It’s Baylor week and we start with a look at the best returning players for the Bears.
Quick Facts on Baylor
Last Year’s Record: 11-2
Location: Waco, TX
Coach: Art Briles
Returning Offensive Starters: 8 (RB Shock Linwood; WR Corey Coleman; WR KD Cannon; TE Tre’Von Armstead; OL Spencer Drango; OL Blake Muir; OL Kyle Fuller; OL Jarrell Broxton)
Returning Defensive Starters: 9 (DE Shawn Oakman; DT Beau Blackshear; DE K.J. Smith; LB Taylor Young; CB ryan Reid; CB Xavien Howard; S Terrell Burt; S Orion Stewart)
* I couldn’t find anything on Baylor’s site with a list of who is returning and who isn’t, but I think this is it.
Yards
| Pass Yds/Gm | Rush Yds/Gm | Rec Yds/Gm | |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB Seth Russell | 100.5 | 23.13 | 0.00 |
| RB Shock Linwood | 0.00 | 96.31 | 6.90 |
| RB Johnny Jefferson | 0.00 | 47.64 | 1.50 |
| WR Corey Coleman | 0.00 | 5.30 | 111.90 |
| WR KD Cannon | 0.00 | 0.92 | 79.20 |
Seth Russell will, most likely, be pretty good, especially given Art Briles track record of producing quarterbacks. I know that he didn’t have the best day against Texas Tech, sorta shrinked a bit, but Briles’ track record is really good at producing quarterbacks that can sling the ball. Oh, and how about two 1,000 yard receivers returning. Pretty fun.
Points
| Pass Pts/Gm | Rush Pts/Gm | Rec Pts/Gm | |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB Seth Russell | 6 | 2.25 | 0 |
| RB Shock Linwood | 0 | 7.3 | 0 |
| RB Johnny Jefferson | 0 | 3.27 | 0 |
| WR Corey Coleman | 0 | 0.6 | 6.6 |
| WR KD Cannon | 0 | 0 | 3.69 |
I didn’t really consider how well Russell seemed to do running the ball until I looked here. I guess I find that a bit interesting because that’s not really what we saw against Texas Tech. Linwood and Coleman average more than a touchdown a game. That’s pretty good.
Tackles
| Solo | Assisted | |
|---|---|---|
| LB Taylor Young | 58 | 33 |
| DB Orion Stewart | 53 | 28 |
| Terrell Burt | 40 | 13 |
| Shawn Oakman | 38 | 13 |
| Andrew Billings | 26 | 11 |
Baylor really does return a lot here, so that’s going to be interesting. Statistically, Baylor was pretty good defensively, at least top 50, but Kingsbury and Mahomes put up 700 yards of offense on Baylor, which is crazy and Michigan State put up over 550. Still, Baylor returns a ton of production defensively.
Havoc
| Tackles for Loss | Passes Defended | Forced Fumbles | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LB Taylor Young | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| DB Orion Stewart | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Terrell Burt | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| Shawn Oakman | 19.5 | 3 | 3 |
| Andrew Billings | 11.5 | 0 | 1 |
This is where Baylor shines, in particular Oakman, where he obviously made a ton of havoc plays, and those plays tend to cause turnovers. Personally, I think Billings is terrific and will be the better pro one day over Oakman.