Baylor to Emulate Texas Tech Spread Offense

[MrMustang1965]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Guy Morriss has watched Texas Tech flood opposing defenses with wide receivers and fill up the Red Raiders' win column. Now, the Baylor coach hopes his own version of the spread offense will revive the long-downtrodden Bears.

"I think this is something we're going to have to do for the next several years, to level the playing field," Morriss said Monday, the first of the Big 12 Conference's three football media days. "The better athletes you have, the more you can do and the more traditional you can become."

Morriss and Texas Tech coach Mike Leach were both assistants at Kentucky, where Morriss later spent two years as head coach. Their fortunes as Big 12 coaches have been anything but similar, though.

Baylor, 5-6 a year ago in Morriss' third season, has not had a winning record since 1995 and has not been to a bowl since 1994 -- making the Bears the only Big 12 team without a bowl appearance since the conference formed in 1996.

Texas Tech, meanwhile, hasn't missed the postseason since Leach arrived in December 1999 and installed his wide-open scheme.

The Bears will likely run a two-back set, rather than the one-back set favored by the Red Raiders. But the similarities -- and possibilities -- still excite Baylor quarterback Shawn Bell.

"If I were to pick the offense, this is the one I would pick," Bell said.

Leach said it was too soon to speculate on the wrinkles his former colleague might put in the spread offense.

"I don't know what he's up to," Leach said. "I should know after a couple of games, when I've seen the films. Hopefully, it works great for him against everybody but us."

Kansas State, meanwhile, is making its own offensive shift. New coach Ron Prince has given up Bill Snyder's option game in favor of the West Coast offense, which focuses on high-percentage passes.

And on defense, the Wildcats -- who terrorized drop-back passers during the team's glory days in the late 1990s and early 2000s -- have shifted their focus to containing pass-first offenses.

"If you don't have enough defensive backs to cover the wide receivers all over the field, and don't employ the right tactics to chase people down, then the quarterback can run down the field because they've destroyed your defense underneath," said Prince, the former offensive coordinator at Virginia.

"Everyone in this conference has a superstar wide receiver, and the conference I came from had a similar situation," he added. "We elected to respond immediately when we arrived, because it's obvious what is happening in the Big 12."

It's been happening for a while, actually -- even at Nebraska, which used to use the run to set up the run.

Coach Bill Callahan installed the West Coast offense when he took over two years ago, and it has worked well enough that the Cornhuskers -- who haven't won the Big 12 North since 1999 -- are the preseason favorites in the division.

"I think the Big 12, overall, is more wide-open," Callahan said. "The style of offense has changed. You have to score points to win."

The challenge for defenses is not to become too reactive, Kansas State linebacker Brandon Archer said.

"You can't allow the offense to dictate what's going to happen," Archer said. "The defense can still dictate the game and make the offense change their style of play."

Eventually, Leach said, the offensive style in the college game will shift again.

"It kind of runs in cycles," he said. "I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the wishbone show up in some other conference."

[GoRedGoBlue]

Look for Baylor to get blown out by TCU now...new offense.

[westexSMU]

One thing for sure, going to the spread offense is apparently helping Baylor's recruiting alot. They are getting several commitments from Texas Top 100 players this summer and will probably have their best recruiting class in 20 years next Feb.