Sept. 18, 2000

Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Dave Campbell 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.

For about six and a half minutes at Floyd Casey Stadium this past Saturday it was a little like Camelot revisited. And then Minnesota defensive end Karon Riley arrived.

Goodbye Camelot. Hello real world.

Longing for some more of that relentless energy-sapping heat that has sent the Waco temperature needle rising well above the 100-degree mark this month, the Bears instead got a relatively moderate September morning more in keeping with the Minnesota Gophers' desires.

But the heat provided by Riley was white hot. It left the Bears' best-laid plans as burned as a new bride's toast.

More to the point, the Riley heat left Baylor's much-the-best quarterback Greg Cicero with a collarbone broken in two places, sidelined for the season.

Yipes.

With Cicero at the controls, the Bears were moving the ball, playing with confidence, holding their own against the 8-point favorites from Minneapolis, maybe doing a little better than holding their own.

WITH CICERO GONE, never to return, the offense disappeared, too. The Bruin defense, full of fight, full of valor, manned the barricades for as long as it could but finally wore out, enabling the Golden Gophers to win a rather routine 34-9 victory.

The smallest crowd to watch the Bears in their home opener in 30 years -- an announced 20,125, and it looked to be smaller -- saw Kevin Steele's pupils drive the ball from their own 20 to their 43 on their first possession before having to punt. And even that punt would not have been necessary if they had not been flagged for taking too much time on a second-down play.

The Baylor defense then stymied the Gophers on their first three plays and forced them to line up for a punt. Sophomore Preston Gruening went deep to handle the snap. He got the ball and swung his foot but Baylor's super-swift redshirt freshman linebacker Derrick Cash was too fast for him. Cash blocked the ball cleanly and fell on it, giving the Bears possession at the Minnesota 23-yard line.

Elijah Burkins drove inside for three yards. Baylor fans could sense a season turning to roses. And then without warning Baylor's oh-so-bright world turned dark. Cicero, two-for-two on his first two aerial attempts, dropped back looking to make it three-for-three. As he threw, Riley arrived.

"WHOEVER HIT ME, my momentum was going down and his was going with me and he just landed right on the shoulder. I think my left shoulder hit first on the ground, and all my weight and his weight landed on it," Cicero said later.

The collarbone snapped. Cicero was through, both for the game and the season. As Steele said later, "Our trainer stuck his hand under Greg's shoulder pad, looked at me and said, 'Coach, it's broken.' "

One would have to assume he was talking about the collarbone and not Steele's heart, but you never know.

On that ill-fated play, Minnesota cornerback Willie Middlebrooks was flagged for pass interference. Beaten on the play, he grabbed Bruin receiver Lanny O'Steen and wouldn't let go. The penalty gave the Bears a first down at the Gopher 15.

After a Baylor timeout, junior Mike Odum replaced Cicero and in three plays got the Bears down to the Minnesota 8-yard line. On the third-down play Osteen caught a 7-yard pass and was absolutely demolished on the tackle. I don't see how he got up, but he did. On fourth down, Steele turned to Daniel Andino for a 25-yard field goal attempt and his kick was good.

The Bears got three points but were in position to get seven. And in the process they lost their quarterback. It was a badly one-sided tradeoff, one that in the words of senior linebacker Kris Micheaux came as "a big blow to us. We have a lot of confidence in Greg."

Certainly the Bears never recovered.

ON THEIR NEXT two possessions the Gophers drove 72 yards in eight plays for a touchdown and then 14 yards in 4 plays for a field goal and a 10-3 lead. And from there they never looked back.

They drove 26 yards in four plays just before halftime and kicked a 44-yard field goal as the last second ticked off the clock, they drove 78 yards in five plays (and were aided by a personal foul call against the Bears) for a touchdown on their first possession of the second half, they drove 46 yards in nine plays (and were aided by another penalty) for a touchdown at the 9:35 mark of the fourth quarter, and they went 47 yards in just three plays for their final touchdown with 3:05 left in the game.

The Gophers have a big and experienced offensive line that they're proud of, but this was a case where youth was served. Tailback Thomas Tapeh, a 228-pound redshirt freshman with speed, rushed 32 times and gained a whopping 183 yards, scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run and caught a 27-yard touchdown pass.

Quarterback Asad Abdul-Khaliq, another redshirt freshman who can pick 'em up and put 'em down with considerable rapidity, rushed for 33 yards and completed 14 of 20 passes for 172 yards and a pair of TDs.

