Russell Adds Another Dimension to Baylor Offense
10/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Larry Little
Baylor Bear Insider
For all intents and purposes, Robert Griffin III is the yard stick by which all Baylor quarterbacks are measured. He resurrected the program. He established sundry school records. He won a Heisman Trophy.
The dual-threat quarterback was a once-in-a-generation quarterback. Maybe.
He has a long way to go to match Griffin's exploits, but Seth Russell did his best to enter the discussion Saturday as second-ranked Baylor raced past West Virginia, 62-38, at McLane Stadium.
Russell joined Griffin as the only player in Baylor history to pass for at least 300 yards and rush for at least 100 yards in the same game. The junior from Garland, Texas, finished his afternoon midway through the fourth quarter with 380 yards passing and 160 yards rushing-a career high.
Along with those yardage totals, Russell accounted for six touchdowns-five passing, one rushing. He completed 20 of 33 passes (61 percent), averaging 11.5 yards per attempt and one touchdown every four completions. Russell averaged 11.4 yards rushing, including a 46-yard jaunt that was Baylor's longest rush of the day.
"We felt like coming into the game he would have to run some," Baylor head coach Art Briles said of Russell, who was honored Sunday as the Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week. "We hadn't been running him much, but he has that ability, and that's an X factor we haven't had for a couple or three years."
Since, say, the 2011 season. Of the six quarterbacks who've started a game during the Briles era, none got more out of his ability than Nick Florence. Bryce Petty arguably was the best pure passer and was the only to win a title (to this point). And, of course, there was Griffin, who seemed to do it all.
But Russell displayed Saturday a glimpse of the possibility that he could end up being the best of the bunch. He produced 540 yards of total offense against West Virginia, the third-best mark in school history. Griffin had 551 against Oklahoma in 2011, and Florence had 575 against West Virginia in 2012.
Russell matches Petty's passing ability, especially on the deep ball, and he is the best runner at the position since Griffin. Russell may not have Griffin's straight-line speed, but he's equally elusive, and he's a smart runner.
"He's really good at (running the ball)," Briles said. "He did a great job protecting the ball. He made a lot of adjustments at the line of scrimmage. He just did a good job."
After what Briles described as a "rusty" Thursday practice, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles put in a lot of extra time with Russell from that point leading up to Saturday's game, preparing for the West Virginia defense.
"It really paid off today from a mental standpoint," the head coach said. "He's really playing well for us, and that's the most encouraging thing. We're getting to know him better, and he's getting to know us better. I'm having a hard time finding faults. He's pretty complete."
Russell's rushing exploits were needed against West Virginia's stingy defensive front. Shock Linwood burst 15 yards on the game's first play but was bottled up most of the first half thereafter.
In fact, nearly all of Linwood's 84 yards against West Virginia came on four plays. He had a 12-yarder late in the second quarter, a 20-yarder on Baylor's first drive of the third quarter and an 11-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Linwood averaged 1.7 yards on his other 15 carries.
"You don't like to think it's going to be hard to run the football, but they're a run-stop team," Briles said. "That's what they do. We dropped 95 yards (rushing) on them last year. They're a team that takes a lot of pride in stopping the run, and they're good. They do a good job; they have good people."
This year, the Bears racked up 304 yards rushing against the Mountaineers, who had not yielded more than 200 yards on the ground in a game this season. Baylor's rushing total Saturday was the best single-game tally against West Virginia since 2013.
"We knew they were going to heat us up a bit, and that's what they did," Russell said of West Virginia's blitz. "If they bring seven, you leave one free rusher. So, that's who we were reading. I pull it, and then I'm one-on-one with the safety, basically. We had a good game plan drawn up, and we executed it."
Russell joined Griffin as the only Baylor quarterbacks ever to eclipse 150 yards rushing. Griffin did it only once, gaining 217 yards against Washington State in his second career start; he had only 129 yards passing in that game.
Griffin's 300-100 game was against Kansas in 2011. He finished with 312 yards passing with three touchdowns and 103 yards rushing with one touchdown. Griffin needed overtime to eclipse 300 yards passing in that game, finishing regulation with 298.
"We went in sort of waiting to see what they were going to do," Russell said. "On the first drive, I probably could have pulled it and walked for 80. It turned out they were going to blitz a lot, so the quarterback run was going to have to be huge."
Hitting the slant route was also huge, and Russell connected with Corey Coleman on a few of those. Coleman, who had another eye-popping afternoon, said Russell's ability as a runner also aids the receivers.
"With an athletic quarterback like Seth, he can run for 50 yards and score," Coleman said. "You can't do some of the stuff you like to if you just have a straight passing quarterback."
Coleman's numbers have gone off the charts this season with Russell at quarterback after working with Petty the previous two seasons.
"They're two different quarterbacks," he said. "They're both really good. Seth is more athletic. Throwing the ball, you have to get used to (the change). That's why we practice. Bryce always left the ball inside. Seth is going to put it where it's best for me at the time, if it's back shoulder or inside or out in front where I have to run it down. He puts it where I can get it."
West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen called Coleman "the best player in college football" after Saturday's game. Linwood is among the national leaders in rushing yardage. Russell leads the nation in passing touchdowns. Now, with Russell showing he can pile up rushing yards, as well, Baylor's arsenal is even deeper.
With running the ball comes contact. Russell took some hits Saturday. He also delivered some. Will he be a little sore?
"Yeah, probably a little bit, but that's football," he said. "That was our game plan. I knew I was going to run it eight to 12 times. We had to keep them honest. There were some big holes."
Russell found them and filled them, and he honestly may be filling the shoes of his predecessors.
The Bears (6-0, 3-0) will host Iowa State (2-4, 1-2) at 11 a.m. next Saturday, Oct. 24, for a Homecoming game tilt that will be televised nationally by ESPN.
