Bears Head North to Face No. 20 Kansas
10/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 8, 2007
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GAME SEVEN
BAYLOR (3-3, 0-2) at No. 20
SATURDAY, OCT. 13, 2007 • 11:30 A.M. CDT
MEMORIAL STADIUM (50,071)
SERIES RECORD
Baylor leads 5-3-0
COACHES
BAYLOR: Guy Morriss (TCU, 1973)
Record at Baylor: 18-34 (5th season)
Career Record: 27-48 (7th season)
Record vs.
Record at
Career Record: 29-35 (6th season)
Record vs. Baylor: 1-2
BAYLOR/ISP RADIO NETWORK
John Morris, play-by-play
J.J. Joe, color analyst
Ricky Thompson, sideline
Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 161
Dan McLaughlin, play-by-play
Richard Baldinger, color analyst
INTERNET FEEDS
www.BaylorBears.com
BAYLOR TRAVELS TO
Baylor returns to action Saturday, Oct. 13, traveling to
Saturday's game will be televised regionally on Fox College Sports Central, available in the
The Bears (3-3, 0-2) have dropped two straight following a 43-23 loss at home against
The Jayhawks (5-0, 1-0) have won five straight and eight of their last nine dating back to last season after a 30-24 victory at 24th-ranked
BAYLOR-KANSAS SERIES
Baylor and
The series dates back to a 22-0
SERIES NOTES: The home team has won each of the five meetings as Big 12 foes. ... Four of five meetings as Big 12 foes, including each of the last three, were decided by seven or fewer points. ... Two of the top six single-game individual passing efforts in Baylor history were against
Overall: Baylor leads 5-3
Neutral Site: Never Met
Since Start of Big 12: Baylor leads 3-2
SERIES RESULTS
1971 at
1988 BAYLOR 27, at
1989 at BAYLOR 46,
1998 at BAYLOR 31,
1999 at
2002 at BAYLOR 35,
2003 at
2006 at BAYLOR 36,
LAST MEETING
BAYLOR 36,
OCT. 21, 2006 • FLOYD CASEY STADIUM •
Shawn Bell's 10-yard TD pass to Dominique Zeigler with 68 seconds remaining capped the third-largest comeback in Baylor history as the Bears rallied from 18 points down in the fourth quarter for a 36-35 Homecoming victory.
The comeback tied Baylor's 1936 21-18 victory at
The game-winning TD pass was
Baylor's chances to snap an eight-game Homecoming losing streak looked slim when Anthony Webb intercepted
Baylor got the ball back at the 5:33 mark and quickly marched 84 yards on four plays, culminating in a 4-yard
After forcing
Dwain Crawford intercepted Adam Barmann's fourth-and-22 pass on the game's final play.
Zeigler finished with seven catches for 122 yards, while
BAYLOR vs. BIG 12 NORTH
Most of Baylor's success in the Big 12 Conference has come against teams from the North Division. The Bears are 8-26 against teams from the North with only three victories (Texas, 1997; Texas A&M, 2004; Oklahoma State, 2005) against teams from the South.
Five of Baylor's eight victories against Big 12 North teams have come under head coach Guy Morriss. Those eight wins are as follows:
QUICK NOTES
• Baylor is 10-11-2 all-time when 3-3, including a 6-8-1 mark when following a loss and a 3-3-1 record with a two-game losing streak.
• Baylor is 200-195-21 all-time in October, including a 6-14 mark under head coach Guy Morriss.
• Baylor is 46-48-4 all-time on the second Saturday of October, including a 7-6 mark on Oct. 13.
• Baylor has forced at least one turnover in 26 of the last 29 games, including 17 games with at least two turnovers forced in that time.
• Baylor's defense has held the opposing offense without a first-quarter touchdown in 18 of the last 28 games, including 14 first-quarter shutouts in that time.
• Baylor has out-scored its opponents 41-20 in the first quarter through six games this season.
• Baylor has been flagged 37 times for 304 yards through this season's first six games. Last year, the Bears were penalized 50 times for 520 yards through the first six games.
• Baylor's defense has logged 13 quarterback sacks through six games this season after recording only 11 sacks in 12 games last year.
• One year after losing 32 seniors, including 24 fifth-year players, Baylor's 2007 roster features 71 underclassmen -- 45 of whom are either true (25) or redshirt (20) freshmen -- and just 17 seniors.
Game time for Baylor's Oct. 20 game against
BAYLOR-KANSAS CONNECTIONS
•
• Baylor OG James Barnard is a product of
• Baylor QB Michael Machen also spent one season (2004) at
WHITAKER RECEIVES ATTENTION FROM BACKFIELD
RB Brandon Whitaker established career highs with 11 catches for 166 yards against
Whitaker also broke Baylor's career receptions mark for a non-receiver in the
This season, Whitaker leads the Bears with 24 receptions; he also ranks fourth on the team with 227 yards receiving and is tied for second on the team with two touchdowns receiving.
