Heavy is the Head: What the Baylor Bears Are Battling in Big 12 Schedule
The Baylor Bears enter the Big 12 schedule this week looking to defend their improbable conference championship crown from 2021. On top of facing the Iowa State Cyclones in what will be another hostile road environment, the Bears will be facing an opponent maybe more daunting, an opponent they haven’t had to face in coach Dave Aranda’s or even Matt Rhule’s tenure.
They have to face expectations.
The expectations even crept into the locker room at halftime of their Week 3 matchup with the Texas State Bobcats, making for a tense atmosphere with players dropping “F-bombs” in frustration even though the Bears were ahead 21-7.
“I think so much of what we are fighting is expectations,” Aranda said. “I have to do a better job of being out in front of that.”
The Bears were preseason favorites to win the Big 12 for a second straight year and as they sit at 2-1 on the year, they are the third-highest ranked Big 12 team (behind Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) as they enter the conference schedule. Aranda and his staff have made it a point to make sure the goals and the expectations come from inside the locker room rather than from preseason polls.
The team has not shied away from the conversation, either.
“The expectations, I think all that stuff is real, I don’t think it does anyone any good to not talk about it,” Aranda said. “They have had to deal with that and work through not having the outside get into the inside.”
The Bears’ tenseness has been most apparent through their offensive roller coaster ride in the first three games of the year. Since Week 1 against Albany when he was nearly flawless, sophomore quarterback Blake Shapen has struggled to find his form, throwing for a combined 321 yards in the last two games.
“I think with the offense there is just a lot of youth,” Aranda said. “For us as coaches, someone has to teach them, and someone has to help them through all of it, because it’s a lot and it’s coming fast.”
While Shapen’s difficulties have been the most glaring as the leader of the offense, he is far from the only offensive deficiency so far. The Bears have had three different leading rushers through the first three games, and their leading receiver (Hal Presley) doesn’t even have 100 receiving yards on the season. No Baylor receiver has more than 1 touchdown in the first three games.
Rather than totally blaming it on experience, Aranda credits a lot of their struggles to the tenseness the team is playing with.
“When guys are not playing with an edge, I think they are carrying other things,” Aranda said. “They have to drop what they are carrying.”
The Bears hit the road for Ames Saturday hoping to improve on Aranda’s 3-8 record away from McLane Stadium.
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