Tellis Redmon, a product of Grapevine, Texas, caught Asad's first scoring pass, a 22-yarder. Redmon also rushed for 33 yards.

But the Gopher who did the biggest damage to the Baylor cause was Riley, a swift and ruthless pass rusher who also has some Texas in his background. The Detroit native played a season at SMU before transferring. He is a 6-4, 248-pound senior who led the Big Ten in sacks last season and is being boomed for All-America recognition this season. My guess is he'll get Baylor's vote.

WITH CICERO GONE, the Bears really had no answer for either the Riley-led defense or those two redshirt Gopher freshmen on offense.

Indeed, after Andino's kick, the Bears just did nothing offensively until their fourth possession of the second half. On that occasion they moved 36 yards in seven plays in the fourth quarter before Odum threw an interception.

As the game neared the finish line, redshirt freshman quarterback Guy Tomcheck moved the Bears 67 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. The payoff was a 15-yard throw to true freshman Robert Quiroga -- Tomcheck's first TD throw in a Baylor uniform and Quiroga's first touchdown catch. Quiroga made the catch despite being mauled by a Gopher defensive back. A flag fell and interference was called but the Bears naturally took the play instead.

Oddly enough, on the last three plays of that drive, Minnesota was flagged for pass interference. The Bears wound up making catches on two of them (by tight end Andrew Obriotti and Quiroga, both San Antonio products), and took the penalty on the third.

After scoring the touchdown they tried an onside kick, Minnesota recovered at the Baylor 47 and needed just 70 seconds to score a last meaningless touchdown. Tapah bruised 37 yards on the first play following the onside kick to make it easy for sophomore running back Renato Fitzpatrick to score the TD.

Strong-legged Dan Nystrom kicked the 22- and 44-yard field goals but missed a chip shot of 21 yards.

THE BEARS SQUANDERED good field position provided them by several excellent punt and kick returns -- 20 yards by Andra Fuller after fielding punts and a whopping 130 yards amassed by speedy Martin Dossett on kickoff runbacks.

One of Dossett's returns came out to the Baylor 40 but a penalty rubbed out almost all of the yardage, setting the Bears back to their own 8-yard line. Another return of 61 yards, to the Minnesota 38, became just another three-and-out situation.

"We have to eliminate those penalties on the special teams. I was frustrated in that in a big way," said Steele.

In all, the Bears were penalized nine times for 76 yards, the Gophers eight times for 65 steps.

THE BEARS COULD NET only 56 yards on their 26 rushing attempts. Fullback Melvin Barnett was their rushing leader with a mere 15 yards on four trips. Tailback Darrell Bush finished with 3 yards on 5 carries, Burkins 14 yards on 5 trips. True freshman Jonathon Golden gave fans a run to cheer about when he got loose on a 16-yard scamper late in the game.

But as Steele later pointed out, the story of the game for the Bears offensively was wrapped up in what they did overhead -- only 15 for 40 for 123 yards, only 13 for 38 for 108 yards when Cicero wasn't in there. Odum was 9 of 26 for 62 yards with an interception, and Tomcheck was 4 of 12 for 46 yards with no interceptions.

Bruin quarterbacks were sacked three times and frequently hurried by Gopher pressure, but the quarterbacks also had considerable time to throw on a number of occasions and still missed their targets badly.

Steele was so frustrated by what he saw in the play of his backup quarterbacks that in a meeting with newsmen Sunday he made it plain that nothing is written in stone now where the quarterback situation is concerned, and he hinted that he would consider using others at the position (true freshmen Aaron Karas and Kerry Dixon, for example, although he mentioned no names).

The paltry rushing figures and lousy passing stats suggest the Bruin offensive line was overwhelmed, but having looked at the game tape Sunday, Steele said his young forwards played better than he had thought. He especially pointed to left tackle Ethan Kelley for "a very, very good game," And he said center Joe Jackson was "solid most of the way. The offensive line played pretty well, it really did. We just did not do a good job of taking advantage of what they (the defense) were giving us."

Still, the most encouraging development for the Bears was the play of the defense. To be sure, Minnesota finished with 289 yards rushing and 461 yards in total offense on 75 snaps (a 6.1-yard average), but the figures do not do justice to the play of the Bruin picket line.

The Baylor defense forced the Gophers to settle for three field goal attempts (they missed one after being held at the Bruin 3-yard line), prompting Steele to note that "those three field goal situations would have been touchdowns last year." He also noted Minnesota scored 21 of its points off very favorable field position it inherited.