OFFENSIVE LINE PLAY VASTLY IMPROVED
After giving up 36 sacks in 12 games last season, Baylor's offensive line has shown vast improvement through the first six games of the 2007 season. The Bears' quarterbacks have been sacked only seven times in six games.
Baylor's offensive line did not allow a sack against Texas A&M nor against
From 1998 through 2006, Baylor quarterbacks were sacked 328 times in 113 games (2.9 per game), allowing at least 25 sacks each season and a high of 52 sacks in a 12-game 2002 schedule. This season, the Bears are allowing only 1.2 sacks per game. More impressively, the Bears' quarterbacks were sacked once every 11.3 pass attempts from 1998 through 2006; this season, they have been sacked once every 23.3 pass attempts.
GETTIS CATCHES FIRE
Sparked by a career-long, 69-yard reception early in the fourth quarter two weeks ago at Texas A&M, WR David Gettis has suddenly become a go-to target for QB Blake Szymanski. Gettis followed his 88-yard performace at Texas A&M with an even better game against
Gettis also had 126 yards in kickoff returns against
FS Jordan Lake ranks sixth in the Big 12 and is tied for 56th nationally with 9.2 tackles per game. A sophomore from
Lake, who was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week following the Bears' 34-21 victory at
SZYMANSKI ALREADY NEARING SEASON TOUCHDOWNS LIST
With 15 touchdown passes through the season's first six games, QB Blake Szymanski already is nearing Baylor's all-time, single-season touchdown passes list. He enters Saturday's game at
Szymanski established a Baylor record for touchdown passes by a sophomore in the season's third game. With three touchdown passes at
Through the season's first six games, Szymanski is on pace for 304 completions, 3,630 passing yards and 30 touchdown passes, all of which would shatter Baylor's single-season records. The only player in Baylor history to throw for at least 400 yards in a game, Szymanski has accomplished the feat three times this season. He also has tied Neal Jeffrey's school record of three career games with at least 300 yards passing.
PAWELEK CONTINUES TO ANCHOR BEARS' DEFENSE
LB Joe Pawelek, a Freshman All-America selection in 2006, has continued his stellar play at middle linebacker in this, his sophomore campaign. Through five games, Pawelek has averaged 8.0 tackles per game to tie for ninth in the Big 12 Conference, tied for seventh among league linebackers.
Pawelek has 48 tackles on the season, including 19 solo efforts and 6.5 stops behind the line. He has 2.0 sacks, one pass break up, one quarterback hurry, a fumble forced and a fumble recovery.
INSIDE RECEIVERS FEAST
Inside and and slot receivers have accounted for 38.5 percent of Baylor's receptions this season (60 of 156), 40.0 percent of Baylor's receiving yards (737 of 1,841) and 40.0 percent of Baylor's touchdown receptions (6 of 15).
IR Justin Akers ranks second on the team in receptions (24) and first in yards (278), while IR Brad Taylor is third in receptions (18) and second in yards (271). Akers leads the team with four touchdown receptions, while
BEARS HAVE 20/20 VISION
In five seasons under head coach Guy Morriss, Baylor has established a bit of a vicenary rule on the scoreboard. The Bears are 16-12 when scoring at least 20 points and 2-22 when scoring less than 20 points since the start of the 2003 season. Likewise, the Bears are 10-3 when holding the opponent to fewer than 20 points and 8-31 when allowing 20 or more points in that time.
FIRST-QUARTER DEFENSIVE SUCCESS CONTINUES
Baylor's defense allowed just 57 first-quarter points in 12 games last season, averaging 4.8 points per game allowed in the opening period. Two of the seven first-quarter touchdowns allowed by the Bears last season were scores by the opponent's defense, meaning Baylor's defense allowed only 3.6 first-quarter points per game. The Bears' defense allowed only six first-quarter touchdowns (two of which were followed by missed extra points) and one field goal. No team scored more than one offensive touchdown, only two scored more than once -- Texas Tech (offensive touchdown and field goal) and
That success has carried over to the 2007 season as the Bears have allowed only four first-quarter scores and only two first-quarter touchdowns through the first six games. Baylor held TCU,
In 28 games since the 2005 season opener at SMU, Baylor has held the opponent without a first-quarter offensive touchdown 18 times with 14 first-quarter shutouts. Texas Tech last season and
NOTES FROM THE
• Most first-quarter points allowed (10) by Baylor's defense since last year's
• Most first-half points allowed (27) by Baylor's defense since last year's
•
•
• Most points Baylor has allowed in a home game since
• Most points Baylor has allowed in a home game against an unranked opponent since Texas Tech scored 62 points in 2003.
• RB Brandon Whitaker's 62-yard, second-quarter reception was the longest of his career.
