1.18.2012 Daily Bears Report, Late Night Edition: The Biggest DBR Ever.

by Mark C. Moore on Jan 18, 2012 9:10 PM CST

If you were upset all day because I hadn't posted the DBR yet, I'm truly sorry. With the Darvish news breaking for the Rangers (did you know I'm a huge Rangers fan? I am.) and everything else on my plate, things just got past me. In return for my intransigence, I am going to give you the biggest DBR ever.

First let's talk about the women since they are playing as we speak against Texas Tech. SBNation doesn't have widgets for their games, so I can't give you a box score, but I can tell you that as of this moment, they are leading #17 Texas Tech 60-52 with 8:10 to go in the second half in Lubbock. That's a game I'm sure our girls circled on the schedule since Tech so unceremoniously dumped them last year in the same locale.

UPDATE: It took me long enough to do this that the Lady Bears won 72-64. Congratulations, ladies!

Because I'm going to be using up so many good links tonight, tomorrow's DBR will be somewhat light on them. I will remedy that by giving you my thoughts (because I'm sure you want to hear/read them) on an issue making the rounds in Baylor circles these days: how big should our new stadium be. Surprisingly (to me, at least) this issue has become quite heated on Baylor message boards and the like since it has leaked that Baylor's new stadium will probably start out with something around 42,000 seats plus standing room and however many suites they build. The overall number our AD apparently floated was around 45,000 expandable later if the need arises. Without going into too much detail, let me say that I think this number is just about perfect, regardless of the fact that it does not represent an increase over Floyd Casey. Size is not the reason we're leaving FCS. Location and the fact that it is now 60 years old are. Check back tomorrow morning for more.

Another thing I hope to have more information about in the morning is where a certain recruit I'll talk about more is going to take his final visit next week. Look at the links below the jump to find out who I'm talking about. I'll also go into a little more detail on where we stand for QB recruiting at this moment with our biggest recruiting weekend of the year coming up on Saturday. Most of our recruits and a few coveted targets are supposed to be there to let Art Briles work his country magic.

Finally, before I get to the links, I want to welcome a new contributor to Our Daily Bears, omgball, who posted her first front page article today. I hope everyone welcomes her to the board and I look forward to her contributions about Baylor basketball. I know she will do outstanding work for ODB and its members. For those that don't know, I've been looking for more contributors for a little while now as part of my quest the best community of Baylor fans on the web. If you feel like you have something to offer in terms of writing, please email me at OurDailyBears@gmail.com and we'll talk about it. I'm especially looking for someone with an interest in recruiting and/or an eye for football going forward. Someone who cares as much about Baylor recruiting as I do.

Let's get to the links below the jump:

First up we have the women's game which, as I said, is going on right now. A few links on that:

Baylor Lady Bears vs. Texas Tech Lady Raiders - Box Score - January 18, 2012 - ESPN
NCAA Women's Basketball Box Score: Final statistics from the Baylor Lady Bears vs. Texas Tech Lady Raiders game played on January 18, 2012
No. 1 Baylor seeks to avenge loss last year at No. 17 Texas Tech - The Washington Post
LUBBOCK, Texas — The talk leading up to this game between Baylor and Texas Tech has been about basketball only.

Next we have the men's team, which has to overcome their first loss of the season and the end of the Baylor Streak.

Despite first loss, Bears still surging in 2011-12 conference season | The Baylor Lariat
Kansas-Baylor afterthoughts | Campus Corner
Why Baylor should be happy the Big 12 is a 10-team league | College Sports Blog | Sports News | News for Dallas, Texas | The Dallas Morning News
Road Trip: Dozen things I learned - CBSSports.com
Eye on College Basketball - Road Trip: Dozen things I learned

And now a little bit about recruiting. Probably the biggest realistic fish left on Baylor's board is quarterback Devin Fuller of Old Tappan, New Jersey. Frequent ODBers will remember him as my newest recruit obsession; Baylor jumped in with Fuller just a few short weeks ago once it became clear that RG3 was probably leaving us for the NFL. Fuller, who is often compared to former-WVU QB Pat White, is either a 4 or 5* player depending on which recruiting service you like, and one of the top uncommitted players in the country. The son of a former TCU DB, Fuller has already taken visits to Nebraska (in October), TCU (December), and UCLA (last weekend, where he probably met and became familiar with Baylor commit Brian Nance and probable Baylor commit Polo Manukainu, both from Euless Trinity). He will take a visit this weekend to Rutgers, which is basically his home school in New Jersey. That leaves one visit left, and before yesterday Notre Dame, Arizona, and Baylor vied for that spot. Speculation was that Notre Dame led at that point.

