With Big 12 play beginning this weekend for Baylor against defending conference champion Arizona State, the Trib’s Baylor beat writer Zach Smith is joined by Cam Stuart, the host of Locked on Baylor, to talk about expectations for the game, whether the Bears can turn around their lackluster defense and how important it is to get off to a good start in conferece play. They then look at the Big 12 as a whole. What’s changed most over the first three weeks of the season? Have their Big 12 title game picks changed? Exactly how good is Texas Tech? ——- SUBSCRIBE to One True Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. https://shows.acast.com/one-true-podcast ——- Music: www.purple-planet.com
Welcome back to One True Podcast. I’m Zach Smith with the Waco Tribune Herald. My guest today, the host of Locked On Baylor, a Baylor alum, uh, you know, has been following the Bears for certainly longer than I’ve been here, Cam Stewart. How are you doing today? Thanks for joining, Zack. I’m great. I’m feeling better now that I’m here. Uh I am I have been at Baylor or I was at Baylor at the time that Zack Smith was a quarterback for the Bears, which is something it’s an era that is not it was short-lived and not very uh fondly looked back on. So yeah, I’ve been I’ve been following this team a while. Happy to talk Bears. Man, I think it was I think it was my first week on the job. I was doing some radio interview with John Morris and he said he texted me saying, “Hey, come on the show at this point.” uh he texted uh quarterback Zack Smith uh and not so and he reached out and he was like why is John Morris whatever? Anyway, who cares? Um we’re here to talk Bears like you said and there’s a lot to talk about. Yeah. Um well I want to start with this last game 427. I don’t know. For me, sitting there in the press conference afterwards, I got some really bad vibes and uh I’m just curious from you, like you said, you’ve been watching for a while now. Where do you stand on this year’s team and especially after that Samford game, like how are you feeling? Yeah, so going into this year, this was like genuinely the best I felt about a Baylor team in probably 10 years. and it obviously won’t be the best team they’ve had in the last 10 years, but those those great teams they had in between came out of nowhere. So, you know, there weren’t there weren’t many expectations in that. Um, and so it’s been a while since they’ve had real expectations, right? And you know, Zach, I mean, man, I was I was there when they lost to Liberty. Okay. I was there when they were 1 and 11. I was there when they lost to Texas State a few years ago. All that to say, I should just be happy with 42 to7. Should it have been more? Yeah, but I should be happy with 42 to7 and I’m I’m not. And I I I I think it’s great that you brought that up about Dave’s press conference uh after the game because I listened to it afterwards and I I said that might be the most scathing press conference I’ve heard from Dave Aranda and they’ve had some bad days. There’s been some bad days on the job. Um, and that was like really scathing. And and I texted one of the other media members who was there who was actually there in the in the room and they said, “I don’t know if it’s that way.” You know, the tone was was the same. And I thought, you know what, that that’s right. The tone was the same, but it was just some of the things he was saying. You know, he had a he had a quote about Sawyer not having a a you know, electric day. He was fine. He threw a couple of picks and and basically the quote was he looked like the Sawyer from two years ago because there felt like there wasn’t a lot of buyin around him. I’m paraphrasing, but you know, he was saying like he was trying to make up for some things that were not going right around him. And I’m like, is that like a really backwards way of saying like his teammates let him down for for this game? I mean, obviously they have a very special offense. Not like that’s a weekly occurrence, but I’m like, is that what he’s saying here? You know, and so it it did seem very scathing. It just across the board wasn’t great. It just wasn’t all that impressive. And I’m I’m gonna look through I’m gonna look at it through the lens of, hey, you got that out of a way out of the way against an 0 and2 FCS team where you could afford to do that. Um, these games can either linger or they can be a wakeup call. And this is the time to figure out what it is because you got the Big 12 champs coming into your barn next weekend. Um, it it better be a wakeup call because even though Arizona State’s had some ups and downs so far this year, uh, the kind of effort Baylor put out on Saturday would not beat Arizona State. I don’t care where the game is played. So, uh, yeah, it is a win. You won by 35 points. You you punted a lot. You had three three and 0 outs. You scored one time in the second half. You have an air pair at quarterback for next year that you didn’t go to when Sora Robertson was pulled out of the game, which I thought was really weird. Uh, but it’s a W and hopefully it’s waking them up. That’s that’s how I’m