Sept. 21, 2000
Editor's Note: Dave Campbell's column appears 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 an archive of his other columns, click here.
Rudyard Kipling, the great English poet, wrote it a long time ago. He put it this way:
"The snow lies thick on Valley Forge,
"The ice on the Delaware.
"But the poor dead soldiers of King George,
"They neither know nor care."
Mr. Kipling, I have news for you: the good live soldiers of England's current queen neither know nor care about what is going on these days in the department of fun and games in the good old US of A, whether it be fun and games at Valley Forge or anywhere close to the Delaware or anywhere else for that matter. And neither, presumably, do her subjects.
I gather that from reading the London newspapers.
Your trusty correspondent here has just returned from London and its environs. Got back just in time for last Saturday's Baylor-Minnesota game, as a matter of fact. And I am here to tell you that anyone visiting in England these days and wanting to find out the latest news about the winners and losers in college football in this country , or the ups and downs in the NFL, or how the major league baseball races are shaping up, is wasting valuable time looking for answers in the London press.
Those sports sections did provide some Olympic news. They did let us keep up with the rise of Venus Williams and the fall of Pete Sampras in the U.S. Open tennis championships. A few days after the fact, I did run across a story having to do with a Washington Redskins pratfall against Detroit. I never did see anything about Nebraska beating Notre Dame in overtime. Or the Dallas Cowboys losing yet again.
No, the main sports news in England has to do with soccer. Soccer, soccer and more soccer. And with a little auto racing and horse racing and prize fighting.
WELL, TO EACH his own, I say.
Probably if I had bothered to find a USA TODAY I could have kept up. Or I could have turned to the internet, of course, or the long distance telephone lines. Regardless, there is so much for a tourist to do and see in the country of buses and bobbies and where they think that driving on the wrong side of the road is the right way to drive that a man can do without his daily sports fix for a week or 10 days and live to laugh about it.
All of which brings me to my main point: there are millions of people in England and millions of people elsewhere who are totally unaware today that the Baylor Bears suffered the cruelest of breaks Saturday.
The Bears' main man -- their taw, as TCU's droll Abe Martin once described his quarterback -- went down and out for the season.
Abe was using terminology once familiar to kids who used to play marbles on the neighborhood playground. Use whatever terminology you wish, but losing Greg Cicero is a blow to the Baylor gut for this football season.
No question, this latest Bear edition is improved, especially on defense. But it is not improved so much that losing its nerve center on offense won't hurt dreadfully.
With Cicero out, the offense went into a frequent three-and-out routine against Minnesota, the defense finally wore out and the Bears took on a look that was all too remindful of 1999. Minnesota may not be a great team but it is a good team, coming off a bowl season and hungry to reach that mythical "next level," and there was no way the Gophers were going to lose to a dazed Bruin team that had just been disarmed. Its confidence already shaky, coming off a four-year cycle where its momentum had not even approached that of a dry creek, Baylor suddenly had seen its hopes for this season hijacked.
That is what Greg Cicero represented -- hope. With the defense improved, with a poised and productive Cicero at the switchboard to trigger the offense and make big plays, the Bears this season, in my opinion, had a chance to start making some waves the way South Carolina is making waves.
South Carolina last season was even worse than 1-10 Baylor. The Gamecocks were pitiful. They were winless in '99 and they averaged 7.9 points per game, the lowest figure among 114 Division 1-A teams. But at the moment they are 3-0, they've scored a total of 93 points (31 points per game), and one of their victims was No. 9-ranked Georgia, beaten by a 21-10 margin.
After what they endured last season, the waves they are making must seem of a tidal variety.
MAYBE THE BEARS can still make some waves themselves. They will have to rally around and regroup in a hurry but they do get their next two opponents at Floyd Casey Stadium. And, on paper at least, neither South Florida nor Big 12 foe Iowa State appear to be as formidable as Minnesota.
The Baylor defense is still intact and improving and its morale is strong. "I haven't lost any confidence. We just have a different mentality this year. We have an urge to win," said the leader of the defense, senior linebacker Kris Micheaux.
In Baylor conversations I heard after the game, Bruin fans were disappointed and deflated but were not giving up. Indeed, quite a few of them were admiring the fight and fire they saw being exhibited in the latter stages of the game by redshirt freshman quarterback Guy Tomcheck.
That's now the key, finding a way to get the offense off the floor, on its feet, capable of striking sparks, making first downs, scoring points, giving the defense some help. The offensive line is going to have to start playing better. The backs are going to have to be more productive and the receivers be more consistent.
But it's going to have to start at quarterback. Somebody is going to have to answer the challenge, seize the moment and step forward. And the coaches, of course, are going to have to make the most of what abilities are there.
But who is to say it can't be done? It's being done in some spotlighted instances elsewhere.
MEANWHILE, MISERY still loves company. Baylor fans are down after losing a game and a quarterback. But imagine how Michigan fans feel (the No. 3 Wolverines lost to UCLA). And Colorado fans (Buffaloes lost to Washington and are still winless after three games).
And imagine how Texas Longhorn fans feel this week.
At a party I attended after Saturday's game, a Longhorn loyalist was lamenting to me the fact that No. 6 Florida managed to squeeze out a last-gasp victory over Tennessee. He was saying it would have been better for the Longhorns in the national picture if the Gators had stumbled and moved down in the national rankings.
That night, national title-minded Texas lost to Stanford, 27-24. The Longhorns lost although both of their highly-touted quarterbacks were healthy. And that was against a Stanford team that had lost to a mediocre San Jose State team the previous week, a Stanford team the Longhorns humiliated last year, 69-17.
Incidentally, Stanford lost its starting quarterback early in Saturday night's game. It was a freshman quarterback who led Stanford to its delicious victory.
Ain't college football, American brand, a crazy game? Too bad the Brits don't follow it.
Editor's Note: Dave Campbell's column appears 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 an archive of his other columns, click here.
