ODB Mailbag - Armed Forces Bowl Edition: Answered

PioneerSkies: With Novosad flipping to Oregon, is the sky falling or what?

pbpope: “Or what.” It’s not great, from a QB room perspective and from a program perception perspective. But it’s not an issue for 2023 in a significant way, and they will work on reloading.

Cody Orr: A high school kid decided not to play QB for Baylor two+ years from now. We’ll survive.

Joe Goodman: The sky wasn’t falling in Chicken Little, it’s also not falling today. It’s not fun, but we’ll be alright.

BNT: I ate with Nick Florence last night and asked him if he had another year of eligibility. Wisely he said, “No. I want y’all to remember me just as I was” lol. Then he added, “There are plenty of good quarterbacks in the portal.” I tend to agree as the portal will give and take now with tons of talented players to choose from. As well, CDA shared yesterday that he will start looking into the portal for a QB on January 1st. We’ll be ok.

Bearsalwayswin: Another Blake question, was he possibly injured this season. I know the articles a bit old but there’s an article on Sports illustrated talking about this. Was there an injury we didn’t know about because Dave just didn’t want to say?

pbpope: I haven’t seen anything that confirmed that, so anything beyond that would be pure speculation on my part.

Joe Goodman: Peter’s 100% correct here. I never like to speculate on injury. Is it possible? Sure. But I think it’s more likely the schedule got tougher, teams had more tape on tendencies, and defenses adjusted well to combat what Shapen liked to do. An offseason of work to improve on fundamentals is just what the doctor ordered. It’s tough to improve mechanical/mental mistakes as you install an offense for an opponent week to week. I hope to see Shapen grow as he gets the opportunity to work on things he’s put on film.

BNT: As far as I know Peter is on point. On the other hand, playing in the abysmal weather tonight, I wouldn’t be bothered if we sat him to protect him. Nothing to do with his play, but seriously he’s all we have right now for next season. Give Luke Anthony the ball to end his career and let him have some fun. He’s proven and a competitor and we could be answering questions next week about how come we didn’t start him this season. lol

Bearsalwayswin: If Blake somehow gets hurt, who do we have as a backup.

pbpope: For the bowl game? It would probably be Luke Anthony. For Spring... I would bet on getting a portal QB, perhaps more.

Cody Orr: I’m sure one of our WRs or RBs played quarterback in peewee football.

Joe Goodman: Does anyone have Devin Chafin’s phone number?

BNT: Is Lynx Hawthorne available?

Bearlythere85: How does the defense stack up against what appears to be a one dimensional run oriented offense?

Cody Orr: As I wrote in my stats preview, this is a good matchup for Air Force on paper. Baylor’s run defense advanced stats are all average or below average. Baylor will likely adjust to the opponent and bring someone from the secondary down into the box, but the triple option scheme will nullify that numbers advantage. (edited)

Joe Goodman: It’ll be an interesting matchup. As Cody noted this team really wasn’t amazing against the run, see the WVU and Texas games. But Bijan isn’t in the Air Force backfield and their leading receiver has 13 catches on the season. Expect us to sellout on the run without having to worry about protecting the secondary. If we stay disciplined, I don’t think they can overcome our size and speed advantage. If we don’t stay disciplined, the option will kill us.

BNT: Pack the box and stop the run. I expect AFA to see a steady does of this

aintathangbutachickenwing: What adjustments do you think CDA will make on defense as the playcaller?

pbpope: Well, for one, I bet we don’t stay in 2-high safety look the entire time. Heh.

Cody Orr: PREVENT DEFENSE FROM THE START. (

Joe Goodman

BNT: Cody lol. CDA will employ the same strategy that our former DC would have done, play disciplined along the line, focus on our assignment, and as Cody said earlier we’ll bring someone from the secondary down. The biggest difference will be how CDA interacts and instructs the players. I think they’ll be more responsive.

PioneerSkies: Given the forecast for 50 mph gusts and negative windchill temp how many passes BU attempt? And...in your opinion how many people other than BNT will be in the stands in the 4th quarter?

BNT: O/U BU will attempt 20.5 passes. How many people will be joining me in the stands in the 4th Q? My buddy Jeff hit the nail on the head by predicting

Post your comments or other questions below. Sic’ AFA!

Also from mine to yours,