2018 Baylor Football Projections on the Hour Glass
After five straight years of uptick football play under Art Briles, which saw the Baylor Bears win 50 games from 2011-2015, it all came tumbling down as Waco, Texas was rocked by scandal and embarrassment.
2016 saw Baylor win seven games under Jim Grobe, then last year we saw what bad culture can do to a program as Matt Rhule went 1-11 in year one as head man of the program.
2018 looks to be a year of return, so to speak for Rhule and the program and even Vegas thinks so as their overall win total is set at six for this fall.
Baylor still has the fourth best roster talent on our three year metric in the Big 12, trailing TCU, Oklahoma and Texas. But, the Bears need to find better talent and role players on the defensive side of the ball where they gave up 36 points per game. Four times last year Baylor gave up over 40 points per game and you aren't gonna win many ball games doing that.
Charlie Brewer, and Zach Smith return as upper class men at quarterback and while Brewer looks to be the guy behind center in 2018, Smith should still play a role in the offense. Baylor returns almost 90 percent of their rushing offense from a year ago and top eight pass catchers, so look for this offense to regain the steam it had in years past.
It's still yet to be seen if Rhule can get the program going in the right direction, but he should have time if he can keep the program's name out of the mud in the media.
The Bears have the 8th hardest schedule in the Big-12 in 2018 and open up the season with four of their first five games at home and could see their record extend to 5-2 before an off week on October 20th. The back end of the schedule becomes brutal, with trips to Texas, West Virginia and Iowa State and they host Oklahoma State and TCU.
If Rhule wants to get to a bowl and truly rebound, they have to make hay early in 2018.
2017 Baylor Projections on the HG were @ 7-5; actual finish @ 1-11 (10 percent accuracy)
** BIGGEST HG MISS OF 2017 **
2018 Projections @ 6-6
Hour Glass National Recruiting Ranking: 37th – OUTSIDE our Realistic College Football Playoff Bust line on our talent index.
National Coaching Rank for Matt Rhule on HG Scale: 112th (Rhule Stamp at -9) – Average coaching value for 2018 set at 3.75.
Returning Baylor quarterback play rated 62nd in the country with a stamp of 8.6. Average quarterback stamp nationally for 2018 is 8.3.
