Daily Bears Report 9/27

Double Double

Baylor garners a double double in Big XII Players of the Week awards. Volleyball and Football each had players in their programs recognized this week as Defensive Player of the Week and Offensive Player of the Week. Can somebody find out if that has ever happened before?

Volleyball

Baylor juniors Katie Staiger and Jana Brusek notched Big 12 Volleyball’s Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors. Baylor Bears dot com has the full story.

The Bears recorded another first, with Baylor collecting both offensive and defensive weekly honors in the same week for the first time in program history.

For Staiger, the Plano, Texas native and outside hitter has been among the nation’s best on the attack, currently sitting at second in total kills and third in kills/set, leading the Big 12 easily in both.

Brusek, a Chicago, Ill., native, led the Big 12 with 65 digs and 5.91 digs/set over the three matches for Baylor. The junior libero became the seventh player in BU history to log 22 or more digs in a three-set match, notching 22 in the three-set win over KSU.

Brusek nearly topped her career-high of 28, posting 26 digs in the 3-1 win at Stephen F. Austin.

The Baylor squad picked up its second and third weekly honors of the season, with Staiger previously earning the offensive honor on Sep. 12.

The three awards for the Bears matches the single-season team program record (1999, 2007, 2009).

The last time the Bears had two weekly awards was also the last time Brusek earned Big 12 honors, double dipping for both defensive and rookie player of the week on Nov. 3, 2014.

For Staiger, it is the second offensive award of her collegiate career and her third weekly award overall, after earning Big 12 Rookie of the Week on Sept. 29, 2014.

Baylor volleyball (13-4, 1-0 Big 12) earned six votes in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I Coaches Poll. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Baylor logs in at eighth among those schools receiving votes and appearing on two or more ballots, trailing Western Kentucky (102), Texas A&M (87), Dayton (36), Kansas State (33), Creighton (15), UNLV (11), and TCU (7).

BU has logged two wins over current or former top-25 teams in the last two weeks, downing then-No. 23 Kansas State in straight sets on Sunday and upsetting now-No. 17 Washington State on Sep. 17 in four.

The Big 12 now boasts five teams ranked or receiving votes in the poll, led by No. 4 Texas and No. 8 Kansas, with Kansas State, TCU, and Baylor all receiving votes.

Football

Baylor football had a pair of players recognized by the Big 12 Conference. Full story at Baylor Bears dot com.

QB Seth Russell was named Offensive Player of the Week and NB Travon Blanchard was tabbed as the Defensive Player of the Week, conference officials announced Monday. Full story at Baylor Bears dot com.

The two recognitions mark the ninth time in program history that a pair of Bears has been honored in the same week and the first since KD Cannon (offensive) and Andrew Billings (defense) accomplished the feat on Nov. 23, 2015.

Russell threw for 387 yards and four TDs on 18-of-28 passing in Baylor's 35-24 Big 12 opening win over Oklahoma State Saturday in Waco. He was also BU's leading rusher in the game with 10 carries for 65 yards.

TNBear at Our Daily Bears has the weekly Air Wars Fan Post up. Check it out for a detailed post game analysis of Baylor’s passing attack against Oklahoma State.

In many ways, Saturday’s passing offense was closer to what we’ve been used to in past seasons, including quick strike touchdown throws, minimal time of possession, and efficient production across the field. The game left me exhausted, but I loved seeing our Bears play their hearts out and put the game away in the fourth quarter.

Barry Little, Baylor Bear Insider, has a great article posted with Baylor Bears dot com about Baylor’s secondary passing their first test of the 2016 season. Here is an excerpt from the article which can be found in full here at this link.

Last season, Oklahoma’s Sterling Shepard had 177 yards on 14 catches, including two touchdowns. In 2014, West Virginia’s Kevin White caught eight passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns. And all Baylor fans have tried to forget what West Virginia’s tandem of Tavon Austin (14 catches, 215 yards, two touchdowns) and Stedman Bailey (13 catches, 303 yards, five touchdowns) did to the Bears in 2012.

All four of those receivers went on to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors following their dominant performances against Baylor.

Saturday night, the Bears faced another of the league’s premier receivers in Oklahoma State’s James Washington, who one week earlier torched Pittsburgh for 296 yards and two touchdowns on nine receptions.

This time, Baylor’s secondary was up to the challenge, holding Washington, who FOX Sports considered the nation’s eighth-best receiver entering the season, to 89 yards on six catches with no touchdowns en route to a 35-24 victory over the Cowboys at McLane Stadium.

The Des Moines Register says Iowa State knows that Baylor is thriving.

It starts with the quarterback.

That’s how Iowa State cornerback Jomal Wiltz prioritized his approach to slowing down Baylor’s prolific offense. “Each week, we stress on affecting the quarterback,” Wiltz said. “I think you’ve got to start there, first. I feel like it’ll have a big impact if we disrupt him, as far his throwing and running.”

“You’re never going to stop the yardage (with) a team like this,” Cyclones coach Matt Campbell said. “They do a great job of spreading the field vertically and horizontally. What has to occur defensively is winning situational football games. You’ve got to get off the field on third down. You’ve got to do a great job in the red zone.”

“You look at Baylor, they’ve got really good football players,” Campbell said. “That hasn’t changed. They know how to win. That hasn’t changed.”

BearsExtra’s John Werner says Baylor football is preparing for a noisy environment at packed Iowa State stadium.

Iowa State hasn’t enjoyed a great deal of football success in recent years, but that hasn’t stopped fans from packing Jack Trice Stadium.

The Cyclones routinely draw more than 50,000 fans to home games in Ames. They’re passionate about their team no matter what the Cyclones record is.

“It’s always tough going to Iowa State,” said Baylor quarterback Seth Russell. “They have great fans and a great turnout every year. They have a grass field and we don’t play on a grass field a whole lot, so it will be a little different.”

Even with the success Art Briles had at Baylor, his teams lost two of three games in Ames. The Bears broke through with a 49-28 win before 51,776 fans in 2014 in their last appearance at Iowa State.

“It’s a really good atmosphere,” said Baylor linebacker Aiavion Edwards. “Those guys do a great job and their fans are really involved. We haven’t played very well there the last few times. We hope to quiet them down and just be able to play our game.”

Matt Campbell won his first game as Iowa State’s coach with a 44-10 blowout of San Jose State in Ames last Saturday after losses to Northern Iowa, Iowa and TCU.

The passion of Iowa State’s fans were part of the appeal for Campbell when he accepted the Cyclones job last November after going 35-15 in five years at Toledo. He witnessed the atmosphere at Jack Trice Stadium first hand in 2014 when his Toledo squad dropped a 37-30 decision to the Cyclones.

MEET THE PRESS

In case you missed yesterday’s Meet the Press live, here’s the video. Written quotes can be found here at this link for Baylor Bears dot com.

Here are some random fan videos fund on YouTube that were taken during Saturday’s game before play resumed after the lightning.