ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬ ¹While they were far from alone, Baylor's cornerbacks had a "tough day" Saturday, giving up 471 yards passing in the Bears' 59-16 loss at Oklahoma State.

ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬ ¹"One of the hard things about playing corner is that you have to have a game where you get beat, and it stinks," coach Matt Rhule said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. "You get beat a couple times. And you come in on Sunday, and you're either done, shell-shocked, and never come back again; or you come in on Sunday and say, "That ain't happening again.'

ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬ ¹"What I do know is that our cornerbacks ÃÆ'Æ'à € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Æ' ¢' ¬" Grayland Arnold, Blake Lynch, Harrison Hand and Jameson Houston ÃÆ'Æ'à € ' ¢ÃƒÆ'Æ' ¢' ¬" are going to show up to play on Saturday. I know that."

ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬ ¹Saturday's 7 p.m. Homecoming matchup against 23rd-ranked West Virginia (4-2, 2-1) will be a very similar test for the Baylor secondary. Like Oklahoma State, the Mountaineers rank in the top 10 nationally in passing yards (362.2), total offense (547.2) and scoring (44.2).

ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬ ¹Quarterback Will Grier, a fourth-year junior transfer from Florida, has thrown for 2,092 yards and 21 touchdowns with only five interceptions.

ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬ ¹"The thing about Grier is that he doesn't just throw it," Rhule said. "He can run, and he's really intelligent. . . . He was a good player at Florida, and he's a really good player now. He can beat you with his feet, he can pull the ball down and run; he can beat you with his head; and he can beat you with his arm. I also like his toughness, his moxie. You can tell that he's the kind of guy you want to go win with."

David Sills, a former USC quarterback commit, has become one of the nation's top receivers with 39 catches for 601 yards and an NCAA-best 12 touchdowns. And like OSU quarterback Mason Rudolph, Grier has plenty of other targets with Gary Jennings Jr., Ka'Raun White and Marcus Simms. Rhule said he knew Sills when he was playing high school ball in Maryland, "and now he's developed into a real weapon."

"They do a great job of finding ways to get him the football and letting him be explosive," Rhule said. "I'm happy to see him at every game other than ours. I'm happy to see him play so well and become a good player and go through the journey that he's been on. I use the word process, and talk about the process he's been on: He's been a quarterback, a tight end, a receiver, and now he's playing his best football of late. And that's a credit to him."

Those are the challenges facing a Baylor secondary that has continued to get better and better, Rhule said, "but we're just not playing great all the time in the back end."

"It really shows up more in the run game with tackling," he said. "If we just tackle a little bit better in the open field, maybe in the safety and corner positions, that's not that game (against OSU). All those long plays are plays where you say, 'There's no way that play will ever work,' and it just did, because their kids made a play and our kid didn't.

"What do we do? We don't complain about it. We just continue to develop our players and get them to go make those tackles, and we continue to recruit guys that are going to make those tackles."

The offense against OSU was a mixed bag. While the passing game struggled with injuries and bad routes by the receivers, the running attack had arguably its best game of the season with 219 yards on 46 attempts (4.8-yard average).

"If there's any position that shows the progress we've made and commitment to the process of getting better, it's been the o-line," Rhule said. "I think Terence (Williams) was fantastic on Saturday. He played a great game. (John) Lovett played a great game early, and (Trestan) Ebner popped a couple runs. Had the score not gotten away from us, I think we would have probably gotten up near 300 yards. We would have continued to be able to run the football, but it got away and we kind of had to change how we were playing."

Williams, who rushed for 95 yards on 10 carries the week after the team leadership voted to let him come back, "is a great example of what we believe in," Rhule said.

"We believe in pushing people forward. I think all those positive stories give the kids energy and hope and let them know that no matter who you are, you're going to get an opportunity at some point."

The best example of that is freshman walk-on kicker Jay Sedwick. After running out with the other freshmen as part of the Baylor Line for the season opener, then watching the next two home games from the student section, the former all-state kicker from Arlington Grace Prep handled the kickoff duties against OSU.

"It's Chapter 4 in my book: From the Dorm to the Field," Rhule said. "In all the tough times, you just keep finding the kernel of truth that's there and improve the team and find kids that are getting better. So, that's an unbelievable story. I've never had anything close to that. So, we'll see how he does this week. He's a good player on this team."