Baylor Football's First Scrimmage at McLane Stadium

Over on BaylorBears.com, Jerry Hill has a full write-up from an auspicious event in Baylor history: the first scrimmage ever held in McLane Stadium.  Because the stadium isn't technically finished, the scrimmage was closed except to player families, invited guests, and Hill to represent the media, so we don't know much except that the stadium was gorgeous and I would have given almost anything to be there.  I tried on ODB's account to retweet everything I possibly could from the players and AD folks in attendance, but there was just so much.  From the sound of things, the scrimmage went about as you'd hope: in 1v2 action for both sides, the first offense played relatively well despite missing a number of important players, and the first defense absolutely dominated the second offense, allowing only one score the entire day.

Bryce Petty had a good day, going 10-14 with 2 TDs, one a 4-yard score to Antwan Goodley and the other a 38-yarder to Lynx Hawthorne.  Seth Russell fared much worse, finishing 5-14 for 76 yards against the first defense with one long TD to freshman K.D. Cannon.  You can see that one around :50 into the video above.  Keep in mind that receivers Clay Fuller (out 6-8 weeks), Corey Coleman (supposedly day-to-day), and Jay Lee (same) missed with injuries.  Not having the full complement of wideouts could be a good or bad thing; it gives younger guys like Cannon, Davion Hall, and Chris Platt a chance to step up, but you never really want to have guys missing vital preparation time just two weeks before the start of the season.

Junior walk-on Silas Nacita led the way on the ground with Johnny Jefferson and Devin Chafin also out, racking up 62 yards on 7 carries.  I'm guessing he ran with the second or third teams behind Rashodrick Linwood (5 carries for 20 yards) and alongside freshman Terence Williams (6-28).  You might want to get used to seeing Nacita's name, since it appears he's likely to get time in relief of Linwood, Chafin, and Jefferson unless they decide to burn Williams' shirt.

On defense, it's hard to say much beyond the stats without knowing where the depth chart stands as of this moment.  You'd think, for example, that Shawn Oakman (2 sacks and 2 TFL) would be playing with the starters.  Then you see that his sack yardage (-14) matches up exactly with Petty's rushing yardage.  Since we don't know if we ever went 1v1 or if they're counting sacks in that total, I'm not exactly sure what that means.  Still, looking just at the stats alone, it's intriguing to see true freshman safety Chance Waz atop the list with 7 tackles, since Bennett has mentioned him as perhaps playing this season instead of redshirting, followed by JUCO transfer Grant Campbell, probably the backup MLB at this time.

Take a look at the stats, recap, and photos from BaylorBears.com, and watch the video above.  If you'll notice, the team takes the field from just next to the recruiting room (the place with the windows on field level), something that hasn't really been talked about much.  Also, check out the pictures posted in Baylor Football's twitter feed, embedded below.  Real Baylor football players played real football (kinda) in a stadium none of us thought would ever exist today, and that's exciting.

Tweets by @BUFootball