Then something incredible happened for Notre Dame when Gunner Kiel, the top QB prospect in the country, decided not to travel to Baton Rouge from Indiana to enroll early at LSU, where he had been committed. Instead he traveled about three hours from his home and enrolled at Notre Dame, giving Irish coach Brian Kelly probably his best surprise ever.

Kiel's late switch prompts Fuller to reasses | National Football Post
Notre Dame may have been knocked off the list of potential destinations for the dual-threat QB.
Rivals' Mike Farrell agrees, saying that Fuller will now decide between Baylor and Arizona for the last visit. That decision was supposed to come down today, but as of the writing of this post I haven't seen it if it has. I'll make sure to update the front page if it does.
College Confidential: Keller Central and #Baylor commit Zack Sanchez to visit #Oklahoma
Keller Central athlete and Baylor commitment Zach Sanchez said on Wednesday that he plans to visit Oklahoma next weekend, the final weekend for visits before national signing day (Feb.1). "I'm still committed," Sanchez said. "OU offered so they're in the...
Scout.com: Massington Sets First Junior Day
One of the top juniors in the Midlands, West Mesquite (TX) receiver Eldridge Massington, was excited to announce where he will trip for his first junior day.-- I'll give you a hint, I posted this for a reason.
2013 QB Talks Recruiting; Likes BU
This 2013 compares his game to now former Baylor QB Robert Griffin III.-- If you read nothing else from this post, read this article from Baylor's 247 site. It will tell you everything you wanted to know about Baylor's top QB target for 2013 and how he feels about Baylor. Trust me, you want to read this article.
Yahoo Sports: Rivals.com Ranking - Rivals.com Rivals250 2012- Just for your perusal. A few names you might want to know on that list...

And now a few miscellaneous football stories I found interesting:

The best Big 12 games of 2011 - Big 12 Blog - ESPN
We took a look at the best atmospheres on Tuesday, and today, it's time to rank the top 10 games involving Big 12 teams of 2011.
Former Clear Springs star Randle transfers to UH from LSU | Cougars | a Chron.com blog- Shocking, this is not. This kid's recruiting was a lesson in how bad things can get with football handlers.
Video: NCAA QBs verdict - Big 12 Blog - ESPN
ESPN's Tom Luginbill says the state of Texas wins The Great State Debate on which has the best quarterbacks at the collegiate and high school level.
Brent Venables' time at K-State is now - Big 12 Blog - ESPN- Since this article was posted, I've seen rumors that Venables might go to K-State (that turned out to be false) and Clemson (which picked up steam this afternoon and even got to the point where it was rumored to be a done deal). Now he's apparently staying at OU. Crazy.
QB Montana To Transfer From Washington - Kansas City News Story - KMBC Kansas City
Washington has granted Nick Montana a release from his scholarship, allowing the quarterback to seek a transfer.-- I posted this because he's transferring to Blinn in Texas and could be a very interesting recruit this time next year. I believe that he'll have 2 to play 2 when he comes out of JUCO.

As the last link, I'm going to send you to the official statement of Vox Media, the parent corporation of SBNation, on the SOPA/PIPA legislation that was in the news today just in case you were curious how it might affect SBNation's blog network.

SB Nation Officially Opposes SOPA - From Our Editors - SBNation.com
SB Nation is a collection of over 300 individual communities, each offering high quality year-round coverage and conversation led by fans who are passionate about their favorite teams, leagues or sports. By empowering fans, SB Nation has become the largest and fastest growing grassroots sports network.

As always, I will update with anything I see that I think you might find interesting.

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by omgball on Jan 18, 2012 9:57 PM CST reply actions

The Dublin TX Dr Pepper Battle

The original Dr Pepper plant in Dublin, TX is being hammered by DrPepper/Snapple Group. Read the details and sign the petition to save a Texas tradition!

http://www.change.org/petitions/plano-tx-allow-dublin-dr-pepper-bottling-co-to-continue-operations

by TripleTee on Jan 19, 2012 12:37 AM CST reply actions

I see you posting this on every blog you can find.

Don’t do it again.

"The hotter the heat, the harder the steel. No pressure, no diamonds. We compete, we win. We are Baylor." - Robert Griffin III
OurDailyBears.com

by Mark C. Moore on Jan 19, 2012 1:00 AM CST up reply actions

Well

Looks like we’re gonna lose Zack Sanchez. That’s a bummer. I really don’t understand the point of verbal commits when these high school kids obviously don’t think they matter at all.

by RambotheBear on Jan 19, 2012 9:42 AM CST reply actions

I don't think it's a given yet.

He’s still committed and is coming in to visit this weekend. He’s yet to take an official to Baylor and it’s entirely possible that we keep him here by wowing him this weekend.

Ever been in a boardroom, or a gang fight? Ever save a life? Ever won a court case against the odds? Ever held a dying buddy in your arms?.- jackanape on "perspective," 11/8/2010.