positively thinking about it. Zach, yeah, here I I generally take like optimistic views on this kind of stuff and I’ve even in 2013 when which was my first year here, I was optimistic throughout all of that, which is terrifying. Um, but like here’s here’s what I think. Here’s my take on that game and Dave Rand’s attitude. It’s like I think he still knows that there’s something in this team that he likes. Like this team is good. This team has the juice. If they can put it all together, that’s a big if, but it still has the juice. And I think even looking back at the big picture, going back to 2023, not a good year, not a good team, just bad vibes all around. It’s a good way to put it. Yeah. Putting it mildly. But like I I He never ever said like he never gave any indication that there was something good in there. Like if you really read between the lines last year he did very much so like even going into that Texas Tech the you know the by-week ahead of the Texas Tech like they were having good practices. I know that’s a joke kind of. Yeah. It became a meme that 23 season he just said it every week. So yeah but like I still like he knew there was something in with last year and you saw how how it finished and how Sawyer played and how this you know even the defense I think got a little bit better as the year went on. So, like I I still have some faith in in in Baylor to and Dave Randa, who I know you are not allowed to call him a guru on your show, but you can on this one. Banned for the time being. For the time being, Zag. All right. This is not Baylor. I just got to let it breathe a little bit. Okay. You got to give it some time. There’s a good point in there, by the way, of like maybe maybe that’s what this media member was saying about like the tone hasn’t changed and and really it hasn’t, but you’re reading between the lines. I think makes a lot of sense of like from what we’ve heard the last 12 months, 11 months or so the way he said it was different than the way he said it in 2023, right? It just it just is. And I think that’s for lack of a better term, I think that just pissed Dave off. Like I think that’s why he sounded angry in this press conference of like we thought we had the corner turned here, right? Of like this is a very talented team. Um, it looks like they have good leadership, you know, good guys who have been in the program, who’ve played real meaningful football games, played snaps. It’s not like you’re you’re bringing in a bunch of new guys here. Uh, you think you have all the pieces in place to do something special. So, anytime that it doesn’t look good, even if you win, that’s on the coaching staff to to tell the players who are hopefully already telling themselves that’s not good enough, man. It’s just and and it and it wasn’t. It was good enough for that game. I’m going out on a limb by saying there’s no other game on the schedule that’s as easy as that one except Oklahoma State. Everything else is not going to be as easy as playing at 0 and2 FCS. Dave, well you and you kind of mentioned uh what they’ve got coming up this week in Arizona State. Big one. How important is this week? You know, I I think what I my takeaway from today’s press conference with Dave, Monday, Monday’s press conference with Dave, uh, is that, you know, he knows they weren’t focused and now this is the time that like there’s no choice but to be focused against Big 12 champs, night game, national televised. He teased maybe black jerseys again. Hey, he he teased it. Dave did it. I didn’t. Um, how important is this week for kind of the rest of the season? Uh, and is it too hyperbolic to say like, all right, this is we’re going to see the real Baylor this week one way or another? No, I I actually think that’s a good way of thinking about it. Um, would it be the end of the season if they lost? No, because we saw at two and four last year that they really did change their identity almost overnight, right? Um, but in terms of, you know, that last year’s team didn’t have championship ambitions. You know, they they didn’t and they they weren’t also championship good. So, that’s okay. Um, this team has championship ambitions. And it’s it’s odd, I think, Zach, that through three weeks, two of them against pretty good football teams, there’s still this many question marks about there about this team. Uh, you know, their offense has been off the charts, but you know, they had a lackluster game last week, and they’re still not very effective running the ball against FBS teams. They’re like 3.3 yards a carry this year. So, it’s not very effective running the football. So, right now, we know what Bor’s good is Sawyer Robertson, man. Like, that’s that’s what they’re good at right now. And I think we’re going to learn a lot about Bayore this weekend. I think we’re going to learn a lot about the Big 12 landscape this weekend. Like these are two major clashes in Arizona State versus Baylor and Utah versus Tech. Those are those are four teams that most analysts would pick to be inside the top five or six in the in the conference this year. So to get that in September, a slate like that, even