The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.
The proposal for a fifth year of eligibility would eliminate redshirting, instead giving college football players five years to compete on the field. Under current rules, players have a five-year window in which to complete four years of playing time. This isn't the first time this change has come up, but opponents have argued that eligibility rules need to standard across sports. Big 12 commissioner Beebe, disagrees.
Beebe, however, said he thinks football should be seen as unique because it has a high rate of redshirts and injuries.
"Injuries happen and coaches have players who could contribute, but they don't want to play someone on a limited basis and burn a redshirt year," Beebe said. "And you have kids during their redshirt year who are getting the heck beat out of them in practice every day with no hope of playing."
The rule change would certainly eliminate the need for coaches to agonize about redshirting decisions. In addition, it would seemingly end the need for athletes and schools to file medical hardships in the wake of injuries. Lastly, given that the average college football player takes around 4.7 years to graduate, the five-year eligibility window could help improve graduation rates.
With a new head coach installing a new system, the Baylor quarterbacks entered the spring on even footing.
"To me, it's a situation where everybody's the same," said [co-offensive coordinator Phillip] Montgomery, who tutored Kevin Kolb at the University of Houston before he was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Eagles. "Everybody starts fresh, and everybody starts with a clean slate."
Now with spring practices coming to a close and the spring game behind them, fans who hoped one quarterback would jump ahead of the pack are left disappointed. While the battle appears to be between Miami transfer Kirby Freeman and Blake Szymanski, who started for the Bears in 2007, neither has separated himself. Szymanski was 9/13 with 102 yards passing and one touchdown in the spring game. While Freeman connected on 7-of-13 passes for 75 yards and an interception. First year head coach Art Briles seems unconcerned at the moment.
"We've got some guys that can do some things," he said. "To me, I'm more worried about the left guard position and our cornerback position than I am the quarterback, because we've got some guys that can play and make plays.
"I thought we played with pretty good pace and tempo. That's something that we're going to be known as is a tempo-tough football team."
Baylor isn't the only school that will break spring practices with an unsettled quarterback situation. But at least one writer for the school's newspaper is questioning whether the Bears find themselves facing yet another "rebuilding" year. Oh, I don't know, with an overall mark of 35-101 since the inception of the Big 12, I'm pretty sure Baylor just reloads.
It's not unusual for coaches new and old to use the spring to try guys out in new positions. But that doesn't mean that new Baylor head coach Art Briles' latest move isn't more than a little unconventional.
Baylor redshirt freshman Matt Singletary has traded his defensive black jersey for an offensive white one.
Singletary, who previously played defensive end at 6-4, 248 pounds, worked out for the first time at slot receiver Tuesday.
"In our offense, we look for what we call a big slot," Briles said. "We want a guy from about 250 to about 270 that can move and turn upfield and get after somebody with a mean look on their face. Hopefully, Matt can do that. We're kind of checking him out."
This is Matt Singletary, son of legendary Baylor and Chicago Bears linebacker Mike Singletary we're talking about. You know the one who was, "Part of the defense, big and bold." And what kind of offense is built around 260 pound slot receivers? Yikes, I'm really happy I'm not a Big 12 defensive back.
There's no doubt that Matt possesses the genes to master the "mean look on his face" aspect of his new role. But did Baylor fans really expect the younger Singletary to spend his days in Waco lined up in the slot?
Baylor is the wild bronco every cowboy thinks he can break. The latest sucker coach to think he's up to the task is Art Briles, who until today was the head coach at the University of Houston. Briles takes over for Guy Morriss, who we all thought was nuts back in 2002 when he left Kentucky for Waco. Morriss was coming off Kentucky's first winning season since 1998 and one of only four they'd had since 1977. He would not experience a winning season at Baylor.
Enter Briles, who has done just about everything at Houston except win a bowl game. He has never coached outside the state of Texas. Makes sense. Baylor's coach needs to be Texan to the core, because there are a lot of big dogs recruiting the Lone Star State. Not only that, but he'll have to slug in out in the Big XII South, where there are no weak teams except, historically, for the one he'll be coaching. I mean, the only coach who's had any sort of success at Baylor is Grant Teaff, and even he had to eat worms to make it happen. Good luck, Art; you're gonna need it.
Meanwhile, now the Houston job is open, and one of the early names being kicked around is Alabama offensive coordinator Major Applewhite. However, a vocal contingent of Texas Longhorns fans are insistent that Chris Simms should get the job instead.
Singletary, who many league observers feel will be a head coach in the NFL someday, met with Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw in the Bay Area on Monday, and the two spoke on Wednesday as well. But Singletary, who was also considered for the Baylor job a few years ago, determined the position was not a good fit.
Baylor fired coach Guy Morriss on Sunday after the team completed a 3-9 season.
"What happened was, we got to a point in the conversation where it just wasn't going to work... The more we talked about it, the more I knew -- and I think [McCaw] knew -- it wasn't going to work," Singletary told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday.
