Tomcheck Plus Newhouse Equals Baylor Win
9/26/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 26, 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.
Those never-to-be-forgotten Bears of a golden yesteryear, All-America quarterback Don Trull and All-America wide receiver Lawrence Elkins, suited up and played for Baylor again last Saturday night. But they came disguised as Guy Tomcheck and Reggie Newhouse.
If Tomcheck and Newhouse were auditioning for the old Trull/Elkins roles, they could hardly have been better. Baylor fans, they were strictly prime time.
With Tomcheck completing an incredible 20 of 28 passes in his first starting assignment as a collegian and Newhouse catching everything he could reach and a couple of passes that appeared to be out of his reach, the Bears weathered a U. of South Florida storm in fine fashion to win a 28-13 victory achieved before 21,157 fans.
Okay, if you want to get down to brass tacks, maybe there weren't that many fans there. But those who were there backed the Bear so well with their yells, their cheers and their enthusiasm that an all-smiles Kevin Steele gave their support his ringing endorsement at game's end.
Hey, they helped make the difference, he said.
"That thing at the end was really nice. That's the kind of enthusiasm you need to build a program," Steele declared after the east side of the stadium had broken several sound barriers with their vocal enthusiasm. Several of the Bears, led by junior wideout Andra Fuller, even vaulted into the front row of the student section in their version of Green Bay's Lambeau Leap to help celebrate Baylor's second victory of the season.
"THE FANS WHO SHOWED UP supported us in the right way," Steele said. They were loud, positive and upbeat from the word go. "
Ah, if only thousands more of them would now start showing up.
"We've got a group of guys who are ecstatic. There's not a single one of them who has ever been 2 and 1 before," said Steele. And, as he noted, "It's been a long time coming."
But they're 2-1 now and about to start the Big 12 portion of their season against Iowa State this coming Saturday night, and they will start on a high note, thanks in large part to a gutsy redshirt freshman named Tomcheck, a true sophomore with magic mitts named Newhouse, and a defense that gave up gobs of yardage Saturday night but also came up with enough fumble recoveries (four) to offset all that surrendered real estate.
No question about it, anyone seeing just selected portions of the game and unable to see the scoreboard surely would have left the game convinced that the visiting Bulls had won. And that's no bull.
South Florida rushed for 173 yards compared to Baylor's 147, South Florida passed for 236 yards compared to Baylor's 223, South Florida had 160 yards in kickoff and punt return yardage compared to Baylor's 38, and South Florida had a better yield per play and a better third-down conversion rate than the Bears.
BUT THOSE WERE Bears rather than Bulls celebrating in a happy locker room after the game and that was Tomcheck and Newhouse talking about the fruits of victory and that was Steele pointing out that the Bruin defense "stopped them when we had to," and "before you can win you have to learn how to win."
So, hey, ain't we got fun?
Admittedly, South Florida's Bulls are not to be confused with Cornhuskers, Longhorns, Aggies, Sooners or K-State Wildcats. South Florida is a football program that is in only its fourth season. It is moving up from NCAA Div. 1-AA to Div 1-A to play with the big boys, but it is not quite there yet -- it is having to serve a "transition" period before it will be eligible for any of the laurels available to 1-A schools. It has never defeated a 1-A school. "I would judge them to be a very good 1-AA school but hardly 1-A," one observer with long experience in major college football ranks told the INSIDER at halftime of Saturday night's game.
But former Baylor standout and Washington Redskins receiver Ricky Thompson, now the sideline analyst for the Baylor football radio network, said after the game, "I'll guarantee you, if South Florida played North Texas (Baylor's first-game foe), they'd beat them by four touchdowns."
AND WHILE THE BULLS may not be major league yet, their quarterback most definitely is. "I'm sure there are more but I don't know of but three or four like him in the country," said Steele. Sophomore Marquel Blackwell, 6-1 and 205 and as fast and elusive as a frightened jackrabbit, put on a show that often left the Bears' hearts in their throats.
"If we had put 22 guys out there (on defense), I still don't know if we could have penned up that quarterback," sighed Steele after Blackwell had rushed 12 times for a net of 132 yards (averaging 11 yards per jaunt) and completed 22 of 42 passes for 236 yards and the Bulls' only touchdown.
Time after time the Bulls would flood the field with receivers and the Bears would try to cover them while also trying to apply pressure on Blackwell. And time after time he would juke his way out of traps and run for first down yardage and more.
