Baylor football: Offensive playmakers take flight Thursday

The Baylor Bears debuted at #6 on the first CFB playoff poll of the 2015 season, and they have to be scratching their heads. Why does the team that looks like arguably the most dominant in all of college football through the first half of the season get dropped out of the top 4 come time for the committee to decide on the four playoff teams?

The biggest reason why is that quarterback Seth Russell will miss the rest of the season, but other than that, there’s plenty of reason to keep Baylor in the CFB playoff race, and we’ll likely see why on  Thursday night.

Baylor takes on Kansas State on the road Thursday to try and continue their case for a CFB playoff spot, and freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham will have a really nice bit of talent around him to try and make that case.

Did the CFB committee forget what happened in last year’s CFB playoff?

The untested, unknown Cardale Jones brought undefeated Ohio State from the underdog to the top dog, looking like the best team we’ve seen in recent years in college football. He wasn’t a freshman, but we’d never seen him play before.

And not only that, he was the Buckeyes’ third quarterback of the season.

Jarrett Stidham is a pretty awesome quarterback prospect in his own right. He’s already completed 24-of-28 passes this season in relief of Seth Russell with six passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown. He hasn’t really even made a mistake yet.

You put this guy out there with the nation’s best touchdown machine in wide receiver Corey Coleman and one of the more underrated running backs in Shock Linwood, and it shouldn’t take long for the youngster to acclimate himself.

Coleman is absolutely outrageous this year, and has risen to the top spot on many people’s wide receiver rankings for the 2016 NFL draft.

Shock Linwood has been a big play threat all season long, ranking near the top of college football in average yards per carry.

Senior wide receiver Jay Lee is also a 6-3, 220 pound target who leads the Bears in average yards per catch this season. He is another big play threat for Stidham to spread the ball to.

There are 10 different players on Baylor’s roster with a receiving touchdown this season, including 410 pound tight end LaQuan McGowan. There are three running backs averaging better than 6.5 yards per carry. This offense is a well-oiled machine, well coached, and beautifully designed to absolutely crush opponents every single week. We should see a lot of success against Kansas State, and perhaps a statement from Baylor that they deserve to be one of the top four.