It seems that Singletary doubts Baylor is committed to winning a national championship and the what it takes to reach that goal. That's a surprisingly candid thing to say about a BCS conference team. Especially from an alum. I'm not saying he isn't accurate. There are plenty of teams in the BCS conferences -- Duke, Vanderbilt and Stanford immediately spring to mind -- that are similar to Baylor in wanting a modicum of success/respectability but are not in pursuit of winning it all. Still a jolt to read.
Arkansas' Houston Nutt, Houston's Art Briles and TCU's Gary Patterson are other names being bandied about for the Baylor job.
There were whispers about Baylor football coach Guy Morriss termination before this season even commenced, so it's not like this doesn't have a ring of certainty to it.
The Guy Morriss era at Baylor will end after he coaches the team's final two games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, according to the source. Morriss has one year remaining on his contract.
Throw in the usual hems and haws from athletic department staff so it's not for certain, but sounds close to real. The former Kentucky coach hasn't been a colossal failure, but it's been a vanilla showing in his tenure. Things looked great two seasons ago as Baylor chased bowl eligibility, only to lose in double overtime to a reeling Oklahoma team, falling completely off the radar ever since.
At least he wasn't caught urinating at the bar. Problem is, someone he had a responsibility in hiring did. I guess that kind of fun just doesn't fly in Waco.
It didn't take long for the name Mike Singletary to appear in relation to this job. It helps that he's an alum and if Baylor wants him they may just railroad his hiring. That would make the Black Coaches Association happy and further the cause of minorities in head coaching positions in college football particularly as it looks like UCLA's Karl Dorrell is headed for the unemployment line.
We've all been there before. You're at the bar with your friends, and you had a bad day at work. So you've decided to drown your sorrows with shot after shot of delicious booze. You're drinking so you don't have to feel feelings anymore, because sometimes, feelings don't feel good.
Then it happens. You realize you have to pee. Panic strikes, you look around the bar, where is the bathroom!? Oh man, you're so drunk, and the bar is so dark, you just can't find it. You keep looking, and finally you spot it. Man, that was a close one.
But wait!
The bathroom is all the way over there. That's a long walk, and you have to pee pretty bad. What do you do? WHAT. DO. YOU. DO?
Eric Schnupp, Baylor's offensive line/tight ends coach, was not arrested but was issued a citation at 2:20 a.m. Sunday for disorderly conduct-reckless exposure at Scruffy Murphy's, Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said.
Bartender Danny Severe said in Tuesday's editions of the Waco Tribune-Herald that the incident happened around closing time and that Schnupp apparently thought no one was watching him as employees were moving patrons out of the building.
Severe said an employee witnessed Schnupp urinating on the bar, and a manager told police officers who were there for an unrelated matter.
I don't know if Schnupp learned the behavior while he played at the University of Miami, but I doubt it was at Baylor. After all, Baylor is the world's largest Baptist school, and though I've never been to a Baptist service, I highly doubt peeing all over the place is a tradition.
Head coach Guy Morriss hasn't punished Shnupp yet, but you can probably expect something in the very near future.
I'm not even sure exactly what this is, but it did make me laugh. Let's face it kicking the Big 12 when they're down is always funny.
We've got the Willie the Wildcat hitting up a rave and the Missouri Tiger strung out on smack. Herbie Husker posing in a Speedo and the Red Raider Mascot making a visit to the Jerry Springer Show. Hard times for the Big 12 indeed.
Ahh, the unhappy middle. It is the place that most drives sports fans insane. Everyone wants a great team, but few see those hopes achieved. For the fans of a bad team or a bad school, at least they know going in their team has limited hopes and can prepare themselves for dark days.
For others, however, it's a tortured existence. I'm talking about you, the fans of The Mediocre. These are those quality programs that have a pulse but are unlikely to pull things through like a contender would. For these teams, the season will be a success, if they can separate and make the Big 12 Championship Game.
The dregs is a perfect phrase to describe those scrappy but unfortunate teams left at the bottom of the Big 12's 2007 liquid brew. We mean well when talking about these teams, but somebody's gotta finish last and we've come up with a few nominees.
Count on these teams to either fall short of bowl eligibility or play in a less celebrated December bowl. Some pundits would consider tossing the entire Big 12 North division in here, but there's a way around that. Thus, a handful of teams that probably deserve to be mentioned here escape the strong pull of The Dregs' gravitational pull and orbit around a different celestial body: The Mediocre (published later today).
Oh, unhappy Plains State souls, let us deliver your eulogy in advance. The full and painful list in no particular order after the jump.
The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.
With a new head coach installing a new system, the Baylor quarterbacks entered the spring 
It's not unusual for coaches new and old to use the spring to try guys out in new positions. But that doesn't mean that new Baylor head coach Art Briles' 
Baylor is the wild bronco every cowboy thinks he can break. The latest 
And it seems Mike 
There were whispers about Baylor football coach 
We've all been there before. You're at the bar with your friends, and you had a bad day at work. So you've decided to drown your sorrows with shot after shot of delicious booze. You're drinking so you don't have to feel feelings anymore, because sometimes, feelings don't feel good.
The dregs is a perfect phrase to describe those scrappy but unfortunate teams left at the bottom of the Big 12's 2007 liquid brew. We mean well when talking about these teams, but somebody's gotta finish last and we've come up with a few nominees.