If the Bulls had not had Blackwell, the game probably would have been no contest. But they did have the will-of-the-wisp signal caller and he did make the game oh-so-interesting until the Bruin defense finally began to apply some clamps and he probably did begin to run down.
It helped immeasurably, of course, that he also fumbled twice, once at the Baylor 7-yard line cutting short the Bulls' opening threat and later in the fourth quarter at the Baylor 28.
"NOT TO TAKE anything away from Baylor -- they played a great game -- but we hurt ourselves," said Blackwell. "I put this one (defeat) on me."
Certainly the Bears would have been in dire straits if Kevin Stevenson had not recovered two fumbles and Daniel Wilturner and Joe Simmons one each. And the Bulls also did some things that caused them to draw major penalties at most inopportune times. (South Florida was flagged 13 times for 99 yards, Baylor seven times for 60 steps.)
But let us not pass lightly over the positive things the Bears did that paid off in victory.
HERE IS WHAT Tomcheck did:
Becoming the first freshman to start for the Bears since Jermaine Alfred got the starting assignment against both SMU and Rice in back-to-back games in 1995, the 6-3, 225-pound redshirt from Colleyville simply had a career day. Not only was he 20 for 28 for 223 yards, he did not throw even one interception, he did not fumble, and he became the first Baylor quarterback to throw at least three touchdown passes since Jeff Watson threw four in an overtime loss to Missouri in 1996.
Heck, he even caught one of his own passes -- for a 3-yard loss.
He played virtually the whole game. True freshman Kerry Dixon directed the Bears on their third possession of the game (penalties ruined that series) but Tomcheck was back under center on the next possession and stayed there until the game was won.
Steele went into the game prepared to use Dixon for about half the game. "But we saw something very early in that game that we had never seen before. Guy had his jaw set," Steele said. Later, when asked if that socko performance won't bolster Tomcheck's confidence, the coach replied: "Guy doesn't have a confidence problem. What I saw last night was a team getting confidence in Guy."
And, yes, Greg Cicero, out for the remainder of this season with a broken collarbone, was there on the sidelines at Tomcheck's side, offering his advice and observations. "Guy had a personal coach on the sideline in Greg Cicero," said Steele. "Greg was almost playing that game through Tomcheck."
HERE IS WHAT Newhouse did:
The son of former Houston Cougar and Dallas Cowboys star Robert Newhouse, the 6-1, 195-pound product of Lake Highlands (Dallas) football caught seven passes for a whopping 136 yards. One of his catches was a 44-yard, another was for 34 yards, another was for 9 yards and a touchdown, and he had big catches that helped fuel each of Baylor's four touchdowns.
Last year, in the 10 games in which he played as a freshman, he had a total of seven catches for 77 yards. Time does make a difference.
"Reggie played like a big-time receiver. He did some things last night consistently that we've been harping on all the time. That was encouraging," said Steele. "Also, he's getting a feel for himself as a receiver. Remember, he came to us as a running back. He's a guy with a big body and he's learning how to position his body (to screen off defenders). I think Reggie will just take on this and build on it because he's that type of guy."
AND HERE IS WHAT the Baylor defense did:
The first time the Bulls got the ball they rampaged 73 yards in nine plays to the Baylor 7-yard line. But there, on a first-down play, redshirt freshman linebacker Anthony Simmons forced Blackwell to cough up the football and tackle Kevin Stevenson recovered for the Bears.
To be sure, the young Bruin defense, which often had six redshirt freshmen or true freshmen on the field, did yield a touchdown on the Bulls' second possession. The visitors went 58 yards in six plays, scoring on a Blackwell pass of 29 yards to wideout Scott McCready. "On that play we made a rookie mistake," observed Steele.
But that was the only touchdown the Bulls would score.
But on South Florida's next possession Baylor linebacker Jason Lary forced a fumble that Daniel Wilturner recovered at the Baylor 47, eliminating an enemy thrust that had already devoured 22 yards in just two plays. Then the Bruin defense forced three straight punts in the remaining time in the first half before giving up a 31-yard flurry just before intermission.
In the second half, the Bulls streaked down to the Baylor 17 but there the Bears held them, forcing them to settle for a 34-yard field goal. Then on their next possession it was a case of deja vue -- 10 plays, 61 yards, but once again they had to opt for 3 points instead of 6. "Last year we would have been giving up touchdowns rather than making them go for field goals," said Steele.