• Whitaker established career highs with 11 receptions and 166 yards receiving, both school records for a non-receiver. His reception total tied for the fifth-best total in school history and was one shy of the school record, while his yardage total ranked tied for the eight-best total all-time at Baylor.
• Whitaker produced Baylor's first 100-yard receiving game since Dominique Zeigler's 180-yard performance against Texas A&M last season.
• WR David Gettis established career highs with eight receptions and 99 yards receiving.
• QB Blake Syzmanski set school records with 36 completions, 60 pass attempts and 428 yards of total offense.
• Szymanski, the only player in Baylor history to ever throw for 400-plus yards in a game, finished with 410 yards passing, the third-best, single-game total in school history behind only his 412 yards against Rice and 411 yards against
• Szymanski joined Neal Jeffrey as the only players in school history with three career 300-yard passing games.
• SS Brandon Stiggers' fourth-quarter interception was the first of his career.
Baylor has recorded 14 non-offensive scores in 52 games under head coach Guy Morriss, notching at least one such score in each of Morriss' four seasons.
• 2003 vs. UAB -- James Todd blocked punt for safety
• 2003 vs.
• 2003 at
• 2003 at
• 2003 vs. Texas Tech -- Robert Quiroga 100-yard kickoff return
• 2003 vs.
• 2004 vs.
• 2004 vs. North Texas -- Braelon Davis blocked punt recovery in end zone (blocked by
• 2004 vs.
• 2005 vs. Samford -- Jamaal Harper 29-yard fumble return (forced by Colin Allred)
• 2005 vs. Samford -- Shaun Rochon 85-yard punt return
• 2005 at
• 2005 vs.
• 2006 vs.
BAYLOR TURNS OVER A NEW LEAF
Baylor ranked 113th nationally in turnover margin and forced just nine opponent miscues over the 11-game 2004 campaign, but the last three seasons it has reversed that trend. The Bears' defense has forced 68 turnovers (38 interceptions, 30 fumble recoveries) since the start of the 2005 season to rank third in the Big 12 and tied for ninth nationally among Division I-A teams in that span. Baylor has come up with at least one turnover in 26 of 29 games since the start of the 2005 season, including 17 games with two or more.
Baylor forced 34 turnovers over 23 games in Guy Morriss' first two seasons, compared to the 68 it has totaled over the last 29 outings. Here's a look at the teams with most turnovers forced over the last three seasons:
TURNOVERS GAINED 2005 2006 2007 TOTAL
1. TCU 40 26 14 80
2.
5. South
6.
9. Baylor 29 27 12 68
Louisiana-Monroe 26 34 8 68
12. Southern
14.
17.
18.
FORMER WALK-ONS EARN SCHOLARSHIPS
Six senior walk-on members of the Baylor football team were awarded scholarships for the 2007-08 academic year: OG Ricky Hasoon, LB Daniel Lopez, CB Ralph Rodriguez, OL Ted Tanner, SS Zach Jones and FB Keegan Vann.
At the end of spring practice, the Baylor staff also placed junior WR Thomas White on scholarship. Including the seniors receiving scholarships prior to the start of the season, Baylor's 2007 roster features eight walk-ons who have earned scholarships.
Since Morriss' arrival in 2003, 30 Bears have gone from walk-on to scholarship status.
BAYLOR AMONG NATION'S BEST COLLEGES
Other Big 12 schools ranked were:
AFCA SALUTES BAYLOR FOR GRADUATION RATE
Baylor was one of 34 NCAA Division I-A schools to have its football program honored with the 2007 Academic Achievement Award by the American Football Coaches Association.
In the most-recent AFCA survey, four institutions registered graduation rates of 90 percent or more for their 2001-02 freshman football class, including Northwestern and Notre Dame, which earned top honors from the Touchdown Club of Memphis with their 95 percent marks.
Baylor joined Big 12 schools
2007 SCHEDULE FEATURES EIGHT 2006 BOWL TEAMS
After playing seven of 12 games a year ago against teams that went on to earn bowl invitations, Baylor will face eight 2006 bowl teams this season, including six of its eight Big 12 opponents. But, that's nothing new for coach Guy Morriss' program, as 28 times in his first 46 games (including 25 of 32 Big 12 contests) along the Baylor sideline he's faced an opponent who ended the season in a bowl game.
The Bears' 2007 opponents combined for an 85-67 (.559) record a year ago and eight earned bowl bids -- TCU (Poinsettia champion), Rice (New Orleans), Texas (Alamo champion), Kansas State (Texas), Texas A&M (Holiday), Texas Tech (Insight champion), Oklahoma (Fiesta) and Oklahoma State (Independence champion). Baylor's eight 2007 Big 12 foes went 60-43 (.583) a year ago and recorded all three of the league's bowl wins.
