College Football News Preview 2020: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Baylor Bears season with what you need to know.
CFN in 60 Podcast: 2020 Baylor Bears
Baylor preview in 60 seconds
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Schedule Analysis
– Baylor Previews 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2019 Record: 11-3 overall, 8-1 in Big 12
Head Coach: Dave Aranda, 1st year
2019 CFN Final Opinion Ranking: 16
2019 CFN Final Season Formula Ranking: 21
2019 CFN Preview Ranking: 48
NOTE: Obviously, no one knows what’s going to happen to the 2020 college football season. We’ll take a general look at where each team stands – doing it without spring ball to go by – while crossing our fingers that we’ll all have some well-deserved fun this fall. Hoping you and yours are safe and healthy.
5. College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Offense 3 Things To Know
– The offense wasn’t always a powerhouse, but it was effective enough when it had to be. The running game was just okay, the passing attack wasn’t all that efficient, and the pass protection was missing far too often. But the scoring came in bunches with 31 points or more scored seven times.
Now it’s up to new offensive coordinator Larry Fedora – the former North Carolina head man who came up as a Baylor assistant in the early 1990s and worked as the OC at Florida and Oklahoma State – to work with a veteran attack that has to do a whole lot more to make up for what might be a struggling D.
CFN in 60 Video: Baylor Bears Preview
– Charlie Brewer got beaten up throughout last year, but he still managed to keep on producing. He finished with 3,161 yards and 21 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, and he ran for 11 scores, but he took some massive pops late in the season.
Sophomore Gerry Bohanon stepped in against Oklahoma in the second meeting and almost pulled out the Big 12 Championship, and Jacob Zeno is a good-looking redshirt freshman who’ll get at least a look.
Leading receiver Denzel Mims is gone along with deep threat Chris Platt, but the junior combination of Tyquan Thornton and RJ Sneed are back. The 6-3 Thornton averaged over 17 yards per catch, the 6-1 Sneed made 42 grabs, and there are enough returning parts to get the passing game going right away.
– Four starters are back on an offensive line that got Charlie Brewer blasted a bit too often, and wasn’t always a rock for the running game. Guard Xavier Newman-Johnson is the best of the bunch, but the tackles should be better with decent depth and options to play around with.
The ground game has the backs. Leading returning rusher John Lovett is back, but JaMycal Hasty is done. The quarterbacks will bring a boost to the ground game, but senior Trestan Ebner and a slew of underclassmen will be a part of the rotation.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Defense 3 Things To Know
4. College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Defense 3 Things To Know
– New head coach Dave Aranda made his name handling defenses, but defensive coordinator Ron Roberts is getting his first shot as an assistant at a Power Five program after handling Billy Napier’s Louisiana D for the last two seasons.
There’s a lot of work for the entire coaching staff to do with just two starters back from a defense that was No. 1 in the Big 12 in pass rush, takeaways and scoring D, and third in total defense. Nine of the top 11 tacklers are gone.
– The line has young parts who got in the rotation last year and made a bit of an impact, but six of the team’s top seven players are gone, including James Lynch and Bravvion Roy who combined for 32.5.
Lynch is the big loss, but his production could be instantly replaced if Arkansas State transfer William Bradley-King is able to replicate what he did with the Red Wolves. It’ll be a big line, but the giant Coke machine will be missing without Bravvion Roy around on the nose. The linebackers will have to do a whole bunch of cleaning up.
Leading tackler Terrel Bernard isn’t huge, but he’s more than fine to work around somewhere in the linebacking corps. The young guys have to step up, starting with redshirt freshman Matt Jones – he brings some much-needed 237-pound size – and Jalen Pitre, who came up with 12 tackles in four games before redshirting.
– Losing safety Grayland Arnold early to the NFL stings, but solid corner Raleigh Texada is back for his senior year. JT Woods, Jairon McVea and Christian Morgan should fill in just fine at safety, and junior Kalon Barnes got in enough work last year to be okay early on at the other corner.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Top Baylor Bears Players
College Football News Preview 2020: Top Baylor Bears Players
Best Baylor Bears Offensive Player
QB Charlie Brewer, Sr.
This could change in a big hurry. If Brewer can get and stay healthy, he’s the star of the show and the tough guy leader. However, he got rocked by some huge hits to the head late in the year.
If he’s okay, the senior who hit 65% of his passes for 3,161 yards and 21 touchdowns with 11 rushing scores is just the guy to lead the team through the changes in the coaching staff and with all the personnel turnover. However, backup Gerry Bohanon could quickly become the main man for the attack.