"do you a jet ski rental place would work here" - Mike E, 5/10/2011.

by Aqua on Jan 19, 2012 9:50 AM CST up reply actions

Ehh.

This is the sort of thing that fans say when a student changes their commitment that school, but I never hear any complaining when we steal a recruit away from another school. There is a reason why these commitments are verbal; the system is set up to encourage kids to consider all of their options. I don’t disagree with it.

I obviously want every Baylor commit to stay committed to Baylor, but unless shennanigans are involved, I’m not going to scold them for switching.

OurDailyBears.com

by Prashanth Francis on Jan 19, 2012 11:28 AM CST up reply actions

Apparently you misunderstood me.

I didn’t say anything about thinking that this is unfair and I certainly hope I didn’t come across as complaining. All I’m saying is that this is further evidence of the pointlessness of verbal commitments in general. Players don’t honor them, and if anything it just shows schools who good recruiting coaches are chasing in order to give them a heads up that they should try to get them as well.

Please tell me how you figure verbal commitments encourages kids to consider all of their options. In the current recruiting system, a verbal commitment is essentially a fall back option for these kids while they hold out hope to be offered from their dream school. If anything, getting rid of commitments entirely until national signing day would encourage more consideration of alternatives, because then kids wouldn’t feel beholden to any institution and would be able to weigh them more objectively. The only way I could see verbal commitments fitting in to the system of encouraging kids to figure their options is if you’re considering the alternative to be signed commitments before national signing day. If that’s the case, then of course the better scenario overall would be no commitments at all before signing day. (Of course, this would make it harder for schools to get an idea of what positions they will be filling before signing day, and it definitely turns recruiting into a players’ market. So, it’s probably not completely feasible.)

TL;DR: I wasn’t complaining. Sorry you misunderstood me. A system with verbal commitments is flawed. How can you rationalize the idea that verbal commitments encourages players to consider their options? The only way I could see that making any sense is if you consider the only alternative to be players making signed commitments before national signing day.

by RambotheBear on Jan 19, 2012 12:54 PM CST up reply actions

Woops.

There’s a typo or two up there. Sorry, I made my response quick and didn’t proofread…

by RambotheBear on Jan 19, 2012 12:56 PM CST up reply actions

You sort of answered your own question.

Verbal commitments help students consider all of their options in comparison to the option of only allowing written commitments. Once it’s in writing, there are penalties for trying to break this commitment.

Also, I think that you are letting your memory of a certain few players cloud your judgement on the system at large. Every year, there are dozens of players who switch verbal commitments, but there are hundreds of players who don’t. In the main, the system works. Perhaps the system could be adjusted to work better, but your comments come across as if it isn’t even working 50% of the time right now.

OurDailyBears.com

by Prashanth Francis on Jan 19, 2012 1:26 PM CST up reply actions

Sorry

I was a little offended you said that I was “complaining” in my first post, when I obviously wasn’t. There’s a big difference in complaining and expressing disappointment about potentially losing a recruit. I don’t quite understand why you would attack a reader on a blog that you contribute to, but whatever.

However, I’m even more amazed you’re inferring things into my second post. Where did I say that the system works less than half of the time? Where did I even define what I would consider to be a “working” system? All I pointed out was that your statement that a system with verbal commitments doesn’t make sense unless you compared it to the only worse alternative, and that players don’t take verbal commitments seriously so there really is no point to them.

I’m all for having conversations, and I’ve liked this blog since I started following it a month ago or so, but I’ll think twice before expressing myself next time if I have to expect being attacked instead of respectfully conversed with.

by RambotheBear on Jan 19, 2012 1:57 PM CST up reply actions

Third sentence, second paragraph should read:

All I pointed out was that your statement that a system with verbal commitments encourages kids to consider their options doesn’t make sense unless you compared it to the only worse alternative, and that players don’t take verbal commitments seriously so there really is no point to them.

Addition marked in bold

by RambotheBear on Jan 19, 2012 1:59 PM CST up reply actions

Perhaps I'm misreading your tone,

but that’s what this comes across as:

I really don’t understand the point of verbal commits when these high school kids obviously don’t think they matter at all.

I am not meaning to attack, I was only trying to point out that while I’m always disappointed to lose a recruit, it’s difficult to blame the system or the kids at large when we benefit from it also. I apologize if my tone came off as being too aggressive.

When you say this:

All I’m saying is that this is further evidence of the pointlessness of verbal commitments in general. Players don’t honor them,

I am going to point out that you are wrong. A vast majority of players to honor them.

OurDailyBears.com

by Prashanth Francis on Jan 19, 2012 2:56 PM CST up reply actions

You were hardly attacked here.