Six of Baylor's eight losses in 2006 came at the hands of eventual bowl-bound teams while it knocked off Texas Bowl participant
Over Morriss' four seasons in
FOOTBALL OPERATIONS HEADED TO CAMPUS IN 2008
Ground was broken May 10, 2007, on the Alwin O. and Dorothy Highers Athletics Complex and the Simpson Athletics and Academic Center, a $34 million complex that will integrate the Baylor athletics department and football program into the campus environment for the first time since the late 1950s.
The lead gift for the privately funded project and the largest single gift in school history is from the estate of Alwin O. Highers Jr. of Alexandria, La. A native Texan and a 1939 Baylor business graduate, Mr. Highers was well known as the owner of
The focal point of the Highers Athletics Complex will be the 96,300-square-foot Simpson Athletics and
A
Simpson earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance, with magna cum laude honors, in 1970 and his MBA in 1971.
The first floor of the Simpson Athletics and
The Highers Athletics Complex will include three football practice fields, two with a natural surface and the other with artificial turf. Construction will take approximately 18 months and is expected to be completed by July 2008.
FAMILY AFFAIR
The Bears' 2007 roster includes the sons of six former Baylor football standouts, three of whom were All-Americans during their Baylor careers. True freshmen Matt Singletary, V.J. McElroy and Chris Francis join three other sons of Baylor legacies already in the program--sophomore offensive guard Sam Sledge, redshirt freshman receiver Ben Randle and sophomore running back Tony Anderson, who must sit out the season as a transfer from
Singletary's father, Mike, was a three-time All-American and two-time Davey O'Brien Award winner who is enshrined in both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame after standout playing careers at Baylor and with the NFL's Chicago Bears. McElroy's father, Vann, was a two-time All-America defensive back at Baylor who went on to play in two Pro Bowls with the NFL's Los Angeles Raiders. The younger Francis' father, James, earned 1989 All-America and Southwest Conference Player of the Year honors and was a first-round NFL Draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals.
David Sledge was an All-Southwest Conference performer for the Bears in 1978. Alfred Anderson, the third-leading rusher in school history, and Ervin Randle, an eight-year NFL veteran with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs, were Baylor teammates in the early 1980s.
COACHING STAFF FEATURES FIVE NEW FACES
In the off-season, Baylor's coaching staff underwent a makeover as five new faces were added, and the dean of the Bears' staff, Larry Hoefer, was promoted to defensive coordinator.
After spending the past three seasons as running backs coach at the
Cornell Jackson, who coached running backs at the
Hoefer, the only remaining member of Morriss' original staff, was named the Bears' defensive coordinator in late February when Bill Bradley was hired as secondary coach of the NFL's San Diego Chargers.
Lee Hays returns for his second season as Baylor's offensive coordinator and will also tutor the Baylor signal callers in 2007, while Gary Kinne (linebackers) and Don Wnek (defensive line) are back for their second and third seasons, respectively, in the Baylor program.
The 2007 Baylor coaching staff boasts more than 160 years of experience at the professional, collegiate and high school levels. Seven members of Baylor's staff played NCAA Division I football and five played professional football.
BAYLOR CONTINUES TO IMPROVE UNDER MORRISS
Introduced as Baylor's 24th head football coach on Dec. 11, 2002, Guy Morriss inherited a proud program that had fallen on hard times and produced just 13 victories in the six seasons (1997-2002) prior to his arrival. He and his staff have already posted more wins both overall (18) and in Big 12 play (seven) in five years than the Bears registered in the seven previous years (17 overall/four Big 12) before Morriss' Central Texas arrival.
Morriss has directed Baylor to seven of its 11 all-time Big 12 Conference victories and its only two conference road wins, while improving the Bears' league win total in each of the last three seasons. He owns a 18-33 record in five seasons at Baylor and is 27-47 in seven seasons as a head coach overall.
OVER THE AIR
Bear football games can be heard live on the Baylor/ISP Sports Radio Network. The network includes nine affiliates across
BAYLOR/ISP SPORTS FOOTBALL RADIO NETWORK
Dallas/Fort Worth WBAP-AM 820
BAYLORBEARS.COM
Baylor's official athletic web site can be found at www.BaylorBears.com. The comprehensive site, which includes releases, photos, biographical sketches and audio broadcasts, is part of the College Sports TV network. CSTV currently hosts sites for more than 100 universities, including four Big 12 schools and the conference office.
BAYLOR GAMES ON THE INTERNET
The radio call from all of Baylor's games can be heard free of charge live on the Internet at www.BaylorBears.com.
INSIDE BAYLOR SPORTS TV SHOW
Inside Baylor Sports, a half-hour look at the world of Baylor athletics, will air weekly throughout
UP NEXT ...
Baylor returns to action Saturday, Oct. 20, hosting
