Baylor was sadly in the news again for a not-so-good reason, and Oregon has a major player returning on the offensive side of the ball
With everything happening around the college football landscape during this time of the year, you’d think we might have been able to escape some negative Baylor news for a little bit. Well, that was not the case, as the Bears football program popped into the news feed once again.
This is where we begin the FanSided College Football Blitz for Wednesday, Dec. 21.
Baylor assistants hit with recruiting violations
Two weeks go, the Baylor football program was making headlines once again, but for the first time in quite a while these headlines were not centered around negativity. In fact, the program was lauded for making what some perceived to be one of the best coaching hires of the offseason, bringing in Temple’s Matt Rhule.
But, Baylor couldn’t stay out of the negative side of the news for long, as on Wednesday the NCAA announced following an investigation that assistant coaches Kendal Briles and Tate Wallis did in fact commit recruiting violations.
However, other than a $5,000 fine that was levied, there was no further punishment from the NCAA, as Baylor had already sort of nipped this one in the bud last year when they suspended Briles and Wallis for one game in 2015 and prohibited from off-campus recruiting for 12 weeks.
Still, though, it’s yet another story that we get from Waco during the past year that tarnishes the program a little more — even if it is just a tiny bit compared to how badly the reputation has been diminished since the sexual assault scandal first came to light.
Final Thought: While Briles and Wallis will coach Baylor during the team’s Cactus Bowl matchup with Boise State, the good news is that it will be the final game for these two on staff. From there, the Matt Rhule era can officially get underway, and hopefully, he can help this program repair its image as much as it possibly can be after all that has taken place.
Willie Taggart already pulled off one of his biggest recruiting wins, and it was one of his own players
When Willie Taggart was hired recently as the new head coach of the Oregon Ducks, there were many attributes that we pointed towards to reason why he was the right move for Oregon. Of course, being one of the best recruiters in the game was one of the traits that seemingly make him the right leader in Eugene.
Well, Taggart has already pulled off one of the biggest recruiting victories of his short tenure, and it’s not by obtaining a blue-chip prospect out of high school. No, Taggart’s big recruiting victory came in the form of the announcement on Wednesday that running back Royce Freeman would be returning to the program for his senior season. This is a sentiment that Coach Taggart echoed in the official school release announcing the news.
Freeman burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2014, the year Oregon made the College Football Playoff, rushing for 1,365 yards and 18 touchdowns. He followed that up in his sophomore season by scampering for 1,838 yards and 17 scores, truly cementing himself as one of the most talented backs in the nation.
Now he did falter a bit in 2016, not breaking the 1,000-yard barrier for the first time in his career by finishing up with just 945 yards. But, the good news is that he now will give himself one more season in Eugene to show that he’s still the dynamic back that can tease breaking the 2,000-yard mark, which will only help his efforts for being a top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Just please stay healthy, Royce.
Final Thought: It’s really not an overstatement at all, this is a huge recruiting coup for Coach Taggart in getting Freeman to come back, just as he himself stated. As an offensive-minded coach, when you get a player back who can potentially be one of the best rushers in the country back as you’re trying to turn around a 4-8 program, there’s not much more you can really ask for. Sure, we all can’t forget that the defense is the real issue out west there, but Freeman being a force out of the backfield will go a long way in helping Taggart get the bus rolling down the right path.
And of course, as is customary, let’s ask Coach Taggart how he’s livin’ right now.
The Almighty One weighs in on players skipping bowl games
The conversation over whether or not it’s beneficial or right for top-tier NFL Draft prospects to skip bowl games has not stopped since both Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey announced they were bailing on their respective postseason outings. Now, as with any other sports debate, there are some people’s opinion who matters just a tad more than some others. One of these people is the man who may be considered –and to some is already– the greatest college football head coach of all time, Nick Saban.
Wednesday, the Alabama Crimson Tide head coach was very blunt and upfront in saying that this is an issue that the great game of college football has created itself.
“We kind of created this trend,” Saban said Wednesday via ESPN. “I said as soon as we had a playoff, we were going to minimize the importance of all the other bowl games. I’m not saying whether it’s good or bad, it kind of is what it is.
“I don’t know where all this is going, but I don’t think it’s going to change. Is it good? Probably not. But you can’t blame the kids. It’s a product of what we created.”
Final Thought: Hey, he’s not wrong, and it is a point that most of us have made over the course of the past few days. With the creation of the College Football Playoff, the other bowls did lose a lot of luster in the eyes of many, and most importantly, this includes the players with bright NFL futures ahead of them.
This is really just becoming a large talking point here in the 2016 season, so it’ll be very intriguing to see just how far this trend goes.
Next: Best college quarterback born in every state
Bowl game stat of the day
Boca Raton Bowl – 598 yards
Tuesday evening, our lone bowl game of the day was the Boca Raton Bowl pitting Western Kentucky against Memphis, a game which the Hilltoppers took in convincing fashion, 51-31. And in that victory, Western Kentucky gave us all one more dazzling offensive performance for the season, totaling 598 yards of total offense.
That number, of course, included this absolutely splendid BIG MAN TOUCHDOWN from offensive tackle Forrest Lamp. Drink it in one more time, in all its gloriousness.
While this rushing touchdown was truly a pleasure to watch, it was the team’s actual running back, Anthony Wales, who was the top star of the show in Boca. In the win, the senior running back capped off an amazing career by annihilating the Memphis defense to the tune of 245 rushing yards on 35 carries with three touchdowns. Oh yeah, he was also the second-leading receiver in the game for WKU, grabbing four balls for 81 yards.
If anyone thought that this Western Kentucky offense would go off the rails for the final game now that Jeff Brohm is gone, they were delivered quite the opposite message on Tuesday evening with this drubbing.