Nov. 6, 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.
Baylor's charge through the valley of death ended Saturday about like it did for the Light Brigade. Top-ranked Oklahoma rang up a 42-0 halftime lead in cantering past the struggling Bears, 56-7.
On five consecutive Saturdays Baylor faced teams that now collectively stand 35-9. Four of those enemies are ranked among the nation's 25 best and all five dwelt there at game time. Two of them bore No. 1 status when they met Kevin Steele's Bears, who lost 'em all by an aggregate and misleading score of 215-21.
It's the 21 that's misleading. The Baylor defense scored most of those points. The offense is doing well to muster a first down, let alone a touchdown.
"Playing the No. 1 team in the country (which Baylor did twice within 15 days) is a tough way to make a living when you're rebuilding a program," Steele grimaced.
How bad was it? Baylor snapped the ball only twice in Oklahoma's end of the field. One was an incomplete pass. The other was a 2-yard loss. The Bears went three-and-out on nine of their 15 possessions. They converted one of 16 third-down attempts. They gained an abysmal 94 yards for the day, averaging not quite 58 inches per offensive play.
INCHES!
Grim.
"Obviously, we're not pleased, " Steele said. "This is going to sound like excuses, but it's a fact. For these kids' sake I owe it to them to tell the facts. If it sounds like excuses, then that's fine with me.
"The fact is, we lost our starting quarterback (Greg Cicero Sept. 16). We have multiple injuries. When you put a freshman quarterback (Guy Tomcheck, Kerry Dixon) out there with a supporting cast that's discombobulated, in and out, not completely healthy, down at times to the fourth fullback, it affects things."
TOO TRUE. IF YOUR shooter breaks you're probably going to lose the marbles game, and since Cicero went down and out the Bears have lost seven of eight.
Silver linings? A couple. The Bears have allowed an even 300 points in standing 2-7, but their defense is marginally acceptable, outlandish as that may sound. And they don't quit. The immediate measure of any head coach is the ability to get effort from his players, and this Steele does.
Typically, he disclaims it.
"We've got a group (of) model seniors," he said. "They have stepped up, they've been great to coach. They have led these youthful-energy guys in the right direction, the right way. That's one reason you're seeing the fight that you see."
Having exited Death Valley, 2-7 Baylor closes its Y2K home season against 2-7 Missouri, then finishes a week later at 2-7 Oklahoma State. There would seem to be an outside chance to actually win one or both of these and for the seniors' sake -- probably more than his own -- Steele would love to see it.
"In the big turn of the program," he said, "these next two games would be big. But before we get to the turn of the program our seniors deserve to go out winning the last two. You can't get two until you get one, so it's monumentally important we go out and play our best football Saturday."
As for the Sooner game, Baylor had no chance. Oklahoma hasn't lost and isn't likely to lose as long as Josh Heupel is healthy. OU might win without him, actually, just on its defense, but "He makes them an awfully good team," Steele noted.
"THERE WERE TIMES we got some heat on him. We put him on the run a couple of times, more than I'd seen any other team do. I'm not sure that was a good thing because he's just as good on the run as he is sitting in the pocket."
The Bears employed a variety of tactics against Heupel.
"You can't blitz him every time. You can't play zone every time," Steele said. "You've got to mix it up, different things . . . He's a special player, very intelligent, very accurate. He knows where to go with the football."
Against what Steele termed a "sell the farm" blitz, Heupel threw deep for swift Andre Woolfolk. The Bears' Eric Giddens had his hands on the ball but only deflected it.
Another near-interception found Baylor's Daniel Wilturner mishandling the ball with clear sailing ahead.
"No excuse, but I had a pad on my hand from a bone bruise," the speedy Wilturner said. "It could have turned things around, missing that interception, because they went on and scored. That was a score they shouldn't have had."
The same could be said of Baylor's lone score, which found former quarterback Odell James actually intercepting a Sooner shovel pass and taking it 18 yards to the end zone against Oklahoma subs in the third quarter.
"It felt good," admitted James, who last scored in 1998 against North Carolina State, "but I'd much rather have a win than just scoring a touchdown."
The shovel pass was a backhand flip by OU sophomore Nate Hybl as Heupel sat out the second half.
"I guess their quarterback just didn't see me," James theorized. "I came around a block from the other side and just saw the ball come out and hit me."
These days, the Bears take the points any way they can. It might be worth remembering that, although the Light Brigade got wiped out, Balaklava was a victory.
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.
