A new day in Waco

By John Shinn

Oklahoma fans assume it’s more than tradition. They look at the schedule believing no matter what that when the Sooners face Baylor, it’s going to be a victory.

Having never lost to the Bears in 17 meetings and even going through the John Blake era unscathed has made it so.

The top-ranked Sooners (4-0) will try to run that record to 18-0 when they face the Bears (2-2) at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Floyd Casey Stadium. But they’re going to face a different team than past years.

Some believe the difference is freshman quarterback Robert Griffin.

The freshman from Copperas Cove, Texas, is the kind of athlete the Bears just haven’t had since the days of Grant Teaff and the Southwest Conference.

“Everyone is talking about him,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “He is an exceptional athlete. He has great speed back there and has a big arm.”

It is the mixture of both that gives the Bears some offensive fire power they haven’t had in about a decade. The spread offense they employ isn’t new. Guy Morriss brought it to Waco six years ago and the system Art Briles employs in his first year as head coach isn’t much different.

But Griffin can turn bad plays into big plays with his athletic ability. He’s thrown for 756 yards and seven touchdowns through four games. His efficiency rating (171.29) puts him among the nation’s leaders. However, he’s a in class by himself because he’s also rushed for 334 yards and five more touchdowns.

OU defensive backs coach Bobby Jack Wright thinks Griffin might be the fastest guy in college football. Some boast of sub-4.3 40-yard dash times, but Griffin won the 400 hurdles at the Big 12 championships last spring and finished third in the event at the NCAA championships.

“Everything that he does is directly tied to what kind of success that Baylor has offensively,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. “The whole offense runs through this guy.”

Obviously, if you control Griffin, you control the Bears.

Wake Forest did it in handing Baylor a 41-13 loss in the season opener. But Baylor’s averaged 41.3 points a game in its last three, beating Washington State and Northwestern State handily, and falling 31-28 at unbeaten Connecticut.

The fact Baylor is 2-2 brings a different aspect to this game. Over the last decade the meeting has traditionally been late in the season. Six of the last nine games between the teams have been in November. OU has won those games by an average of 36 points.

The three held in September or October have been significantly closer. OU needed two overtimes to top the Bears 37-30 at Owen Field on Oct. 22, 2005, and scratched out a 33-17 win on Oct. 20, 2001.

One difference has been optimism. Most of those late-season meetings featured a Baylor team that knew its season was close to ending. Hopes of a bowl were already gone. But that isn’t the case in October and definitely not in the Big 12 opener. Baylor’s embracing the opportunity instead of trying to get through the game.

“This is what all D-1 athletes want to do. You want to come to college, you want to play the best of the best,” Griffin said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. We come out here to compete, and we get to compete against the No. 1 team in the nation.”

Does anyone think those factors spell doom for the Sooners? Not many. There’s a reason they’re a four-touchdown favorite.

Then again, if it’s the fourth quarter and the Bears are still hanging in there, Griffin and Baylor’s new optimism will have been big factors.

John Shinn

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jshinn@normantranscript.com