ODB Mailbag: Baylor Sports Questions Answered

How hot is CDA’s seat right now? Does he get fired if he goes 500 this season? If he does go 500, he will have underperformed in 3-4 years.

Joe Goodman: His seat is a block of ice inside of a freezer

pbpope: I don’t think it’s quite as frozen as Joe does, but I think it is firmly un-warm. If we go .500 this season, I think it warms up really quickly.Normally, I would say that it means that next season would be a make-or-break type of season, and a .500 record may mean that. But after 2021, we had an opportunity to solidify ourselves as one of the primary contenders of the New Big 12, but instead would have followed it up with two underperforming seasons, and a second consecutive season without apparent growth. If that happens, I think you have to at least have a conversation about the direction of the program. Doesn’t mean that he’s fired or that his seat is hot this season... but it might be going forward.

BNT: I know Mack from his days as AD at UH. He’s extremely supportive if you are headed in the right direction building the program and winning. If the program is going in the wrong direction, he’ll yank the hook pretty fast in my opinion. I don’t think CDA is on the hot seat, but I do think this is a pivotal season. What does that mean? At least be on the plus side of wins and show well in our bowl game.

Outside of football and MBB and Aero Tumble, which sport(s) is can’t miss it material for Baylor fans?

Joe Goodman: Volleyball and tennis have been electric

Jenna Patteson: I heavily second Joe, also equestrian meets are fun to hang around (plus free admission!)

BNT: ‘nuff said

Seriously, how much is huggy bear hurting his own legacy by seeking reinstatement?? What does that guy hope to achieve??

Joe Goodman: It’s one of the most bizarre stories of the off-season. I truly wonder if we woke up one day and decided he was bored and wished he could still be coaching. More likely he wanted to see if he could get more money, but man not a great way to go out, and he’s definitely making it worse.

pbpope: I have not followed it closely, but my guess would be that it’s less about actually achieving reinstatement and more about posturing for an eventual legal settlement. IDK.

BNT: I’m not sure as to Huggy hurting his legacy by this move, but I know there has been a lot of collateral damage from this in WV

It has been quite a while since we have heard any news about future non-conference football opponents. Do you have any news on that front?

Joe Goodman: Just that we have a P5 opponent through 2028. But you’re right, normally this stuff is planned further out, so I’d assume we will here some more sooner rather than later. I’d assume uncertainty around realignment makes it slightly more difficult than normal as well for some schools to commit

BNT: Agree with Joe that it’s hard to schedule out when you might be adding 2 or more programs to the conference in the near future.

What it going to take to diversify what uniforms we wear? Sick of the all green and white

pbpope: But you like the banana?!I personally like the current uniforms. I could always do with more variations using the existing schemes, but I got sick of the khaki color that they tried to pass off as gold for a couple of decades.Beyond that... it just ain’t up to us. If the players like them, you won’t see much in the way of change or variation.

BNT: Here’s a hot take, uniform talk always makes me chuckle. I don’t care what we wear as long as we perform. Just like I’ll wear gold to the Gold Out games, I may not love it but it doesn’t really matter. It’s about being part of supporting the team and showing school spirit. As Peter said, if the players like it that’s all that really matters.

Who do you reckon gave OkState that one first place vote in the B12 preseason media poll?

Joe Goodman: It was Ari Temkin. He’s come out and said it.

BNT:

Now that all the smart people I follow have bailed on twitter, my feed is mostly troll accounts for various big XII schools (bearcat matt, Gamblin Guachos etc.) but I don’t have a Baylor equivalent. Who should I be following for quality Baylor memes and do you people ever go to Mastadon \ Threads \ Bluesky etc.

pbpope: I talked about this on the podcast, but I think Threads is a different beast entirely. People keep saying that they’ll have to make a chronological timeline, but both Facebook AND Instagram started out as chron timelines, and Zuck got rid of it on both. I’d be surprised if it ever gets one. Because of that, I just don’t see it as a Twitter replacement for watching live sports as a fanbase. Mastadon seems too decentralized to be a proper replacement... Bluesky seems the most natural, but they are content to restrict access to invite-only for the time being, which limits their growth in a time that might be a gold rush to become a replacement.

Jenna Patteson: @mattisbear is a great Baylor troll account to follow!

BNT: I kinda get what you’re saying. As a self proclaimed Baylor Twitter Hall of Fame member, its usefulness to me is during the major sports seasons. That’s when I primarily engage and share nonsensical nuggets, gifs, and memes.

I haven’t seen much discussion over this, but how good has the hire of Linda Livingstone been for Baylor? She seems to be like a rock star!

YJoe Goodman: I like her, that’s all I know. A great leader for the school in my opinion.

Jenna Patteson: She’s the best in the business and I love her

BNT: She’s been great for Baylor and is great for the Big 12 as a whole as she was recently named the Chairperson of the Big 12 Board of Directors. Definitely a rock star who is admired inside and outside of Baylor circles.

Since Blake Shapen’s injury in the WVU game last year there was a clear drop off in performance. Do you think it was a confidence issue or did the injury affect Shapen’s decision making?

Joe Goodman: Aranda spoke at media days about how Blake would struggle with adversity at times. He mentioned a bad series would kind of spiral. Said it’s a big change he noticed in spring, that Blake has been through it and now it’s more on to the next thing, that he’s willing to throw adversity up on his shoulder and move forward, bad series followed by good series. So an improvement in that confidence and mental toughness area is what we would want to see, and Aranda says that’s happening.

BNT: Yeah, I’m in the confidence camp as well. I think having a very average to below average WR room last year (due to losses from the year prior and inexperience) was tough on him. We won’t have that problem this season.

At what point does the B12 set a deadline for CU and AZ?? And what is our Plan B if those two do not jump, or do we wait until the next round of tv deals to get other P5 schools?

Joe Goodman: We can expand at any time, we have clauses in our deal that allow us to do that. I doubt there’s any ultimatum around timing for other schools. Yormark even said at media days we aren’t chasing a number, that would tell me we don’t necessarily have a plan B to get to a certain number of schools, just that we are willing to bring in schools that would bring value.

pbpope: I don’t think you’ll ever see an ultimatum thrown at CU/AZ, at least one that we’ll ever know about. People keep talking about when will these schools say “enough is enough” with the delays of the Pac12, but this isn’t your everyday contractual negotiation. Realignment is seismic. There’s no incentive to not wait for the Pac12 deal.

BNT: I like Big Brett Yormark’s approach of we’re fine as is, will only expand if it’s additive to the current and future impact on the conference, and are always looking at opportunities as they arise and planning for exciting new ventures (like expanding into Mexico...look what that’s done for the Dallas Cowboys). We can wait.

How was your Independence Day?

Joe Goodman: Excellent, lake and pool all day.

pbpope: It was good. Pool, smashburgers, fun with family.

BNT: Mine was great, thank you. How was yours? It’s one of my favorite times of the year as I’m a patriotic Bear and love having family and friends over for a cook out and fireworks.

Post comments and other questions below. Sic ‘em!

xoxo,

BNT