I remember...

RGIII
Well, gosh-damnit all to Hell. RGIII, otherwise known as The Savior, The Messiah, Baby Jesus, or simply Robert Griffin THE Third is out for the season with an ACL tear suffered this past week against Northwestern State, those cupcakes from Louisiana. While going for it on a 4th and 2 on the first series of the game, RGIII was stuffed at the line of scrimmage for no game. It was on this play that the injury occurred after he hyper-extended his right knee. The collective gasp of the Baylor faithful went up, but all was forgotten after he finished out the first half with 3 passing td's. An MRI the next day revealed the severity of the injury and has rightfully sent nearly every Baylor fan to the top of the largest building they could find. If there's one expression that's been thrown out by the Baylor faithful the past couple days it's this: "I'm devastated". After an amazing freshman season in which RGIII catapulted himself and Baylor into the national spotlight, his season and the hopes that went along with it are seemingly over. An upset win here or there... a bowl game... gone. However, this would be selling short the strides that we've made as a program in the past year and wouldn't do justice to the kids still fighting for the dream of a bowl game.

I know what you're thinking. "THIS? This is the play that ruined our year?!?"

Our back-up is none other than Blake Syzmanski or however his last name is spelled. Once seen as the next in line to try to lift our program up, Syz wore out his welcome in an ill-conceived 2007 season which saw former head coach Guy Morriss fired and led the way for Art Briles to come in. In a season where we tried (and failed) to be the next Texas Tech, Syz took the majority of the heat as he was the one directing the atrocious offense. He would eventually take a backseat to RGIII, but his time has come again. He is a 5th year senior who has supposedly taken tremendous strides under Briles in the past year and a half. If there's anything positive that we can take from all this, it's that Syz had a tendency to prefer the dump-off pass and find the tight-end over the middle and under Briles' offense, that should work well. His offense centers around bubble screens and quick passes that allow receivers to showcase their speed and athleticism. Not only that, but Syz will finally have a run game to support him as Jay Finley has become a legit back supported by the speedy Jared Salubi and bruising Terrence Ganaway. Is all hope lost at the QB position? No, but you wouldn't know that by talking to the casual fan.

Fans are now clamoring that this should adorn the top of every gate at Floyd Casey Stadium.

As for those tremendous strides I was talking about? The program has come a long way in the strength & conditioning department under Coach Kazadi, who has conditioned our players to be fast and strong. In turn, our players have displayed this on the field as there has been relatively little drop-off in the pace of play from the 1st quarter to the 4th. With Briles recruiting faster and more athletic players, our team has taken on the persona of a team that can hang with nearly anyone in terms of speed and conditioning. Will we win games on this alone? No, but it will help us to control the tempo and speed of games, as well as take the pressure off of Syz. He won't have to feel like he has to do everything at QB when he has players that can make a play out of seemingly nothing.

The offense shouldn't really be a concern as that's Briles' speciality. I believe the real concern will be with the defense. Undoubtedly, the defense must be feeling the pressure to perform after RGIII's injury. Unfortunately, we are weak at the defensive back position due to injury and inexperience. However, our linebacker corp is deep and our d-line has shown a lot of promise in getting to the opposing QB in these first few games. If our defense can keep getting pressure and confusing opposing offenses, then that'll go a long way in helping us to control the game from an offensive point of view. Conversely, our offense will need to execute in order to give our defense a breather here and there. This next game against Kent State will be interesting to see how our team responds after RGIII's injury, but I believe we'll get a real indicator of how resilient this team is when we go up to OU in a couple weeks. Mark my words now: if we go to a bowl this year without RGIII, it'll do more in terms of recruiting and exposure than if we go to a bowl with him. Either way, I just hope we get to a bowl.

I typed in "go to a bowl" and found this. Interesting.

Yes, this was a post dedicated to just Baylor football. Expect more of the same. Or less. I don't really know.

Oh yeah, the title of this post comes from the Deadmau5 song of the same name. I heard it on some random video and thought it was appropriate considering that I remember all the hopes and dreams that we had for this season. Such is the life of a college football fan. Especially if you go/went to Baylor.