2. OG Xavier Newman-Johnson, Sr.
3. RB John Lovett, Sr.
4. WR Tyquan Thornton, Jr.
5. FB Koby Bullard, Sr.
Best Baylor Bears Defensive Player
LB Terrel Bernard, Jr.
The Bears could really use William Bradley-King to be the best player from his likely spot on the end, but for a team with just two returning defensive starters, the 6-1, 222-pound Bernard needs to come up with another All-Big 12 season.
Also an academic all-star, he’s going to be Dave Aranda’s quarterback on the field who’ll get in on everything after making a team-high 112 tackles with 4.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss last season.
2. CB Raleigh Texada, Sr.
3. DE William Bradley-King, Sr.
4. S JT Woods, Jr.
5. CB Kalon Barnes, Jr.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Keys To The Season
College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Keys To The Season
Biggest Key To The Baylor Bears Offense
Control the clock a bit better. This might go against everything the Baylor football program has been about offensively for the last decade or so – least year’s team had the ball for around 28 minutes a game – but being able to keep the defense off the field is going to be a must early on.
With just two starters back on D for a new coaching staff to work with, it’s not going to be about the starting 11 on that side of the ball, it’s going to be about developing the depth. No spring ball is going to make that an issue, so at least for a little bit, the more that OC Larry Fedora’s offense can just keep the chains moving and shorten the clock a bit, the better.
Biggest Key To The Baylor Bears Defense
Get the secondary going again over the first month. The Bears are likely going to use five defensive backs more often than not, and even with just one starter back, there’s enough in place to expect a quick rebuild. The key will be to get ready for when the bombers in the Big 12 get their chance.
The overall pass defense stats were fine last year, but what teams had passing games that gave Baylor problems? Iowa State Texas Tech, Oklahoma (twice), and Georgia. At least, all four of those teams had quarterbacks who could throw.
The Bears should get a little while to get the parts in place, but October starts with road games at Oklahoma and Texas Tech, and the game against Brock Purdy and Iowa State is on the road.
Key Baylor Bears Player To A Successful Season
DE William Bradley-King, Sr.
With everyone gone from the starting three on the D line – including pass rushing giant James Lynch – the new coaching staff needs Arkansas State transfer William Bradley-King to be the new terror right away.
He’s not all that big for the Baylor line – 6-4 and around 250 – but he can move, making 82 tackles with 13.5 sacks and 23 tackles for loss for the Red Wolves over the last two seasons.
Key Game To The Baylor Bears Season
Ole Miss (in Houston), Sept. 5
Can it possibly business as usual after a break through 2019? Just how fast can the new coaching staff get things up back up to speed in a rebuilding run? There are more than enough winnable games on the slate to not worry too much about going bowling, but lose to Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss in the opener, and it might take a little bit of work to have a good year.
– Baylor Bears Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2019 Baylor Fun Stats
– 2nd Quarter Scoring: Baylor 129 – Opponents 29
– Interceptions Thrown: Opponents 17 – Baylor 6
– Average Yards Per Pass: Baylor 8.5 yards – Opponents 6.1 yards
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
1. College Football News Preview 2020: Baylor Bears Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
Baylor might have had a wonderful 11-3 season, and it might have come this close to beating Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship and going to the College Football Playoff – where it would’ve been annihilated by LSU by 50 points – but it also had a relatively easy slate.
Yeah, it beat Texas and was great against Oklahoma State, but seven of the 11 wins came against teams that didn’t go bowling.
Five of the first seven games this year are against teams that didn’t go to a bowl.
There might be a whole slew of new parts to the mix – especially on defense – under new head coach Dave Aranda, but he’s a great prospect who was overdue for a gig like this, and the returning parts aren’t all that bad.
The offense should be at least as good as last year, but the defense has to continue to take the ball away in bunches and be as clutch in key moments as it was against everyone but Oklahoma.
There’s also the matter of winning all the close games again.
Four of the wins came by six points or fewer, and that’s with a 21-13 fight against Rice.
Set The Baylor Bears Regular Season Win Total At … 6
Bet at BetMGM Win Total Line: 8
Assume the Bears aren’t going to catch every break again – or, to be more fair, won’t make every break again – but they still have an easy enough schedule against a mediocre Big 12 to get to a bowl game.
That might seem like a low bar after last year, but there’s so much reworking and rebuilding to do under a new coaching staff.
Assume wins over Kansas and Incarnate Word at home, but everything else is a toss-up, including the home game against Louisiana Tech.
Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa State – all three of those games are on the road – and away dates again Texas Tech and West Virginia are more dangerous this year.
Set the bar at six wins, assuming that Baylor takes a step back and it’s not able to lose at least four of the games it won last year against Texas, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and TCU.
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