of-11 run back-to-back (dating to the Iowa State game), and I just felt like we needed to see if we could get a rhythm."
Steele then went with true freshman Kerry Dixon, and the Houston product provided a bit of a spark, hitting three of six passes for 28 yards in his first extended action.
"Kerry gives the ability to get on the move a little bit," Steele said. "That's not Guy's fault. We're all in this together, it's the play calling, it's the offensive line protection, it's backs blocking, it's receivers catching, it's all of us."
Despite moderate success, Dixon also was benched in the second half in favor of Mike Odum, who completed nine of 25 throws for 110 yards with two interceptions.
"I just felt like, we were 21 points down then, our dropback game was what we needed to try to score some points."
For his part, Dixon seemed both pleased and perplexed.
"I FELT GREAT out there," Dixon said. "We did a good job moving the ball when I was out there except for that one penalty that held us back (an offensive holding call that negated a 45- yard completion to Reggie Newhouse). "We got the holding call, and it really got into my head, but I had to keep my composure and come back and play like nothing happened.
"I wasn't really surprised when I came out. I figured I didn't get the ball into the end zone, so that was the positive way to be.
"I'm just going to go out there and play the best I can play, and whatever happens, happens."
For the defensive players, particularly the backs, who faced a 50-pass onslaught from Raider quarterback Cliff Kingsbury, the night was somewhat satisfying.
"We felt pretty good out there," said redshirt freshman cornerback Eric Giddens, who was beaten twice for touchdowns on fade patterns to Tech wideout Derrick Dorris. "We got a little bumpy during the first half, but we kind of settled down and made some adjustments. We felt like we played a pretty good game, but we just came up short a little bit. I kind felt like they were picking on my a little bit, because I don't have that much experience. They made some plays, I should have made some, but it was all right. I felt pretty comfortable out there. If I could have just turned around a split second earlier (on the two TD passes), maybe I could have made a play on the ball."
Most of Giddens' secondary mates felt the same way.
"I THINK THE DEFENSE did a great job," said senior cornerback Gary Baxter. "We stepped up to the challenge of this run-and-shoot offense that Texas Tech has. We came to play. They did exactly what we expected they would do, exactly what we worked all week on. I didn't get any good chances (for an interception), because they mainly stayed away from me, and we used mainly a zone. When we did match up one-on-one, they went away from me. It's frustrating, and it's tiring to be on the field most of the night."
"I think we played well," said true freshman cornerback Bobby Hart, who had some bone-crushing hits throughout the evening. "We've got to get our offense on track, because our defense played well. We stayed out there most of the time, but I think we did pretty good."
Even Steele, through his disappointment, had some kind words for his beleaguered defense.
"There's some things we did pretty well tonight," he said. "I thought the defensive coaches had a good plan, I thought the defense fought hard, and we made some good plays on defense. We're still giving up too many points."
Here's what else they were saying:
"I said, 'Well, at least one of us got one.' " Giddens, on older brother Brian's first career interception, a fourth-quarter end-zone pick of an Odum pass.
"It's pretty fun, like a rookie playing in the NFL." Hart, on making his first career start.
"The game plan was to bring as much pressure as we could on the quarterback and put him in quick-pass situations. We were successful on a lot of our blitzes, we really improved on that in a week's time. We're very excited about that part, but nobody likes to lose. The defense played great, we were on the field a majority of the time, and we still played like champions. I'm excited about going into next week. On the fumble, I was on a weak-side blitz, and it seems like the ball just bounced my way. I picked up and just tried to get as many yards as I could. I think now I should have pitched the ball to Daniel Wilturner, maybe we would have gotten more yards, but I was just thinking, 'Don't fumble.' " Senior linebacker and co-captain.Kris Micheaux.
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Carroll Fadal 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.
