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I didn’t go into this one with lofty goals or anything, and when viewed in the context of a 17.5-point spread, the result is not shocking. Then you see a furious late comeback led by courageous true freshman Zach Smith hobbling about on one good leg, the use of a rule that was created for this season to review and overturn a successful onside kick, and ultimately a loss where Baylor had a chance to make it happen and one of our lineman tried to pick up a fumble and throw it forward for no reason. If 2016 was a football game, it would be this one. The only thing we were missing was a bearded streaker tripping over a sprinkler head and tearing his ACL. This season could not have ended any other way.
There’s really not that much else to be said about this one, or the season as a whole. Baylor won six games in a row to earn a #8 ranking, then lost six games in a row to make all that a distant memory. Four of those losses were by 21 points or more. Basically, once we lost that first game against Texas in October, the season was over. Unfortunately, that was not actually the case.
And it’s not the case now, either. Earlier this week, AD Mack Rhoades seemed to confirm that we would definitely go to a bowl, and all signs point to that being the Cactus on 12/27. But to play in a game, we have to have coaches of some form or another, and rumor has it that most of these guys will have their offenses cleared out in a matter of days. Grobe will apparently be there, but if you know for sure who will be there with him, you may be the only one.
Really, what today’s game marked is just the latest death rattle of the Art Briles Era of Baylor Football. A season that started with a tenuous combination of promise and unprecedented uncertainty finished with none of the former and all of the latter, as our program now turns its attention almost entirely to finding a new leader and trying to move on. With today’s game over, we will now officially Start. Over., though it seems some involved with the program did that a long time ago.
On that note, we’ll keep you as informed as possible, so check back for updates. One small bit of information reported by Pat Forde in the closing minutes of the game is that we could be meeting with Western Kentucky’s Jeff Brohm tomorrow, so that’s interesting.
These next few days could/should be huge for the future of Baylor Football.