One look at Baylor’s rushing stats leads to an inevitable rubbing of the eyes. In the land of one-dimensional, Baylor is king. And only part of it is by design.
Before the season, Baylor coach Guy Morriss promised to get his team’s offensive business done via the spread offense, which he has grown fond of over the years having coached with pass masters such as Mike Leach and Hal Mumme.
But he at least wanted the run to complement the pass.
Right now, Baylor is the worst running team the Big 12 has seen. It is averaging 27.4 yards per game, nearly 60 yards fewer than the next-highest team, Texas Tech (85.2), which is using the run out of the spread offense the way Morriss wants to. Baylor is averaging a minuscule 1.5 yards per carry and has scored one touchdown on the ground this season.
So what’s the problem? Ask the offensive line coach.
“We’ve got to block somebody,” said Morriss, who coaches the offensive line as well. “We haven’t been very productive. It is a little bit of a concern. You’d like to run it more, but right now we’re really just not knocking anybody off the ball. So it’s hard to convince the play-caller to call it when you’re not having any success.”
Of its 313 total offensive plays this season, only 89 have been runs. Now that ratio might have been similar anyway because of the nature of what Baylor is trying to accomplish on offense, but Morriss said he’d like to run the ball for at least 5 yards per carry.
What does this mean for Colorado on Saturday?
It means potentially another short day for linebacker Thaddaeus Washington, a run-stuffing linebacker who didn’t play much against Missouri’s spread offense last week. It means young cornerback Cha’pelle Brown’s cover skills will be tested once again.
On the bright side, it means Colorado’s already solid run defense numbers stand to get another boost.
Keep eye on Cowboys
Oklahoma State’s offense is quietly getting productive things done this season.
It is averaging 414.8 yards per game and a Big 12-high 7.0 yards per play. It is third in the conference averaging 40 points per game.
“I think the most important thing is you understand your philosophy and that you take care of the football and don’t turn it over,” Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. “The difference for our offense this year compared to this point last year is that we’re running the ball better, we have better quarterback play with Bobby (Reid), and we’re taking care of the football, for the most part.”
Couple that with a defense that has allowed only 14.8 points per game and Oklahoma State (3-1) has the look of a sleeper team in the Big 12 South. The Cowboys are worth keeping an eye on. They open their Big 12 season Saturday at offensively challenged Kansas State.
Kansas’ Washington OK
Perhaps the best Big 12 news Monday was Kansas coach Mark Mangino’s report that linebacker Eric Washington would be fine after experiencing paralysis following a collision during the Jayhawks’ game at Nebraska.
Washington was knocked unconscious trying to tackle Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky and was taken to a Lincoln-area hospital, where he stayed for two nights. He returned to Lawrence, Kan., on Monday.
“He is doing well,” Mangino said. “He has full use of all his extremities, and our medical staff tells me if he progresses, there’s a good possibility that he’ll be back to play this season.”
Footnote
Kickoff for CU’s Oct. 14 game against Texas Tech has been set for 1:30 p.m. at Folsom Field. The game will not be televised.
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
