Continued Reflections on Baylor-UNT Football

Football 9/6/2000 12:00:00 AM

Sept. 6, 2000

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Here is a sample of the comments being made in the North Texas locker room after the Baylor Bears had defeated the Mean Green in their season opener, 20-7:

What University of North Texas State coach Darrell Dickey said:

"I was really pleased with the atmosphere tonight. Our kids played hard, we just made too many mistakes. That was the difference in the ballgame.

"We weren't consistent and they (Baylor) were able to make some key plays. But I saw some things that if we continue to work hard, I think we can turn into a pretty good football team.

"We didn't make many plays early. We made a big play to (wideout) Byron Curtis and got it inside their 20. We had a chance to hopefully get some points on the board but we didn't get it into the end zone. We ended up with a field goal attempt and we didn't make it. Those things happen in football. You've got to go back down and get the ball in scoring position again.

"We made a few adjustments at halftime and started to have some success. I think we moved the ball a little better in the second half. Scott Hall (true freshman) came in and on his first college drive took the team down on a nice drive, scored a touchdown and got us back in the game. But we made way too many mistakes. Some of the things we're doing offensively are a little more high risk. Tonight, for each big play we made, we'd make a mistake.

"The biggest frustration is that we had some opportunities for some plays but we were very inconsistent and we made too many mistakes to hang in there with a Big 12 Conference team. I think our defense played well. They hurt us on a couple of defensive plays. We were flying around. What we were doing gives us a chance to put some pressure on the quarterback. I don't know if we had any sacks tonight, but we hurried some throws. Our defense basically only gave up 13 points tonight."

What some of the Mean Green players said:

Quarterback Richard Bridges, on not getting points out of the drive just after Baylor had scored its first touchdown: "I could have been a real big turning point in the game, but unfortunately we didn't finish off the drive. I saw some improvement in the execution of our offense (over last year's play), but we've got to punch it in."

Linebacker Brad Kassell, on the call made against him for a late hit on the Baylor quarterback: "That's the way the game swings. All the calls don't go your way. I should have laid off of him, but I thought he had a chance to run. I really believe that was not a good call. He still has a chance to run if his feet are inbounds. It's football. But that wasn't the turning point. We still had plenty of chances. You can never say it was one play."

Quarterback Scott Hall, a true freshman playing his first college game: "I was a little nervous. But there was nothing I wasn't prepared to do. I was nervous for a long time. I didn't get my shot to play quarterback in high school until my senior season. But there was a lot of confidence out there from my teammates."

Strong safety Heath Moody: "A couple of good hits they made, we coughed up the ball. We put a couple of hits on them but we couldn't get on the ball." Any Baylor surprises? "They passed real well. But they didn't surprise us. We knew they had a great quarterback. We knew they had a great back and we had to respect him. We shut him down and then they started throwing the ball, then we started playing the pass. They just had a good balanced attack."

Here is what some of the sportswriters around the state had to say:

Stephen Hawkins, Associated Press: "Elijah Burkins made a quick impression in his return from an injury as Baylor ended a 16-game road losing streak with a 20-7 victory over North Texas, the only team the Bears beat last season.

"Burkins, who took a medical redshirt last season after hurting an ankle, didn't touch the ball until the first play of the second quarter, and then had three straight carries up the middle for the final 31 yards. He had gains of 18 and 9 yards before scoring from the 4. . .

"Greg Cicero was adequate in his first start as Baylor's quarterback. He completed 16 of 27 passes for 207 yards. That included a 55-yard play on the final drive before Baylor ended the game inside the 10."

Jerry Hill, Waco Tribune-Herald: "Kevin Steele and the Baylor Bears didn't need to make a statement this time. Instead of punching in a meaningless final touchdown in the last minute, quarterback Greg Cicero took a knee twice and then pointed to the crowd, sealing a 20-7 season-opening victory over the North Texas Eagles before a record crowd of 28,315 at Fouts Field.

"It was far from fancy, but Cicero completed 16 of 27 passes for 207 yards and linebacker Kris Micheaux scored on a 14-yard fumble return as the Bears won their first opener in four years. They also snapped a 16-game road losing streak that stretched all the way back to Sept. 6, 1997 when a Dave Roberts team defeated Fresno State, 37-35."

John Werner, Waco Tribune-Herald: "Baylor's defense promised things would be different this year. The Bears didn't look anything like the defense that ranked No. 102 in the country last year as they shut out North Texas for three quarters in a 20-7 win Thursday night.

"No one is going to mistake North Texas' offense for Texas or Nebraska. But the performance of Baylor's defense was impressive nevertheless as it limited the Mean Green to 265 yards total offense."

Jerome Solomon, Houston Chronicle: "The Baylor Bears are expecting Greg Cicero to do plenty of good things for them this season. The junior quarterback took a step toward meeting those expections Thursday night in his first start. More importantly for the Bears, though, there was no shortage of positive contributions from others and the team as a whole took a step toward doing some good things. . .

"Baylor still has a long way to go before it can compete with the better teams in the Big 12 Conference and its performance in its season opener was far from spectacular. But a team that managed just one win a year ago will gladly take it."

J. Douglas Foster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "North Texas' two biggest objectives for Thursday's season opener against Baylor were a first sellout of Fouts Field since its 1994 expansion and location of an offense that could consistently score in double figures, something that evaded the Eagles throughout the 1999 season.

"As it turned out, UNT found neither -- though it did come closer to the sellout. In front of a Fouts Field record crowd of 28,315, the Bears rolled their record to 11-0 all-time against UNT with a 20-7 victory. The Bears held UNT to 106 rushing yards and allowed the Eagles inside their 20 just twice all night in beaking a 16-game road losing streak. . .

"The Eagles managed just four first downs in the first half and had just 37 rushing yards in the opening 30 minutes. Thanks to that dominance by the Baylor defense, combined with one defensive score, the Bears were able to take a 17-0 lead into the half that was never really threatened."

Dan Noxon, Dallas Morning News: "Baylor didn't exactly win pretty Thursday night. But the Bears didn't lose ugly, either.

"Baylor won a season opener for the first time since 1996 and snapped a 16-game road losing streak in the process. The Bears' 20-7 victory over North Texas could have been by a bigger score, too, but coach Kevin Steele had junior transfer quarterback Greg Cicero take a knee twice after the Bears had moved to the UNT 4-yard line with 59 seconds remaining."

Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News: ". . .You get the impression UNT officials don't know what to make of it (the final score) yet. After the game, a 20-7 loss, a bank of fireworks goes off as if it's the Fourth of July. An Eagle victory, you can only figure, and they burn down the stadium.

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