just those two games, I think you’re going to learn a lot about who’s a pretender, who’s a contender in this league um through this weekend. And Bayer’s very firmly in the middle of that. Arizona State’s good team, man. They they bring back a lot. You know, everyone looks at the fact they didn’t bring back Scataboo and just think this is not going to be last year’s team and obviously they have they’ve had some trouble uh with the running backs and getting them jelled, but uh that that has been a big loss. But this is a good defense. Um it’s the best receiver they’ll face this year outside of Cam Coleman, the guy they already faced um in in uh Jordan Tyson. and Sam Levit, not as good as Sawyer Robertson, but a fairly good quarterback, man. Like, he’s he’s a real deal quarterback. And Dave said it in his press conference on on Monday that, you know, not only is this a good Arizona State team, but they’re good at things that Bay’s not good at. Um, and the main thing to me that sticks out is is Sam Levit and his ability to get outside the pocket. Uh, that’s something that Dave Arand team struggled with early in his tenure at Bayor. They got better and then Jackson Arnold happened. um if that if Sam Lev can do anything close to what Jackson Arnold did, um this is going to be another long night like it like it was against Auburn. So, there’s a talented team on the other side that can attack your weaknesses. Uh you better hope it’s a shootout. You better hope it’s a 3531. Um or else that means it’s it’s not going well for the Bears. So, I think we’ll learn a lot about them this week. Can they run the football? Can they stop the run well enough to to get them in third and manageable as a defense? Uh there there’s going to be a lot we learn about the Bears uh this Saturday. It wouldn’t be one true podcast. It’s my show. I can say this. Uh I I bring up Michigan State way too much. Sam Levit, former Michigan State quarterback. So he learned from the best. Uh what is your kind of going off that though, you know, what is the general sense on Dave Aranda? You’ve you’ve been around longer than I have. You’ve listened to more press conferences than I have with him and talked to more fans probably. I mean, what is his what do people think of Dave Miranda outside of maybe the Baylor bubble that I’m in? And and do you think that some of the defensive issues, can he fix them? That that second one’s a real doozy. Um start in terms of how the fans in terms of how the fans think this is this is interesting because I’m still trying to get exactly down to it myself. You know, I I I know you’re probably in this boat as well as someone who has to have social media for the job where you sometimes have to tell yourself like Twitter’s not the world, you know, like that’s that’s not everybody thinks like that in any kind of, you know, situation that goes viral on Twitter, whether it’s sports or politics or whatever, right? Like not the whole world doesn’t think like what you see on your timeline necessarily. Um, and a lot of social media fans are quite frankly still not sold on Dave Vanda. five years into this thing in season number six, you know, they’re not sold on this guy. And I get it, man. I totally get it. There’s a lot of things about Dave Randa I like. Um but if this season doesn’t turn into eight, nine, 10 wins without a a major injury, then like there’s just not much of a leg to stand on there. I’m sorry. You know, I I I I get it. I He was a great candidate. No revisionist history there. I would have hired him again in those shoes in 2020. I think that’s that was an excellent hire. Um, and you know, he always won with Matt Rule’s players by doing things that Matt Rule couldn’t ever do. So, that’s where I’m a Dave Randa defender. But it’s still, I guess, for lack of a better term, borrowed time. Like, if this, again, if if they’re looking at week six or seven and they’re, you know, let’s say four and three, that’s not really good for what you had going into this year for what you were expecting. uh from this team. So I I think I think most of the fan base is ready to look around the carousel to be honest with you. I think uh there were obviously most of the fan base was thinking that the midway point last year. Um I think there was still a good soft underbelly of fans that you know saw after that sixth win that Dave is safe with his job and they were like really shouldn’t we be shooting a little higher than this for a little bit higher than six wins and I totally understand that. Um, gotta commend him on the job he did last year, but bottom line is he’s he’s fired everyone that’s come in as a defensive coordinator. He has pulled out all the stops. It’s, you know, it’s his show on that defensive side of the ball. And on Saturday, I think was the first time I’d ever heard him refer to it as me doing something. You know, not we did this defensively, but I called this, I did this, and it wasn’t good enough. And if this defense is not good enough to compete for the Big 12 with the talent they have on offense, the returners they have on offense, the quarterback they have, and the offensive