WITH THE BEARS leading by only a single point (14-13) going into the fourth quarter, the Bulls drove 38 yards in just three plays to the Baylor 46. Enough is enough, decided Bruin safety Samir Al-Amin, who had an outstanding game. He knocked receiver Anthony Henry loose from the old pigskin and Joe Simmons recovered, setting in motion a Baylor drive that boosted the Bruin margin to 21-13.
Then with 7:16 left in the game, Blackwell fumbled as he tried to change directions and Kevin Stevenson fell on the loose football again at the Baylor 28, wiping out South Florida's last real threat.
So the Baylor defense gave up considerable yardage but only one touchdown. It was often under pressure but never without its poise, and it came under less and less pressure once the coaches made a major adjustment, putting true freshman Bobby Hart, a defensive back, in the game at a strongside linebacker position to help contain Blackwell and patrol the airways. "And he had never played that position before," noted Steele, who thought the former Waco High standout did just fine.
The coach was later to point out that the Bruin defense gave up a mere 37 yards on South Florida's real run calls. In other words, Blackwell's hair-raising scrambles accounted for a great majority of the Bulls' ground game. Having studied the game tape, Steele singled out Samir, Gary Baxter, Wilturner, Eric Giddens and the entire defensive front for first-rate performances.
"But we've got now to generate a better pass rush, a lot better," he said, emphasizing his words. "It's a challenge, a major challenge."
OFFENSIVELY, THE BEARS scored on drives of 29, 80, 54 and 72 yards while scoring the second most points of the Steele regime (they scored 29 last year in losing to Boston College in overtime). They averaged 5.4 yards per snap, they gained the upper hand in ball control (32 minutes and 57 seconds), and they suffered only one turnover.
That one turnover was a crazy thing. On the Bears' fourth possession of the second half, senior tailback Darrell Bush suddenly burst into the clear after finding a home between right guard and right tackle. He appeared to be long gone, and maybe he would have been long gone if not troubled by a "turf toe" injury although Darrell is not the fastest running back around. But after rambling 58 yards, he was collared and forced down by cornerback Glenn Davis, and in going down he lost control of the ball and South Florida wound up in possession at its own 16-yard line.
But that fumble was only Baylor's third turnover of the season. The Bears now rank third in the nation on the plus side on takeaway-giveaway ratio.
WHILE BUSH FINISHED as Baylor's leading rusher -- 93 yards on 14 carries -- 58 of those yards came on that one long run. Otherwise, he could get only 35 steps on 13 carries. Freshman Jonathon Golden managed 38 on 12 tries and Barnett 14 on 5. Conclusion: the Bears' running game is still largely stuck in neutral, waiting for the young offensive line to come of age.
Other than Newhouse's great grabbing, Andra Fuller caught four balls for 29 yards and Larry O'Steen three for 17.
On Baylor's first touchdown drive, the sturdy Tomcheck was three-for-three upstairs, with the payoff being a third-down 4-yard TD toss to Andra Fuller, winding up a 6-play, 29-yard drive that consumed two minutes and 59 seconds of playing time.
Incidentally, Martin Dossett had a big hand in opening the door,, making a super effort to kill a Baylor punt at the South Florida 2-yard line and leaving the visitors in a hole from which they did not escape.
Newhouse's contribution on that drive: a 20-yard catch on a third-and-9 situation that moved the Bears to the South Florida 8-yard line.
On the Bears' second scoring drive, which was their most impressive of the game, Tomcheck directed his team in a fast-moving two-minute drill that became a 6-play, 80-yard gush that used just 72 seconds, Tomcheck and Newhouse were spectacular. Newhouse made a superb catch for a 44-yard gain that carried to the Bulls' 26-yard line, two plays later Tomcheck hit Fuller for a 13-yard gain to the 9, and then on the next play he drilled a 9-yarder to Lanny O'Steen for the touchdown that put the Bears ahead to stay with 26 seconds left in the first half.
AS STEELE LATER admitted, the Bears almost left too much time on the clock because in those 26 seconds the Bulls came roaring back and got close enough (the Baylor 44) for their terrific kicker, Bill Gramatica, to try for a 61-yard field goal. And he didn't miss by much. Oh, if only Baylor had a kicker/punter like Gramatica, who kicked true on his field goal attempts of 34 and 32 yards and punted twice for a 44-yard average.