"We got tired on defense," he agreed. "Not in terms of heat (the weather being hot) but our lack of depth showed up." He thought freshman defensive end Aaron Lard played well "and I have to say the secondary played well. Micheaux did some good things." And he praised the work of Cash, Anthony Simmons, Kevin Stevenson, "and some of our younger guys -- Travis Hicks and Demetrio Phillips." I thought redshirt freshman free safety Matt Amendola had an especially strong game.

One of the more spectacular plays was delivered by strong safety Samir Al-Amin, who picked off a Gopher pass and returned it 33 yards to the Baylor 47 at the 5:54 mark of the third quarter. But given that lovely field position, the Bears could make only six yards on three plays and were forced to punt.

And that's the way the game unfolded, with the defense playing well most of the time -- well enough to win if given an even break on offense -- but eventually wearing down.

"This puts us right back to the drawing board," said Steele. "And I thought we were past that."

BRUIN NOTEPAD: The Bears are now 2-9-1 against teams from the Big Ten. Their victories have come against Indiana and Illinois, and the tie was against Michigan in 1975. . .

Neither Kevin Steele nor other Baylor officials want to talk about it at the moment, but surely they will seek an additional year of eligibility for Greg Cicero. Yes, he already has had a redshirt season, but there is ample precedent for the NCAA to grant a hardship "sixth year" for hardluck players plagued by injuries. Example: Nebraska's outstanding punter Dan Hadenfeldt, an All-America candidate this season, is a sixth-year Cornhusker. Hadenfeldt even played in the Hula Bowl last season, expecting 1999 to be his final season. . .

True freshman wide receiver Robert Quiroga, playing in his first Baylor game Saturday, had two catches for 36 yards and one of them was a touchdown grab of 15 yards, made despite the interference of the Gopher defensive back. "Quiroga has already showed he can play at this level. He has a lot of speed. He adds another dimension," said Steele after the game.

But alas, he lost one of his most promising young receivers during a workout held during Baylor's off week. True freshman John Martin, who looked so good against North Texas, separated a shoulder and was counted out for the remainder of the season.

The punt that freshman linebacker Derrick Cash blocked early in Saturday's game was the first punt the Bears have blocked since 1994 and their game against TCU.

That's an alarming attendance trend threatening to set in where Baylor home games are concerned. Saturday's turnout was announced as 20,125 (the smallest crowd for a Baylor home opener since Sept. 26, 1970, when 20,000 showed up for the Bruins' 15-10 loss to Pittsburgh). Baylor's last home game of 1999, against Oklahoma State, was played before a crowd of 18,673, which means the Bears have averaged only 19,399 for their last two home games.

Asked Sunday if the loss of quarterback Greg Cicero in Saturday's game against Minnesota now will force the Bears to limit their offensive package, coach Kevin Steele replied: "We can't allow it to. There are some things that Greg was very good at, some things he brought to the forefront that our other quarterbacks are not good at. Gred hadf an uncanny ability to recognize what people (defenders) were in and to take advantage.

"That went by the wayside (with his injury). But we're not going to limit the package." The goal will be to take those things that each of the available quarterbacks do best and stress those things within the package.

Would he consider moving Odell James back to quarterback (from the defensive secondary)? "No," he replied.

Will he shuttle quarterbacks? Nothing is etched in stone, he said, "but we think continuity is a key, and to us continuity is one quarterback."

But, in what was taken as a hint fairly bursting with significance, he said: "There may be more people in this equation than meets the eye."

In other words, after Saturday's loss, all bets are off. Quarterbacks who were going to be redshirted now may find themselves contending for a starting position. But he will make no announcements. "People will know who we'll use (at quarterback) when we make the first snap," he declared.

Among the other points he made after looking at the game tape:
-- "There were a lot of positives in that tape, more than I expected."
-- "Our offensive line is getting better each time out, they really are."
-- The game tape left him fully convinced that the opportunities were there. They were there the whole game. But the Bears did not take advantage. "We really did not do a good job of taking advantage of what they were giving us," he said.
-- He said it is "frustrating to see a young man (Cicero) work so hard to make something happen, and then see it dissipate in one single play. . .I told him last night that we have to figure out a way now to win enough games to let him play in a bowl game." The Bears now are 1-1, not 0-2. "Yes, it's a blow (losing Cicero)," he said. "But we still have some positives going. That's not to say it's not a climb now, a steep climb."

Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Dave Campbell 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.