coordinator they have, I think that would be a pretty damning sign that that Dave Rand is not good enough to to coach this program. And and I think, you know, like what sparked Baylor on that streak and and what has really carried Baylor to any positive vibes that you get this year, it’s Jake Spel, it’s the offense, it’s Sawyer, it’s, you know, Ashton Hawkins coming back. It’s Josh Cameron continuing to do his things. It’s Michael Trigg. It’s the offense. And I love, to be fair, I love Katon Thomas as much as the next guy, but like, you know, he’s not Sawyer, which to be fair, Dave hired Spav. I I guess at the bottom line, I I got to give him a tip of the um but you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I mean, this thing was ignited by a great offense. Um and as you mentioned earlier, and I agree, the defense got better. Um but was not was not good enough. I mean, if they had a little bit of a better defense earlier in the season, they might have been in the Big 12 championship game, like they were in the competition, in the hunt, so to speak, in the last week, and it probably would have looked a little bit better against LSU uh in the bowl game. probably would have looked a little bit better against Auburn in week one. And honestly, with the offense that Baylor had, if they had a middle of the pack Big 12 defense against SMU, they would have beat them by two touchdowns. I I think they’re a better team than SMU. But this defense, it’s still it’s not it’s not physical enough. It’s not tough enough up front, and they’re not making plays on the ball when they’re not m when they’re facing FBS teams. I want to end our Baylor part of this discussion on a positive note. Uh like you said, you’ve you’ve been watching Baylor since the quarterback Zack Smith was around. Where does Sawyer rank in terms of your enjoyment watching someone play quarterback for Baylor in uh everybody that you’ve seen? Oh man, it’s an interesting one because I I go back to the Briles days, you know, I I kind of got Baylor on my radar more or less with RG3. um it’s tough to kind of include him in that. Um so I typically separate the Briles guys because their stats were just incredible and they looked like the greatest quarterbacks in the country when they were playing. But from taking all the context into this, if I’m thinking uh like how fun it is to watch Sawyer Robertson, he might be number one. Wow. He might be number one. I’m excluding RG3 because it was the very beginning of me watching. So I don’t He’s on a different pedestal. He’s got a statue. Well, now he’s a trophy. like, you know, you can’t pick anything past that. It’s like I used to go to BC football games growing up and they’d, you know, they’d have a season ticket holder in the game and they’d interview him and they’d be like, “Who’s your favorite player in Boston College history and there was never a week they didn’t pick Doug Fluty?” Never. And they’d say, “What’s your favorite moment?” Oh, the Hail Mary. No kidding. Huh? RG3’s on that different plane. Um, but Sawyer might be number one because after the Briles era, we went through a lot of ups and downs at quarterback. U, not as many downs as I think a lot of online Baylor fans think. I’ve become a Charlie Brewer truther and defender um, outside of that 2020 season, but you saw it all peter out. You know, you saw, you know, Char and Charlie was limited uh, with physically and in a way that Sawyer’s not. Um, and then the last season was brutal and 2021 we all loved Gary Bohan and he was fantastic for that team, but towards the end of the regular season it it didn’t look that great and then he got hurt. Um, and then Blake Shapen again we loved him in the Big 12 championship game and then at the end it really didn’t look very good, right? Sawyer Robertson um is like the light at the end of the tunnel. You know, he’s the pot of gold. like we’ve we’ve rode this this this rainbow which looked like 35 five years ago uh with all the construction going on and at the end of it is Sawyer Robertson. So having gone through the other stuff that’s what makes I’m I’m I’m a more grateful Bor fan to be watching Sawyer Robertson. So, as much as I loved Bryce Petty and Seth Russell and Nick Florence, my goodness, Charlie Brewer Truther, for me the most exciting has been Sawyer Robertson because of what it’s come off the back of. And potentially, you know, again, if they’re reaching those championship dreams this year and playing in a college football playoff, dare I say, it’s still on the table. If that happened, then we’re talking about a guy who almost single-handedly took the program in a better direction than where it was going. you know, I don’t want to say maybe the savior of the program, but who’s going down the wrong path and this guy coming in and being the guy um has certainly turned them around. And I I mean, I don’t want to like why I I sometimes I go back and think when Dcoin Finn got here. I know that that battle lasted well into the into the fall. That was way closer. I think they wanted Dcoin to come in and be the guy and Sawyer. Even then, I I go back to maybe some coaching