5 Good Questions: Baylor

One of Old Gold & Blog's most popular features from the 2007 football season is back for 2008 - 5 Good Questions. I'm excited we're getting to do this again since it means a football game is so close.

For those who don't know, 5 Good Questions is a weekly feature during football season where I ask five questions of someone who publishes a blog about Wake's opponent that week.

Unfortunately, no one is publishing an independent blog about Baylor, so I had to go to plan "B". I ventured over to BaylorFans.com and convinced one of its more prominent posters, Chaise Moody, to join me. He did an excellent job, and his answers to my questions follow a brief introduction from Chaise.

Chaise Moody: Hi and thanks for letting a Baylor Fan participate in your weekly Q&A.
We look forward to personally welcoming all Deacon fans to Waco, though we realize fuel costs and distance may make it difficult for all to be here that would like to come. Congratulations to Wake Forest on your past seasons' success and best wishes to the Deacons this season (except this Thursday evening, of course).

1. Art Briles hasn't even coached a game at Baylor yet, but the fans seem to be pretty high on him. How has he changed this program already, and what do you expect from him long term?

CM: Baylor Fans have been long-suffering in our pursuit of Ws in Big XII play. With conference foes such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska (or yeah, Kansas & Mizzou), many perceive Baylor as a 'have not' program, but that is not true. We have the resources to compete at the highest level.

You may be surprised to learn that only one Big XII school has won more conference championships in all sports than Baylor. We just suck at football and that is because we have been challenged in the 'hiring competent football coaches' department. Times have changed.

Thee University (as we irreverently call ourselves) is building a $34 million dollar indoor-outdoor football complex on campus next to the Brazos River. You realize that our stadium – Floyd Casey Stadium - is in Beverly Hills, a mile+ from campus, don't you? For those wanting to map the location: http://baylorbears.cstv.com/school-b...y-stadium.html

The stadium seats 50,000, though the south end zone is covered by a large "This Is Bear Country" tarp that comes off for really big games and capacity can be increased –SRO (Standing Room Only). We average about 38,000 attendance typically. More than half of Baylor's student body of 14,000 will show up and the crazy gold-shirted group right behind your bench is "The Baylor Line". This spirit group used to be made up of freshman men and it got so unruly on visitors that the administration inserted females into the group and voila', instant date bait behaving. You'll find Floyd Casey Stadium to be one of the neatest in the Big XII.

To answer the first question about Baylor's new coach, one has to be familiar with the State's major religion - football. As they say, we don't live in the state of Texas, we live in the State of Football.

Art Briles is 52 yrs old and already a legend for winning in this State. He has taken down-trodden programs time and again and made them winners. He started coaching in 1979 and has been a coach in this State ever since.

His last job was head coach of the University of Houston, where he took a program that had been a perennial bottom dweller (ahem) and made them winners Year 1. Let's just say we're confident he will get it done in Waco, too. Art's bio: http://baylorbears.cstv.com/sports/m...les_art00.html

2. Usually it's important for teams to have a quarterback. Which is going to be, Robert Griffin, Blake Szymanski, or Kirby Freeman? Why?

CM: Great question, and I agree. Who really knows who will start at QB for Baylor? Coach Briles has been known to wait until the last minute to name a starter – and he is not afraid to choose the true freshman. He brought Kirby Freeman home from The University of Miami (which Kirby says was a complete disaster) for his 5th year and many thought when that occurred that Coach planned to start Kirby who would "mentor" the child protégé – Robert Griffin. However, I believe we will see Blake Szymanski as the most likely to start. As an aside, Blake has a hot girlfriend and she has one of those annoying little pamaranians that often gets photographed sitting on Blake's lap – yeah, it appears that Blake is whipped. Some have suggested the dog gets more face time than Coach Briles.

Why Blake? If you read all the Fan websites, there are many reasons. Experience is probably the bottom line. In any event, without much hesitation, Coach will change QBs if we turn the ball over or fail to score in the redzone or cannot sustain drives – anything that shows lack of leadership to victory. We may change QBs even if the starter does produce, who can say?

3. What area is Baylor's biggest strength? Biggest weakness?

CM: Baylor's greatest strength may well be our LB corps, much like WF(?) We have a number of big, fast, strong, instinctive, ugly LBs who like to hit. Greatest weakness is our lack of depth perhaps, but also our lack of success - our lack of knowing how to finish the job. We had OU, Nebraska and A&M on the ropes 2 seasons ago, but our lack of maturity permitted us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It was painful to witness. Injury played a role in prior years' losses, also.

4. What will be the key to a Baylor victory against Wake?

CM: The key to victory against WF is simple: "2 –we're in, 3 -we win". I'll explain if need be after the game, hopefully I'm in a jovial mood. (Ed. note - I have no idea what this is, so I'm looking forward to the explanation)

5. The fun part...what is your prediction for the final score on Thursday night? What will Baylor's record be at the end of the season?

CM: Final score? Come on, you don't expect me to bite on this one, do you? Sure this is all for kicks and giggles, but no way. I will say that I hope both teams play to their full potential, there are no injuries, and Baylor wins. Ha!

Baylor's end of year record? 6 wins minimum, baby! See how reasonable and rational we are down here in Bear Country?

Looking forward to seeing y'all who are able to make the trip. Oh, and we don't really allow public drinking in/near the stadium but you can drink so long as you don't show the beer or stumble around. We try to maintain that Baptist image over here, you know. I admit I have not been to an ACC game so I am unfamiliar with your gameday – pregame, but you'll find Baylor's pregame to be quite entertaining. People watching is fun, too.

There are tons of friendly folks and beautiful people here so come on down!

Excellent work, Chaise. Thanks for joining us.