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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Since it's been three years since Jim Grobe went through an opening day of fall practice, "I don't know if anybody in the country has been looking forward to this day more than me."

Baylor's interim head football coach opened the fall workouts with a two-hour practice Thursday afternoon, beginning preparations for the Bears' Sept. 2 opener at McLane Stadium against Northwestern State.

"I'm really proud of the way they've pulled together," Grobe said in a pre-practice interview session. "They've been through a lot of adversity together, and after two months I just see a pretty cohesive group right now. What we're really going to hang our hat on is how hard they've worked this summer. They've really paid a price."

Senior quarterback Seth Russell challenged his coach on who's actually the most anxious about getting back on the field.

"I don't think he broke his neck, did he?" said Russell, who missed the last six games of the 2015 season and most of the spring after undergoing neck surgery. "This is what we've been waiting on. I've been waiting a little bit longer than a lot of these guys. As a team, we're just real excited and ready to get going."

Rather than coming in and making a bunch of changes with a team that's won 50 games over the last five seasons and a pair of Big 12 championships, Grobe kept the rest of the coaching staff intact and is sticking with the schemes that put the Bears among the elite programs in the country.

"The last thing they needed was a new coach in their room," Grobe said. "In trying to take care of the good kids on our football team, I felt like we needed to have some consistency. I really, really like this group of players, and I think they feel comfortable that we're keeping the same schemes, offensively and defensively. . . . My No. 1 thing is making sure that we play with class, respect our opponents, fly around, play full speed, all of those things. I've just got a sense that playing full speed is not going to be a problem."

The biggest concern for Grobe and the Bears is the lack of depth, particularly in the offensive and defensive lines. With only half of the 2016 recruiting class remaining, Baylor is down to about 70 scholarship players -- 15 below the NCAA Division I max of 85.

In the offensive line, center Kyle Fuller is the only returning starter and there are only a handful of players with any significant snaps on the major-college level.

"We've got really seven kids right now that we feel comfortable with as far as winning," Grobe said of the offensive line. "We've got some kids that we think might be able to step up and help us, but we won't know until we're probably a couple weeks into practice. So, I think the front guys, the big guys, are probably our No. 1 concern right now."

Despite the depth issues, Fuller is "very confident" in a group that includes Patrick Lawrence, Dom Desouza and Mo Porter at the tackles and Blake Blackmar, Tanner Thrift and Ishmael Wilson at guard.

"We're going to be able to get the job done, I'm very confident in that," Fuller said. "That's really the main thing is getting the job done."

That group of front will be taxed with keeping Russell healthy this season. Last season, the Bears had three quarterbacks go down with injuries and ended up using the wildcat formation almost exclusively in a 49-38 victory over North Carolina in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

"I think a key for us is him staying healthy," Grobe said of Russell. "If he does, we've got the right guy pulling the trigger."

The Bears are loaded at running back and have plenty of receivers, Grobe said, but "our coaches are a little bit concerned about our depth. When you think of how many receivers we use and how fast we play, their concern is keeping fresh guys on the field."

It's a similar issue on the defensive side, where no starters return up front. Senior Byron Bonds is the only tackle with much of any experience, but Grobe said Bennett's transition to more 3-4 formations last season could help if the Bears "get thin inside."

Most of the back end returns, with Chance Waz and Orion Stewart at the safeties, Ryan Reid at cornerback and Travon Blanchard, Taylor Young and Aiavion Edwards in the middle.

"When everything happened, of course, there were a lot of opinions -- Baylor is not going to be as good as they were, Baylor will fall off," Blanchard said. "The team, we all got together and decided that either we can bail, get off board and prove everyone right, make them think they're correct. Or, we can bust our butts and keep looking forward. We're not looking at what's in the past. We can't change it. Right now, we're worried about football."

After practices the next two days, which are closed to the public, Baylor will host its annual "Meet the Bears" football fan appreciation event Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium.

Fans can enter stadium through Gate C starting at 2:30 p.m. and autograph tables will be set up on the 100 level concourse between sections 117 and 124 until 4 p.m. Fans are limited to two autographed item per player/coach, with the 2016 schedule posters counting as one of the items.