decisions, but that’s another can of worms that we don’t need to open right now. Be part of it’ll be part of the ammo someday, though, Zach. It’ll be part of the ammo someday. I do want to get your pick your brain a little bit on kind of bigger picture Big 12 stuff. You know, who was your pick to win this conference, which I think coming into the year everybody knew was going to be chaos. Who did you like, you know, and uh has it changed over the first three weeks of the season? It has changed for sure. Um I really liked Arizona State to start the year. Um and I still think they’re a good team. I I just I I thought too many people were just looking we’re we’re taking too much stock in the Cam Scataboo thing. Look, Cam Scaboo was a fantastic player, one of the five or six best players in America last year. You saw that at the in the playoff, right? Uh that that’s a that’s a big thing to lose. But they brought almost their entire defense back, which was pretty damn good. Uh they bring their quarterback back. They bring their best receiver back. I think they’ve got one of the best young coaches in football who’s hitting the recruiting trail hard. Not that that matters that much this year, but I’m like, that’s still a very good team on the other side. Um and my original pick in the in the Big 12 championship game was the matchup this weekend, Arizona State, Baylor. Um I thought they had the two best quarterbacks and I thought they had more beyond that. Uh, I mean, right now it’s it’s real tough to argue with Iowa State. I I know they just got by at the weekend. Why? They’re playing at Arkansas State. Again, I I’m trying to figure these things out. I’m trying to figure out why that’s become a thing now in college football. Um, they they got by, but they’ve beaten Iowa. Um, who’s Iowa, you know, Big 10 team, that’s good for us. uh they beat Kansas State, which is not looking as great now, but when you’re talking about game one of the season, those were two teams that were looking to be uh Big 12 championship kind of teams. And it’s the same thing that’s made Iowa that made Iowa State good last year. You know, Roco Beck is not going to have the numbers that Sawyer Robertson or Josh Hoover uh are going to have or not the rushing numbers of Devin Damp here, but the dude’s solid as heck, man. Like, he’s solid. He gets the car in the garage at a good ample speed. All right. He’s not he’s not just, you know, he’s not going in the the garage at five miles an hour. He’s getting that car in the garage. He’s doing it in style, okay? He’s not one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but he’s certainly one of the best quarterbacks in this conference. And that defense continues to be impressive. Uh for me right now, Tech has looked impressive for sure, but at this moment, this week, I can’t go anywhere but Iowa State to be the the Big 12 championship pick right now. I yeah I mean I’m the biggest Matt Campbell guy maybe around him. Yeah. It’s like I I grew up with Michigan State. I went to Michigan State. I grew up with Mark Dantonio and he just gives me the same kind of vibes like finding these three star kids and turning them into like NFL guys. Who saw Brock Party being a starting quarterback in the in the I mean come on. That’s crazy. Yeah. But like yeah I I totally agree. I think Iowa State is so good. Even if they’re squeaking by Iowa and playing weird like you mentioned at Arkansas State, man, they are they’re for and the and the thing with it too is like I know some fans will look at that, right? They’ll say, “Well, they only beat Kansas State by what, three, and they squeak by Iowa.” But Iowa State’s done that before. Like they did that they were doing that last year and they made the Big 12 games. So that’s one where I’m buying into the Matt Campbell and the Rockco Backs. I’m buying into like, yep, these guys have done it before. You would say they got lucky. You say that last year and they had their best statistical season in in the program’s history. So, I don’t see any reason why they can’t look that solid again. When I ask this question, try maybe to take your Baylor hat off for like a second, you know? Uh, metaphorically, I’m bald. Metaphorically, yes, of course. What do you think about Texas Tech and kind of what they’re doing? because they kind of shifted the landscape of college football, spending all this money, doing all this stuff. I’ve had Chris Venini and Shahan Jarajia, you know, who wrote a very in-depth and great story on Texas Tech and what they’re doing. What do you think about what Texas Tech is doing? And do you think the experiment in the long term will work? It’s it’s a loaded question in that in the sense that like I don’t I’m I’m not going to lie. Like I’m not a huge NIL fan. Um it’s one of those things that it’s certainly better than what the alternative was. Like it was crazy the restraints on these kids before and and the money that’s being made. Like that’s where I’m like it had to happen is a necessary evil. I wish there was more parameters in place, but that’s how it is. So in terms of like a program totally going in on that