(Big 12) The Bears play on an artificial field (Prestige System) at Floyd Casey Stadium (seats 50,000)
- Art Briles is in his 4th years as head coach at Baylor. Last year’s 7-6 record was the best for a Baylor team since 1995. The highlight of the season was beating Texas for the first time since 1997 in week 9 to give the Bears a 7-2 record. Unfortunately, they lost their lost four games though.
- Quarterback Robert Griffin III is coming off of a great 2010 campaign, which followed up a sophomore season that ended early in week 3 with a torn ACL. He completed 67% of his
Quarterback Robert Griffin III
passes for 3500 yards and a 22-8 touchdown-interception ratio. He is already the school’s career passing leader with over 6,000 yards. This team had the 8th ranked offense in the country last year and should be solid once again with the return of so many starters. The only loss on the offensive line is at left tackle, where they have to replace 1st round NFL Draft selection (Philadelphia) Danny Watkins.
- Baylor has to replace their top rusher from last year and so far no one has stepped up to take his place. But otherwise, there is plenty of talent at receiver.
- On top of losing a 1st round NFL Draft pick on the offensive line they also lose one on the defensive line. Nose tackle Phil Taylor was Cleveland’s #1 draft pick in April. Furthermore, this defensive unit must replace their top five tacklers from 2010.
- Defense has switched to a 4-2-5. That means there are 4 down linemen, 2 linebackers and 5 defensive backs. The 5th and additional defensive back is the nickleback. That will be played by sophomore Ahmad Dixon. Otherwise the players are moving around quite a bit to see who fits the new system where.
- This team has had a variety of major problem areas in the past, which they narrowed down last year to just the passing defense. The hope for this team is that the new defensive system will help alleviate the latest problem and that a running back will step up so that the quarterback isn’t doing all of the work on offense. But the schedule is tough and to improve upon their 7 wins from last year would be asking a lot.