At this stage, in my opinion, Baylor's kicking game is shaky as can be with the exception of Fuller and Martin Dossett on their kick and punt returns. However, Steele said he was not particularly unhappy with the word of juco import Adam Stiles. "He did a nice job last night," he declared. "He's so fast on his punts, and I think the rest of it will come. On his kickoffs, he can kick the ball better and I think he will." Stiles averaged 42.6 yards on seven punts but several of them were on the line-drive variety (difficult to cover), and his kickoffs failed to reach the end zone even when he kicked with a strong wind at his back.
While giving Stiles a vote of confidence, Steele indicated he was not at all pleased with the kick coverage or the penalties that the Bears suffered in the kicking game.
BAYLOR'S THIRD TOUCHDOWN march, which came in the fourth quarter, was a 6-play, 54-yard drive that found Tomcheck completing two passes, both to Newhouse, for 34 and 9 yards, and the first catch had to be seen to be believed. Tomcheck's pass appeared to be out of anyone's reach but Newhouse found a way to stretch, strain, reach the ball and catch it. Then three plays later he caught the 9-yarder for the touchdown that gave the Bears an 8-point margin at 21-13.
Then they wrapped it up on their next possession, driving 72 yards in 12 plays. Newhouse had a 12-yard catch on that drive and Bush ran for 12, showing real second effort. But the Bears bogged down after being docked 5 yards for an infraction, and on fourth down they lined up to try a 36-yard field goal. Daniel Andino, perfect on his three earlier extra point attempts, got the call on the field goal try, and you never saw such a lame duck in your life.
But on that one the Bears caught a break. South Florida was penalized for a personal foul on the play, the Bears got a first down at the Bulls 10-yard line, and from there they scored in three plays. Fullback Melvin Barnett got the last 6 steps and he ran with a power and determination on that play that fans have come to expect from those great Nebraska fullbacks.
AFTER THE BEARS had gone ahead by the 28-13 margin, the Bulls were through. They went four-and-out on their final possession, succeeding only in getting sacked (by BU end Eric Clay) and losing 5 yards as the started ticking off the final seconds.
At the final whistle, the Bears were on the Bulls 19-yard line, getting ready to go celebrate.
Nobody was about to say they hadn't earned it. Trull and Elkins would have been proud.
In his meeting with sportswriters Sunday afternoon, Baylor coach Kevin Steele made these points:
-- In looking at the game tape, he saw some good things, things he had not seen before from his young Bears. "They didn't panic when they got down, they just kept chopping wood," he said. He noted the Bears went 80 yards shortly before halftime while using their two-minute drill, "and for the first time since we've been here, it looked like a two-minute drill."
-- In Baylor's previous game, redshirt freshman quarterback Guy Tomcheck went in and completed only 30 percent of his passes. "Then he came back this week and played like a seasoned veteran. That's big. We also had guys make big catches. We had some big plays, maybe more big plays than in our previous 13 games combined. And the defense played hard and kept fighting, and many times out there we had six freshmen out there playing on defense."
-- He pointed out that he said "very early" that the Bears couldn't afford to lose anybody, and now they've lost the equivalent of four starters for the season from their three-wide alignment. Those starters are fullback/tailback Derek Lagway (smashed kneecap), quarterback Greg Cicero (broken collarbone), wide receiver John Martin (separated shoulder), and now offensive guard Tyshaun Whitson is out with a broken foot. Redshirt freshman tackle Derek Long, recovering from an injury, should be ready to play within a couple of weeks, Steele said. Meanwhile, he counts center Eric South and guard Derrick Pearcy as the main backups for the offensive line.
-- He said Baylor's fullbacks "blocked really well -- "they haven't blocked that well or run that well in our previous 14 games. It's not even close." He was speaking of Melvin Barnett, Jimmy Dalton and redshirt Chris Schoessow. He said he will use all three fullbacks and he also praised the play of tailbacks Darrell Bush, Elijah Burkins, Chedrick Ricks and Jonathon Golden. "Ricks is tough and he's kind of good at everything," he said.
-- "We're making progress," he said. "What happened last night was that we won the game by playing the game the way it is supposed to be played. From the standpoint of ball-in-the-air plays, we got better and better and better as the game went on."
-- While Guy Tomcheck played almost all of the game against South Florida, "you will continue to see Kerry Dixon at quarterback. You may see them on a 50-50 basis. That has been well explained to them. But Guy is the starter and Kerry is the backup, and we will continue to use them both."
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.
