Sunday With Guy
10/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 1, 2006
Fresh off a 17-3 victory over Kansas State on Saturday evening in Waco, the Baylor (2-3/1-1) football team heads to the Rocky Mountains for Saturday's 1:37 p.m. (Mountain) showdown at Colorado (0-5/0-1). The Bears opened Big 12 play with a win for the first time since the 2003 season and will carry the program's first-ever two-game Big 12 win streak (which includes last year's season-ending 44-34 victory over Oklahoma State) into Boulder this weekend.
Here are Baylor coach Guy Morriss' thoughts on a variety of topics the day after the Kansas State victory.
What are you frustrated with on the offense?
"Every play, somebody is messing something up every play. No wonder we can't move the football. We're not executing. Somebody misses a block. Somebody releases outside instead of inside. Somebody is jogging through a route instead of going full speed."
Lee Hays (Offensive Coordinator) said that he didn't want to throw useless deep passes. Were there any of those against Kansas State?
"I don't think Lee is happy with some of the shots we took. There is some underneath stuff wide open, and we don't really need to be throwing the deep ball."
Did you want to throw it deep?
"Yes, but I'm not sure our judgment was good when we launched it. I felt like we needed to throw it just to make them respect it. But they weren't really good throws."
What do you need to do to have more plays like the 75-yard pass to Trent Shelton?
"Again, it was just a case where everybody did what they were supposed to do. We've got too much free-lancing going on. Sometimes we'll take the pass with the least resistance on our release, and that screws the whole play up. If we have a lineman that is supposed to be in the whole, then get in the whole. Things like that."
How did you like the running game?
"There were times when we ran the ball pretty good, but for most of the night, we didn't run the ball very well. I give some of the credit to K-State. They were slanting quite a bit. And they blitzed into the run a couple times as well. In order to be effective, we've got to run the zone and everybody has to run their track."
How do you feel about the win?
"Well a win is a win, obviously. It is always good to win no matter how ugly it is. But for some of the folks we are fixing to line up and play, we aren't good enough offensively."
Is the defense good enough to win?
"I think they've been pretty consistent through five ball games. They've held people down enough for us to win."
Did you say anything different at halftime this week?
"I said, `You know, we've been here for four weeks in a row guys. We need to come back out and execute and have a lot of energy. We need to execute our offense.' I think sometimes our kids come out from halftime and they are waiting for something bad to happen."
Baylor Sunday Notes: Baylor senior punter Daniel Sepulveda ranks fifth nationally with his 45.9-yard average ... Against Kansas State, Sepulveda averaged 52.1 yards on a career-high tying nine punts with a career-best six inside the 20 ... His 52.1-yard average against the Wildcats was the best-ever by Baylor punter with at least eight punts in a game (Sepulveda held the previous record with his 47.8-yard average on nine punts at Texas A&M in 2003 ... Sepulveda had a career-long tying 78-yard punt in the fourth quarter, which also equaled the eighth-longest punt in school history ... The Baylor defense yielded just three points, its fewest-ever in a Big 12 game (81 all-time games) and matches the fewest allowed since a 14-0 win at North Carolina State in 1994 (the Bears also yielded 3 points in a season-opening win over Arkansas State in 2001) ... Senior QB Shawn Bell recorded his seventh consecutive 200-yard passing game (he finished with 282 yards) to tie Don Trull's school-record established during the 1963 campaign ... Bell has thrown at least one TD pass in a career-best seven consecutive games, the longest such string for a Baylor signal caller since Brad Goebel's seven-game string in 1987 ... Bell moved into fifth on Baylor's career passing yards list with 4,437 yards and into second on its career pass attempts (748) chart ... Senior WR Trent Shelton has now recorded at least one reception in a school-record 38 straight games, while senior WR Dominique Zeigler has at least one catch in 25 consecutive games ... Zeigler now stands No. 4 on BU's career receptions list (133), while Shelton is No. 5 with 131 catches ... Baylor improved to 9-3 all-time under Guy Morriss when holding its opponent to less than 20 points ... The Baylor defense has not allowed a first-quarter score in six straight games dating to last season ... Baylor has outscored its opponents, 40-0, in the first quarter this season and 53-13 in the first half over the season's first five games ... The Baylor defense has forced 16 turnovers (nine interceptions and seven fumble recoveries) on the season, which ranks first nationally along with Rutgers ... The Bears are also in a T-No. 14 nationally in turnover margin at +1.00 per game ... Since ranking 113th nationally in turnover margin and forcing just nine opponent miscues over the 11-game 2004 campaign, the Baylor defense has forced 45 turnovers (25 interceptions and 20 fumble recoveries) and come up with at least one turnover in 15 of its last 16 games, including seven straight dating to last year's game vs. No. 2 Texas ... Over Morriss' first two seasons on the Baylor sideline, his defense forced 34 turnovers in 23 games, compared to the 45 it has totaled over the last 16 outings ... Baylor is 1-0 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2003 and just the third time in the league's 11-year history.
