October 28th, 2014
In the inaugural College Football Playoff Committee rankings, Baylor has been ranked 13th in the nation.
The top four for the first week of the poll are #1 Mississippi State, #2 Florida State, #3 Auburn, #4 Ole Miss. Teh top four teams at the end of the regular season will go to the college playoffs. 1 v 4 and 2 v 3.
The Baylor media guide published the OL grading for the West Virginia game. Obviously a big drop across the board for the OL. Blake again graded out each best and continues as the highest graded OL through 7 games.
October 27th, 2014
This week is ‘Homecoming’ week at Baylor, a tradition quite foreign to most Australians because they don’t usually go away for college like the tradition in the US.
Basically, the tradition holds that past students will ‘come home’ to the university to join in on various festivities and keep their connection with the university alive. It usually coincides with the scheduling a weaker opponent for the football team; Kansas fits that bill.
Probably by their own admission, there are not a strong team right now and haven’t been since about 2007. This week off has been very useful to the Baylor team. Blake and Sean like most players have used it to get a leg up on school work, both having plenty to hand in this week. The offensive line has those injuries to usual starters Troy Baker and Desmine Hilliard to address for this week’s game so we’ll see what will hopefully be the starting line up for the rest of the season this week vs the Jayhawks.
The game will be 7am sunday morning Australian time.
October 21st, 2014
It just goes to show how hard it is to go 12-0 in college football.
Baylor traveled to West Virginia and went down to the Mountaineers 41-27. It has ruined the perfect season and stunted Baylor’s chances at making the 4 team playoff. It would take numerous losses by numerous other teams for Baylor to be back in with a shot, such is the cut throat edge of competition. The players, coaches and fans are of course devastated. There was more bad news.
Last week after the TCU game the OL unit learned that Desmine Hilliard would have season ended wrist surgery. During the loss to WVU, right tackle Troy Baker suffered a season ending knee injury. That means that from here on for the rest of the season Baylor will be without its starting right guard and right tackle.
Blake twisted his ankle on on goal line play where he got truck and trailered by a defensive lineman with linebacker pushing him forward then a running back hitting him from behind. He finished the game but this week’s bye week will be welcome for the few extra days rest.
Next game is in two weeks against Kansas and will also be Baylor’s homecoming game. Additionally, Blake will make his 20th career start that game and a previously unknown tidbit we discovered from the broadcast; Blake is the only starter not from Texas!
This is what happens to you when #35 the linebacker pushes the defensive lineman into you from the front, the defensive lineman gets his hands in your facemask, then you get hit in the back by your own running back and another defender. Basically 4 guys hitting you.
Flexibility and mobility have been huge components in Blake’s training since he started in Australia at Shire Speed and Strength gym. Here is one way it protects against injury. What was a mild ankle twist for Blake would have been ruptured knee and ankle ligaments for most. This is the main way offensive linemen get injured.
