By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Two years behind him, Orion Stewart never played football with Ahmad Dixon at Midway High School.

But taxed with having to replace the Baylor All-American at the down safety position that Dixon patrolled last year, Stewart had some awfully big shoes to fill at the start of this season.

"I feel like people still put me under his shadow just because we came from the same school and now I'm in the spot where he was an All-American and one of the best do it," said Stewart, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound sophomore who has started nine of the first 10 games. "But I really did enjoy playing under him and watching him make the plays he made. Me sitting behind him and learning from him, him teaching me so much, it was great for me."

As much pressure as there was to follow him, though, Stewart has made as many interceptions this season (four) as Dixon had in his career. Maybe it's comparing apples and oranges, since Dixon spent two of his four seasons at the hybrid safety/linebacker "Bear" position, but Stewart leads the team, ranks third in the Big 12 and is tied for 25th nationally with his four picks.

"I feel like I'm just going to play my game. I can't be Ahmad and Ahmad can't be me," he said. "I have to go out there and just do the best I can do. But I think it's challenging to me, because we always get into it about who's going to be the best to play back there. And I tell him all the time I'm going to be the best. I want to be the best to ever do it. I feel like I can be better than Ahmad, but I still have a long way to go. I have a lot of things I still need to work on."

One thing he doesn't lack is confidence, if you can't tell. When the Bears blitz off the corners and he's stuck in man-to-man coverage, "I feel like I can cover anybody."

"When I go out there, I feel like I'm the best, and I want to lock you down, no matter who it is," he said.

At a point earlier in the season when the cornerbacks were struggling, Stewart told defensive coordinator Phil Bennett that he was ready when needed.

"I said, 'If you need a corner, let me know, I'll go play it,''' he said. "I don't think I'll make that move right now. But if I really needed to and I practiced it, I feel like I could make the change to play corner."

Junior cornerback Tion Wright, pressed into a starting role in Saturday's 49-28 win over Oklahoma State with Ryan Reid out with a hip injury, isn't so sure.

"Orion's kind of fast, but I don't know if he has the hips to play corner."

Stewart is at his best as a roving safety, reading the quarterback's eyes and then striking like a hungry cobra.

"He's got playmaking skills," Bennett said. "He's just got to stay with the discipline of the defense. And I think he's getting better at it."

Bennett says there are times when Stewart maybe takes chances, "but they're calculated."

"He has a natural instinct to see things. He's got great vision, and that's a good thing to have back there."

After making three interceptions in the first five games, including two in a 28-7 win at Texas, Stewart had gone four games without a pick before a big one that clinched Saturday's win over OSU.

With the Cowboys trailing by just 14 and driving, Stewart spotted a receiver making a crossing route over the middle, "and before he could throw it, I was already jumping it."

"I sat over the top a little bit," he said. "I kind of had a feeling the quarterback was going to go front side and then look back at him. So when I had that feeling, I just jumped it, and he threw it right to me."

Baiting freshman quarterback Mason Rudolph into the throw, Stewart picked it off and returned the interception 23 yards back to OSU's 42. That set up a 21-yard touchdown run by quarterback Bryce Petty that put the game away.

"Especially because Orion made such a fabulous pick, we needed to feed off that," Petty said. "It was that point in the game where we had to score and put it away."

Last month's game against TCU was just the opposite. It was the Bears that were trying to come back from a three-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter.

With the defense getting three straight stops, the Petty-led offense scored 24 unanswered points and Baylor pulled out a dramatic 61-58 win with Chris Callahan's last-second field goal.

"I told Bryce, 'Just score, we're going to give you the ball back,''' Stewart said. "I just had that feeling inside that we were going to make a stop, and we did. Our thing on the sideline was just get off the field. If we get off the field, we know what our offense can do. We have the best offense in the country for a reason. So, we got the stops and we were able to come out with the victory."

The following week, Stewart was one of the many culprits in a beleaguered secondary as the Bears got penalized 18 times for a Big 12-record 215 yards in a 41-27 loss at West Virginia. That game is what has Baylor on the outside looking in at the moment, ranked seventh in the College Football Playoff committee poll that was released Tuesday night.

"That one's going to be in the back of my head for a long time," Stewart said. "We have a motto, saying to clear it. But that's one of those games where went up there not expecting it to be a dog fight. We went up there like we were going to win, and we got it handed to us."

Echoing Petty's assessment, Stewart said the Bears went into the West Virginia game "happy" after the win over TCU.

"We didn't go in there like we were hungry. We went in there like we had already achieved something, like we were already the Big 12 champions and all those other things, which we weren't. That one's going to be a tough one to overcome, but we got past it and we don't want to go back to that."

With Stewart replacing Dixon, as well as first-year starters at corner and end, there were serious questions about how good this defense could be.

I think the Bears have put those doubts to rest. They rank first in the Big 12 and 18th nationally in total defense, allowing just 329.7 yards per game; 10th in the country in rushing defense (108.6 yards); and 27th in points allowed (21.7).

"People doubted us, but I saw how we practiced and I saw the players we had," Stewart said. "I knew we could be where we are, and I feel like we can be even better. There have been times where we gave up some things that we shouldn't have given up. We just have to get ready for Texas Tech so that we can finish strong."

The Bears (9-1, 6-1) face Tech (4-7, 2-6) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington before closing out with a game against 11th-ranked Kansas State (8-2, 6-1) on Dec. 6 at McLane Stadium.

"We can't control (the rankings)," Stewart said. "I've got to control what I can control, and that's doing my part on the back end."

A two-star safety whose other scholarship offers came from Memphis, Wyoming, Sam Houston State and SFA, Stewart said he almost went the basketball route. In fact, he was playing basketball only the year that he was a sophomore and Dixon was a senior at Midway.

"I really wanted to play basketball," said Stewart, a guard who was more of a "slasher" than a 3-point shooter. "To this day, I really can't tell you what was the exact thing that made me say I'm going to play football in college. One day, I just woke up and was like, 'I'm going to play football in college.' That's how I am what I am today."

Asked who was a better basketball player between him and senior receiver Levi Norwood, another Midway-ex who played on the Baylor basketball team as a freshman, Stewart said: "He isn't around, is he? Yeah, I'm the better basketball player."

Did you know?

It seems obvious that the name Orion comes from the constellation that is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable in the night sky. Or maybe it's the constellation's namesake, Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. "But my mom always says she didn't get it from that," Stewart said. "I know I'm the only person in my family that has it. I really can't tell you. I think (the constellation) is where it comes from, but I'm a mama's boy, so mama's word goes."