Will the real Baylor please stand up?
Will the real Utah please stand up?
We’ll know a lot more about both teams after Saturday, a soon-to-be-Big 12 team playing at a Big 12 mainstay, when Utah visits Waco to take on Baylor, an 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN, following ESPN’s flagship College GameDay program.
Associated Press writer Stephen Hawkins has a story today (No. 12 Utah and Baylor scheduled their showdown 8 years ago. It turns out to be a Big 12 preview | AP News) on how the game, scheduled several years ago, will be a predictor not only for this season, but the future.
The programs looked to be at opposite ends of the spectrum last week. Utah opened by smashing Florida, 24-11, and Baylor didn’t smash anyone, falling at home to the unheralded Texas State.
Baylor coach Dave Aranda told Hawkins that there’s no time for the Bears to feel sorry for themselves. The schedule won’t allow it.
“I think staff-wise … you’re down in a valley, you climb up a mountain only to find out at the start of the season that there’s more mountains,” Aranda said. “And you’re kind of hoping that you’re kind of reaching a peak and you’re kind of taking off. For that not to be the case is, it’s one of the things with this sport, much like life. … So, think having that talk with them on hey, this, this is what it is. What were our faults in it? What can we improve? A lot of those talks, that’s what it’s been the last few days.”
Hawkins notes in his story that it’s possible we might see Utah starting quarterback Cam Rising in the game; Rising tore an ACL in the Rose Bowl and has been rehabbing since. Bryson Barnes got the bulk of the playing time against Florida for Utah, going 12-of-18 for 159 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown pass to Money Parks.
Baylor, meanwhile, was stunned by Texas State, allowing the Bobcats 28 first-half points, and looked like a boxing heavyweight stunned by an uppercut, trying to pull himself up off the mat. The Bears couldn’t pull the comeback, came up short, and now they’re setting their sites on the Utes.
This note of caution, though, for Baylor: Utah had five sacks in its rout of Florida.