and totally banking on that, like do I love that as a college football fan? Not necessarily. But that’s the way the game’s played, man. It’s like saying, “Oh, you don’t like your pro team because they just sign a bunch of free agents.” Well, it’s like that that’s how you win. Like that’s that’s how you do it. That’s that’s how this game works at this point. And what I do like is that if you’re pissing off UT and Oklahoma and the powers that be in this region and in college football, I’m riding with you. Like, I’m I’m happy with that. If you’re making&m and UT punch air because you’re spending too much money, I’m in. I’m in. Like, you know. Um, and I love Tech fans, man. I do. I know they’re a rival at Bayward. I’m not supposed to say that, but they are a crazy rowdy bunch. And most of our enemies are similar for all the other weeks of the year. Um, they hate TCU, they hate UT, they hate&m. So, they’re good in my book, right? Um, so I I do think it’s sustainable though. I do. it it comes down to um can you win because I think we’re looking at the same thing with BYU um and specifically BYU’s basketball program to kind of like get Big 12 still like they’re funneling millions of dollars into getting players there. But if they win and they produce NBA draft picks and they go to Sweet 16s, Elite 8s, Final Fours, then that money is going to continue to roll in. Same thing with Tech, man. Like the money is still going to be there. It’s whether it’s being thrown at them. you know, they they have had a big building project the last couple of years coming in right as NIL’s come in. So, you think the money would dry up, but if they’re the Big 12 champs this year, that money ain’t going to dry up. No, like that that money is still going to come in. Um, so it does become interesting to see if that if if the prestige of tech kind of sustains over the years that because that’s what it needs to be at the end of the day. You know, if you’re a player who’s getting offered, you know, 1.2 to play at Tech and only 1.05 to play at UT, you’re sitting there and you have to weigh that. you have to say, well, I’ll take the, you know, whatever 150,000 less to go play at UT because I can win a national championship there and Tech’s still wallowing at seven and five, eight and four every year in an inferior conference. Um, so you you need to have the results and I and I’m a big I am a Joey Magcguire fan. I I I can’t help it. Still love him from his time here. Uh, but this is this is maybe not a make or break year, but this will be very interesting. Tech is good enough to win this conference. uh they’ve been good enough before. Uh they don’t typically get it done. They love a good eight and four. They love a solid eight and four season. Uh and if it’s that way again, uh I think they’re probably looking at another coach, which might not be fair to Joey, but at some point you got to say, look, if we got the money to pay the players, we’ve got the money to pay the coach. Um and we’re going to get the best coach money could buy. And I I I just think they’re kind of headed down the road of turning into the next kind of Texas A&M where they they spend a lot of money, they they say a lot of things, they talk a lot of talk and there’s maybe, you know, every once in a while they get a big win, but there’s no like real winning if that makes sense. That’s got be the real fear. That’s got to be like, you know, and didn’t establish a culture at all, right? You know, the stories about Jimbo are like legendary if you’re a lazy guy. like if you’re just a lazy person, Jim Jim Fischer’s your idol. Um having just everyone else do stuff for him. Um I think that’s where Joey would be different, but also we need to know if he can like flat out coach ball. You know, I like Joey, but let’s see if that happens first. Let’s get a 10- win season and say, “Okay, this guy can do it.” So, yeah, that’s that’s the goal. We’re all we’re all trying not to become&m in this new in this new landscape or the old landscape. No one wants to be. No one wants to be No, you don’t. Well, I I I want to end with another possibly loaded question here. All right. Definitely loaded questions, right? Uh tell me it’s all going to be okay, Cam. Like like this like what is the fe is the is college football as we know it? Are we going to still see the Baylor line and throwing tortillas and you know dot in the eye in Ohio? Like tell me you know in in 10 years everything’s going to be okay. Please tell me that. I’ll tell you that, Zach. It’s going to be okay. It’s gonna be okay. All right. All right. As is with most things, I’m somewhere in the middle here because I to like I kind of said in the last answer, too, like I totally understand that middle-aged grownup, even a 30-year-old fan who’s like, “I’m sick of this, man. Like, I’m sick of seeing a totally new team every year. I’m sick of nobody having any of the loyalty that I have to my school.” um they don’t have it there on the field and this is what we’re you know putting our whole mental health around for a couple of months. Um and you know you hate that you could just be outbid and that that’s