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After wishing him luck in his future endeavors in our neighbor to the north, the first question that popped into the minds of many Baylor fans upon hearing that OC/QB coach Phil Montgomery was taking the HC job at Tulsa was: Who is going to call the plays for the Cotton Bowl? Well, my friends, that question has apparently been answered much as we expected.
Kendal Briles calling plays for #Baylor in Cotton Bowl and Philip Montgomery will not return to coach in game, per @DavidSmoak.
— Craig Smoak (@CraigSmoak) December 16, 2014
Yes, it appears that Kendal Briles, Baylor's Passing Game Coordinator, Recruiting Coordinator, WR Coach, and presumed Heir Apparent to the Briles offensive dynasty will don the play-caller's headset. This is not at all unexpected, as I mentioned above, considering that he's done the job in the past in blowouts and has as good a grasp of our offensive system as anyone other than Art Briles himself.
It remains to be seen whether this arrangement tells us anything about the second question that came to mind upon news of Monty's departure-- the identity of our new OC/play-caller in the long-run-- but were I to speculate, I'd say that it can't hurt. Briles the Younger, or KB as he is commonly known, appears eminently qualified for the job alongside longtime OL coach and Running Game Coordinator Randy Clements, and elevating him to the OC/QB coach role vacated by Montgomery would seem to make sense. Then the only question is who replaces KB as the WR coach, but that's probably not a tremendously difficult role to fill.
All in all, this seems to me the cleanest and easiest fix to our current staffing situation and potentially allows for a GA to jump up and coach WRs much as Jeff Lebby did with the RBs when Dino Babers left for Eastern Illinois (and KB went from RBs to WRs). It also gives significant weight to this weekend's biggest rumor: that KB was the one meeting with 5* QB recruit Jarrett Stidham on Sunday in Waco. If he's the one you think will be coaching QBs and calling plays in the future, he's the one you want and need on that wall in that room with a prized recruit.
But that's discussion for another time, I think. Right now, what we know for sure is that KB will be the one calling plays in the Cotton Bowl and giving us a potential look at the future of Baylor Football.