Baylor: The View from Section 5

Pregame

Got up at 7:30 AM.  It was 46 degrees.  Gonna layer up, cuz it's supposed to hit 76 degrees.  Chillin' at the WEF tailgate tent.  Pretty good breakfast served, if I do say so myself.

Watched the band come down the hill.  Just hanging out on the hill, watching some college gameday.

Can see the team going through warmups on the field.  First impression of the uniform combination today is.... Ehhhhh... Meh.

30 minutes before kickoff, the ratio of KU to Baylor fans inside the stadium is pretty even.

Late arriving crowd today I guess.

In the stadium for pregame.  Rock Chalk chant is weak.  I don't think Baylor was intimidated at all.  At least Art Briles didn't pull his guys back into the tunnel before the pregame video.

Student section is very sparse.  West side of the stadium is respectably filled.

Hey we won the toss!  I think that's the first time that's happened all year.

First Quarter

Baylor slices right through the KU defense on their first possession rather easily.

Note to Clint Bowen - corners shouldn't play ten yards off the receivers when the other team is inside the 10-yard line.

Taylor Cox with the start at running back.

That's the life of a KU football fan right there - two guys open and the pass is dropped.

Well KU answers the Baylor touchdown with one of their own on a B-E-A-Utiful pass from Willis to XXXX streaking down the sideline.

Willis looked good on every play on that drive except one.  Baylor showed an all-out blitz, and came with the blitz, and Willis went down fast.

If I could recognize that pre-snap, then so should've offense.

Willis even had a nice scramble for a first down.  He shows good awareness most of the time.

Still have no faith that this is going to be anything other than a blowout, however.

Jeepers its hot up here in the stands.  We're moving up into the shade.

NOBODY around here liked that decision to punt on fourth down from just past midfield.

Coach, you gotta go for it.  Criminy.  It doesn't matter if they start on the 15 or the 45, they're gonna score (especially on this defense).

It's pretty cool in the shade, but it's tolerable.  Much more tolerable than having the sun beat down on you.

So far Cox has been the only RB.  Doesn't seem to have the explosiveness he used to have, but he's still running as hard as ever.

Cox with his second fumble of the game - this one recovered by Baylor.

Second Quarter

Baylor on pace for 96 points today.

Kinner makes an appearance, but can't find any running room either.

Good grief, can someone on the women's soccer team come and punt for us? #kufball

I swear I heard circus music throughout that entire play, as Willis somehow managed to fumble twice, with Baylor eventually scooping it up and running it in for a touchdown.

After the PAT, it'll be a push in Vegas and there's still 2+ quarters to play.

Another idea - how about we not run up the middle on fourth-and-1 when the defense has eight guys in the box.  Or was it nine?

Halftime

52-7 Baylor.  Talk about video game numbers.

I wonder if Art Briles sets the difficulty level to "Junior Varsity" when he plays NCAA Football on his Xbox.

The Baylor punter has yet to make an appearance.

Do they even have a punter?

Actually, this is about what I - we - expected.

I have NO idea what the KU band is doing.  The drummers are drumming, they're all in groups of 10-15 people just dancing in circles with their instruments laying on the ground.

It's weird.

At least they aren't making a giant spacedick.

The twirler is really good, though.  She got three batons going at the moment.

At least she's got some talent - she might be the most talented Jayhawk to step on the field today.

Third Quarter

It's fourth-and-ten.  You're on the opponent's 35 yard line.  There's still 10 minutes to go in the third quarter.  You're down by 45 points.  What do you do?

I know, let's punt the ball!  Let's give the other team the ball back!!  We'll trick ‘em!!!  They'll never see it coming!!!!

Seriously, Beaty?  Come on, man.  What happened to #EarnIt?  I'm sending you an angry Tweet right.... NOW.

Baylor's second stringers are just as good as the first stringers, apparently.  At least when playing the KU defense.

Fourth Quarter

Note to Head Coach David Beaty - you can't punt after you cross the 50 yard line anymore.  You just can't do it.  You gotta go for it.  Baylor is gonna score on this defense regardless of where they start with the ball.  Just go for it.  EARN IT!!!

We still haven't seen Baylor's punter.

We're losing by 59 points.

Go.

For.

It.

Five minutes left and we have a Baylor punter sighting!  He did make the trip with the team!!!

Pretty good kick... not much hang time... and we're down.

Apparently the lady sitting next to us that I've been talking to for most of this quarter is Joe Dineen's grandma.

So that's pretty cool.

All of her grandkids all call her PeeWee.

Joe has been playing with a broken thumb.

Her favorite TV show is "The Big Bang Theory."  She said it's her favorite show by far.  Downton Abbey is her next favorite.

Very cool lady, very nice to talk with her.

Of course I managed to bring up RCT, so hopefully we'll get an interview with Joe Dineen or something.

Postgame

Went about as expected.

Baylor could have scored as many points as they wanted to.

Let's see what mrs. mikeville thought about the game.

She says she thought the defense played better, but that it was hard to tell because Baylor is the best offense we've seen this year.

I actually agree, and I believe I saw Jesse Newell tweet something similar during the game.

Shock Linwood is really, really good.

I liked most of what I saw out of Willis.

Kent Taylor had an amazing catch that was called back with offensive pass interference.

You can rent a chairback for $7, or you can pay what averages out to $10 a game to have one "permanently" installed.

Turns out the $7 ones are more comfortable.  Go figure.  Another KUAthletics fail I guess.

Got a little over 90 minutes to kill before the volleyball game.

Headed to Taco John's.

Oooh, a Buffalo Crunch Chicken Burrito.  Very tasty.

On to Horesji.

Volleyball match

People are out front asking passers-by if they have any extra tickets.  SOLD OUT signs posted at the box office.

Arrived 30 minutes before gametime.  This place is already rocking.

The band is on fire.

There's WAY more energy in here than there ever was in Memorial Stadium today.

It's understandable I suppose.  Today's opponent is Iowa State, a team that was projected to finish ahead of KU in the conference this year.  This is a big matchup.

Should be much more entertaining than the football game was.

KU takes the first set 25-20.  Jayhawks played a really good set.  ISU is pretty solid, and come into Lawrence unranked but with a top-25 RPI.  ISU played well, but KU was just better.

The scary part for the rest of the conference is that KU has the ability to play even better.

Selden, Traylor, Graham, several other players in the house for the volleyball game as well.  I think I've seen basketball players at every volleyball game so far.

Bill Self even showed up a couple weeks ago.

Jayhawks absolutely dominating Iowa State now, currently 19-11 in the second set.  And that's with several service errors.

Jayhawks finish off the second set 25-17.  Got a little sloppy toward the end there, it could have been a lot worse for ISU.  Iowa State just can't hang.

KU polishes off Iowa State in the third set, 25-21.  This place is nuts.

mrs. mikeville's thoughts on the vollyball game:

It was exciting.  Much more exciting than the football game.  But only because Baylor let us down and didn't set any records on us today.

Our fun-filled day in Lawrence is over.  Time to head home.

See y'all next week.