Prashanth may have read too much into your original post or made an incorrect assumption about your tone therein, but I don’t see anything here that reads as an attack. Knowing Prashanth as I do, I certainly don’t believe he intended to attack you, even if you took his post as doing so.

I am glad you are here and I hope that you continue to express your opinions in whatever manner you see fit, but in the future it may behoove you not to react so defensively.

To your original point, the fact is that circumstances change. Zack Sanchez committed to Baylor after fighting for his offer at camps and workouts and showing Baylor how good he could be. That Baylor recognized it and made the offer is a testament to both sides. When he made his commitment, he did it with certain information, namely the other schools interested in him, available. He committed to Baylor knowing that he would have a spot here and that if he didn’t commit, that spot may not be open forever.

Now something new has happened in his life where OU, which is supposedly a dream school of his since childhood, has entered the fray. He would be remiss not to consider his options in light of that information.

He hasn’t decommitted and hasn’t said that he will. So far he has honored his commitment to the expectations of our coaches, who, being the men of honor and integrity that we know them to be, want him to make a good decision.

To Prashanth’s point, verbal commitments play an incredible role in allowing schools and recruits to have stability and predictability through the recruiting process. Some kids don’t honor them, you’re right, but the vast majority do. You hear about the ones that don’t because they are the exceptions; this year Baylor has had only 4 decommits (Thaddeus Lagrone- cut loose by our coaches for disciplinary reasons, Ryan Flannagan- decommitted for Tech in a true decommit situation, Adrian Colbert- same for UT, and Martez Shabazz- decommitted from Baylor after not qualifying outright from JUCO). That’s out of 20+ commitments Baylor has received this year.

"The hotter the heat, the harder the steel. No pressure, no diamonds. We compete, we win. We are Baylor." - Robert Griffin III
OurDailyBears.com

by Mark C. Moore on Jan 19, 2012 3:07 PM CST up reply actions

Thanks,

I appreciate your responses. I probably jumped too much on the defense. I’ve been wondering about the usefulness of verbal commits and so cold “soft commits” for a while now, especially ever since the situation with Colbert. It just seems like since verbal commits serve as fall backs for players, that they essentially use the school that they’ve committed to while they shop elsewhere. It kinda feels like watching my girlfriend flirt with another guy. I realize that this isn’t the case for lots (probably the majority) of players. It’s just that the way that some kids play the recruiting process leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I also wonder how much weight can be given to the fact that most players don’t decommit, since the truth is most players settle on a school and then aren’t poached. If Texas and the other big boys had unlimited recruiting and they for some reason wanted every player they could get, I’m pretty confidant there would be a lot more decommits. So, I think the relatively small number of decommits overall has more to do with the lack of suitor schools than anything else. But, who knows?

Anyway, I’m more wondering these things aloud than anything. We don’t really know what these kids are thinking, so it’s impossible to say things are the way they are for any particular reason anyway.

by RambotheBear on Jan 19, 2012 3:38 PM CST up reply actions

There are always going to be recruits who use commitments as a way to secure a spot while waiting for a better offer to come along

Baylor has been bitten in the past by those kinds of guys, but we’ve also used them to our advantage.

If Baylor’s dream end to this recruiting class comes to fruition, it will probably involve stealing at least two (maybe three) committed players from other schools. Where we have been hunted in the past before for commitments (last year we lost Kasitati on Signing Day, this year we lost Adrian Colbert), we are now building on our success to do the hunting.

Just because I like talking about, Baylor sits at 20 commitments as of this moment. I think we’ll probably take about 4-5 more. If Baylor could choose from its reasonable targets as of this moment, I think they would choose the following:

1. Devin Fuller (uncommitted). Briles supposedly loves this kid and I’ve talked about him at length before. Still waiting to find out where he’s going for his last visit next weekend.
2. Dominique Wheeler (committed to Tech). I think it’s just a matter of time now with how he’s talked about Baylor on facebook/twitter. He’ll be a Bear, I think.
3. Ladarius Newbold (committed to Tech). Was much more of a target a few months ago but our staff apparently visited him in his home earlier this week. Much less of a chance than Wheeler, though Wheeler is working on him for us on twitter.
4. Polo Manukainiu (uncommitted, decommitted already from OU). This one is happening. Only a matter of time.
5. Daje Johnson (committed to TCU). Don’t think there’s a good opening here anymore since he is supposedly visiting Texas next weekend.

If Fuller announces he isn’t going to visit Baylor, Baylor will probably go hard after Seth Russell, who is currently committed to Kansas.

"The hotter the heat, the harder the steel. No pressure, no diamonds. We compete, we win. We are Baylor." - Robert Griffin III
OurDailyBears.com

by Mark C. Moore on Jan 19, 2012 3:59 PM CST up reply actions