Daily Bears Reports 8/25: Trinity from Trinity Commits to Baylor Lady Bears; Blanchard Out for First Game; Corey Coleman Hurdles Fence

Baylor University Football

Travon Blanchard to miss opening game against Northwestern State while recovering from knee surgery. From BearsExtra:

Baylor trainers will monitor his progress before deciding whether he will miss any more games.

Blanchard is expected to be one of the Bears’ top defenders this season after collecting 83 tackles with two sacks, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries last season.

Senior Patrick Levels could take Blanchard’s place in the starting lineup.

Lady Bears Basketball

Trinity from Trinity commits to Baylor University. Trinity Oliver, a 5-9 17th nationally ranked guard from Euless Trinity, announced her decision on Monday. From Waco-Trib’s Bryce Cherry.

Oliver told the Tribune-Herald Tuesday that she connected on a personal level with Baylor’s coaching staff, and that made all the difference. She chose the Lady Bears over a variety of offers, listing Kansas State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State as her other top choices.

“Honestly, I just loved the coaches at Baylor,” Oliver said. “They felt compassionate about me, and I felt I could make a great impact there. They just gave me so much positive energy.”

Oliver averaged 25.2 points per game in 2015-16 as a junior, showing a deft scoring touch. She was the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Player of the Year.

Browns Bears

HOW WAS YOUR DAY YESTERDAY?

I stood in broad daylight yesterday with small puffy white clouds drifting overhead while watching a tornado pass by, on the ground, three blocks away. Crazy huh? How was your day? Amazingly, no one was injured. Would someone remind me to take heed when my phone tells me to “Take cover now!”

Will Zamora be Suspended or Expelled?

Tomorrow is when Coach Grobe hopes to hear word of the disposition for Ishmael Zamora. In the meantime, the number of folks signing their name to a petition for his removal from the team and the school nears the 100,000 mark. WacoTrib’s Trey Gregory says Baylor needs to heed the warning and let him go.

If Zamora reacts that way to potty training a dog, how can we feel confident he wont react violently to an argument with a girlfriend or if another student says something to upset him? Beating an animal does not necessarily give someone the predisposition to acting violently toward humans, but it does give us some insight to the kind of person he is.

Zamora is also now a distraction on campus no matter what he does. Baylor is full of kind and mature students and faculty but it would be ignorant to assume everyone will simply forget this ever happened.

I would have a hard time sitting in class with Zamora and holding my tongue. I wouldn’t expect anyone to act violently toward him, but his actions are infuriating. It’s not fair to ask every other student to pretend it never happened while he walks the campus on a scholarship.

Frankly, it’s not fair to Zamora either. He needs a fresh start even if he doesn’t realize it right now. It would be best for him to start over in a place where he’s wanted and everyone doesn’t know what he did.

Unfortunately for Zamora, Trey, in today’s media world there is no where to hide with such a wide profile.

Big XII Football Review

From SBNation’s Bring on the Cats, a pleasant article on the status of Big XII football:

Entering 2016, the Big 12 has four programs in a fairly steady states, but for different reasons. At the top, Oklahoma and TCU look like strong outfits again in 2016. Neither seems sufficiently complete to make the playoffs this year, but both are close enough to get there with a few good breaks and a breakout year here or there.

At the bottom, both KU and Iowa State have reasons to look for improvement. But improvement in KU's case means winnings its first game in nearly two years. Iowa State isn't in nearly such dire straits, and Matt Campbell brings energy to a program seemingly stuck in the doldrums for the last half decade. Both would, and likely will, see some form of improvement this year, but not enough to break out of the conference's basement.

The real action is in the middle, with six teams facing situations that will probably define their programs' directions. On one side of the divide are three schools anxiously awaiting their next steps; for the other three, 2016 could decide whether their coaches remain in place.