all it comes down to for some of these kids is money. Like I get that. And then there are the other people who are closer to our age who are you know talking about um well that’s the way the game’s played boomer this is like you can’t you can’t complain about that. It’s like, well, can we be somewhere in between? You know, can we say that these kids need to get paid, but we don’t love how crazy it’s getting? Because it is. It’s getting nuts. I mean, we’re talking about million dollars for kids who haven’t played meaningful snaps in college football. Like, that’s that’s crazy. And that’s and that stinks for the kids and their family in the long run. like it I it is good for them to get this money, but we’re seeing stories every year of kids who are just being led in the wrong direction because they’re not getting good advice. It’s much easier to get sound financial advice when you’re a 23-year-old who’s going into the NFL draft than it is for a 16, 17 year old getting recruited by the biggest college football programs in the country. It’s just a it’s a different different world. So, the thing that I want, Zach, the thing that I want is kind of what Baylor fans were like at the end of last year, something that like really made my college football heart warm last year was how into it these fans were at the end of the season. Like it was a six-game winning streak to get eight and four. They were not in the Big 12 championship game. They were not in a major bowl game. They were not playing for any kind of national championship. And people were still into it. Like that’s that’s what I’ve hated the most about college football in the era of conference realignment NIL and college football playoff. It’s that anything less than a national championship is not good enough. It’s not fun. We can’t celebrate it. Of course you can celebrate it, man. You went eight and four. You beat TCU for the first time in five years. You had a six-game winning streak and you have legitimate hope, man. Like that should be celebrated. TCU making the championship game a couple years ago. That should be celebrated. It’s okay for us to laugh at how they did there because it was funny. But you can celebrate that, man. You could have a good season that doesn’t end in a national championship. And what’s funny is for so long, for a hundred years, that’s what college football was, right? You didn’t at Ohio State or Michigan, sorry, Michigan State as well. Um, what you celebrated was not necessarily a national championship, even though you guys have some of those. it was winning the Rose Bowl or for the Texas Longhorns forever it was winning the Cotton Bowl. Um, you know, like that was your championship. And it just stinks that that’s like the level we’ve gotten to. And to be fair, it’s happened across all sports with I think just the social media generation. But it’s okay to celebrate Nate and four when it was a fun eight and four, right? You know, so that’s what that’s what bugs me even more than the money that’s changing hands. And I’m sure that has something to do with it. Uh but that we just focus on one thing when college football is not about that, man. It’s about it’s about beating your rival. It’s about having a kick-ass tailgate. It’s about having a good season, having hope for your future. Um that that’s what college football is to me. Other than the fact that your team is your team, and you root for them no matter what. And you all you want is the players and the coaching staff to have the same feeling about your alma mater that you do. Okay? So, it’ll be okay. It’ll still be here. and there will still be fan bases like ours that will cheer things like that. Um, I do feel for like the&m people in that respect. You know, they’re they’re they’re setting the expectations. It’s something they probably can’t attain as history has told us. Um, so it will be okay. It will. And I think at some point we’ll get back to something that resembles more of the college football of our childhood. At some point there will be some contracts in place and parameters where guys have to stay longer. At some point, I think the the the two super conferences will look at each other and say, “Is this really what we want?” Like, “Is, you know, I’m sure the Big 10’s thinking about that with UCLA already. Like, is this what we want? The ACC, Boston College to go out play Stanford last week. Is that really what we want?” Um, so I do think it’ll regress to or regress I think it proved to uh something that more resembled the college football we grew up with, but it will be okay. Long, very long way of saying it’ll be okay. You’ll love to hear it. I love We’ll get through this together. We’ll get through this decade together. Zack, such a Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us, Cam. He’s optimistic about the future. He’s going to keep watching Baylor, whether it’s Sawyer Robertson or Walker White or Nate Bennett, he’s going to be there. So, Cam, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. I put the 2014 Cotton Bowl behind me for for the sake of this of this podcast. I’m glad I did. I had a great [Music]
