By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            NEW ORLEANS – Grayland Arnold never sees a pass thrown his way as a 50-50 ball.
            "It's got to be like, 'No, this ball is mine' every time the ball is in the air,''' said the Baylor junior safety, who's ranked fifth nationally with six interceptions. "It has to start in practice. But once you create those good habits, it will lead over to the game."
            It was that kind of mentality that helped Baylor (11-2) go from 10 takeaways a year ago to second nationally with 30 going into Wednesday's 7:45 p.m. matchup against No. 5 Georgia (11-2) in the Sugar Bowl.
            "The big thing is it's contagious," defensive coordinator Phil Snow said at Sunday's media session. "If you get enough guys that like the turnover deal and have a knack for it, the other guys start to really feed on it. You can go from 10 to 30. I'm proud of that. That's a big jump from one year to the next."
            Since the first year with Snow and head coach Matt Rhule in 2017, the number 30 has been on the Baylor defense's goal board for takeaways. It might as well have been 100. The Bears had 11 the first season and then dropped to 10 a year ago.
            But, something clicked with this defense, erven all the way back in spring camp.
            Senior linebacker Jordan Williams remembers the final spring practice, when the defense got a turnover on the goal line, "we had a nice pick on the sideline and somebody stripped the ball out when the guy was about to score."
            "We saw those plays, and it trickled over," said Williams, who had three interceptions, two forced fumbles and one recovery. "I remember telling somebody at the very beginning of the year, 'Yeah, we're going to be a really good defense.'''
            Switched from cornerback to safety right before fall camp, Arnold has made the biggest difference, registering six of the team's 17 interceptions. The Bears had seven as a team last season and just three the year before.
            "Grayland had been hurt the first two years for us here, hadn't played too much," said Snow, a 43-year coaching veteran who's in his first Sugar Bowl. "Grayland has the knack to get the football. That becomes contagious. He gets a pick, now the next guy wants to get one. Pretty soon, everybody is intercepting the football."
            Snow said the emphasis on turnovers has to start with recruiting. Going back to his days as an NFL assistant coach, "If guys didn't intercept the ball in college, you know what? They didn't intercept it in the National Football League.
            "And it's the same thing for us. I don't recruit a DB that doesn't intercept the football in high school. That's the first thing I watch. People bring me, 'Oh, he can run, he can do all this, here's a highlight tape.' And there's not one interception on it. They're not going to get turnovers, are they?" Snow said.
            Beyond just instincts, though, sophomore linebacker Terrell Bernard said it starts with Rhule "preaching it," and trickles down to Snow "putting us in position to make plays on the ball" and linebackers coach Mike Siravo "teaching us where to be, how to be there."
            "It all kind of went together and just started happening for us this year," said Bernard, who had three fumble recoveries and one interception to go with his team-high 107 tackles.
            That emphasis also included putting associate head coach Joey McGuire in charge of turnovers in addition to switching from tight ends to coaching defensive ends.
            "Coach Joey McGuire, man, he runs through practice all day yelling, 'We've got to get three a day! We've got to get three a day!''' Williams said. "You hear that all day: 'Get the ball out! Get the ball out! Get the ball out!' The whole fall camp, that's all we preached was get the ball out."
            When the coaches showed the players the statistics of how turnovers can impact a game, "I think everybody bought into it," Bernard said.
            "You see guys flying around to the ball. When you run to the ball, good things happen," he said. "I think that kind of set it off for us at the beginning of the year, and then it became kind of addictive toward the end."
            That was also the case with sacks.
The goal had been 40 each of the previous two years, and they had 22 and 25, respectively. Led by junior All-American James Lynch's school-record 12 ½ sacks, the Bears rank ninth nationally with a program-record 43 sacks.
"I think our players a year ago looked at how many sacks we had and said, 'Coach, we'll never get to 40,''' Snow said. "Now, they didn't tell me that until we got to 40. They told me, 'Coach, we thought you were nuts!'''
Baylor is the only FBS team in the nation that has recorded at least 40 sacks and 30 turnovers this year. Ohio State had 54 sacks, but ended the year with 25 takeaways.
Lynch said he didn't think the 40 sacks was necessarily "unobtainable, but it's really hard to get to."
"So, for us to get it is really a great accomplishment. We're very proud," said Lynch, who also broke the career record with 21.0 sacks. "I feel like ever since fall camp started, Coach Rhule just said have fun and let loose and go out there and make plays. We just started doing our thing and playing off each other and having fun. It's helped us get where we are."
Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm said Baylor's three-man front of Lynch, senior defensive end James Lockhart and senior nose tackle Bravvion Roy "play relentless."
"They just keep coming, and they play for four quarters," Fromm said. "They have really high motors and play tough."
Roy, who had 4.5 sacks, 12.0 tackles for loss, seven QB hurries and a forced fumble, said "it all starts in practice."
"The way we practice is crazy," he said. "Everything we do, we do it at a high level. . . . When people don't miss assignments and you know your job and you know what you're doing, that's special."
Knowing that Wednesday's Sugar Bowl "will be the last time I'll probably play with (Roy and Lockhart) ever," Lynch said, "we have to send them off the right way, and that's our goal."