Baylor QB Blake Shapen Has Potential to Win Big 12 Player of the Year
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Could Baylor Bears QB Blake Shapen be a challenger for Big 12 Player of the Year?
It's not as crazy as it might seem.
While many would argue that Gerry Bohanon should be Baylor’s starting quarterback in 2022, he is now at South Florida, and Shapen has been given the reigns to the offense.
Who’s the reigning Big 12 Championship Game MVP? Shapen. In only his second game as Baylor’s starting quarterback, was the Most Valuable Player of the Big 12 Championship as selected by the media. That's interesting.
In both the NFL and NCAA, the media is extremely biased towards a particular position group when it comes to major awards: quarterback. In fact, since the Big 12’s first season in 1996, a quarterback has won Offensive Player of the Year 17/26 years, or 65% of the time. If you look at the winners since 2003, that percentage jumps to 74%! In 1999 the writers liked quarterbacks so much, they gave the award to TWO of them! So in total, 18 quarterbacks have won the award in 26 years.
Who did the media pick to win the Big 12 in the preseason poll? That’s right, Baylor. So the media picks quarterbacks to win player of the year nearly 3⁄4 of the time over the last two decades, and that’s most often the quarterback on the best team.
Who possesses the best Big 12 offensive line in 2022? Of course, it’s Baylor. The Joe Moore semifinalist unit returns 4 of 5 starters and arguably improved at the 5th spot. Shapen is going to have time to put the ball downfield.
Now, Blake Shapen is notably a two-sport athlete. Baylor had another notable two-sport athlete at the quarterback position in the not-so-distant past, can you think of who he was? This one’s really tough so we’ll give you a hint: He bears the same name as his father and his grandfather. Robert Griffin III. That’s right! RG3 won the Big 12 in the 400 hurdles as a true freshman. So the last time Baylor had a two-sport superstar under center, he won a Heisman trophy.
The last time Baylor had a starting quarterback whose name started with a “B” was when? 2014, when Bryce Petty won Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and the Bears won the Big 12, a milestone they did not reach again until Blake Shapen won the Big 12 Championship MVP.