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Home > The Bear Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 03 > Entry

What did Dave Campbell have to say? Read our livechat on Baylor, Big 12 football & more

By WacoTrib.com staff | Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 11:00 AM

Sportswriting legend Dave Campbell and veteran Trib sportswriter John Werner discussed Baylor football, the Big 12 and college football in all its bewildering splendor Friday on WacoTrib.com. Read what they had to say below.

11:59 Bill Whitaker: Hey, folks. We’ll be starting Livechat with Dave Campbell and John Werner in a few minutes, so get your questions ready. Hope to have some lively discussions during the lunch hour.

12:04 Bill Whitaker: Hi, everybody. I’m Bill Whitaker, senior editor at the Waco Trib, and we have a special Livechat for you today. Taking your questions during the lunch hour are sportswriting legend Dave Campbell, famous for Texas Football, and veteran Trib sportswriter John Werner, who has been covering the Baylor Bears this past football season.

We’re all in awe of Dave up here, so we’re thrilled to have him trying out his wings on Livechat. This is a live forum where you can post questions at this site for Dave and John about a myriad of topics, including how Baylor did this season and what it needs to work on for next year; the upcoming championship games plus the continuing controversy over Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings. I imagine we’ll have a few questions about high school football as well.

But first, how about football in 3-D. I’m referring to Thursday night’s game between the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers in 3-D. Is this the next big thing for folks watching football at home? Heck, I just now bought a high-definition TV set. Dave?

12:08 Dave Campbell: I did not see the 3-D telecast. Perhaps another wave of the future. In all truth, I’ve seen Baylor games in which I would have preferred the game be in O-D but hopefully those days are now in the past. Which is another way of saying I was very impressed with Art Briles’ first season at Baylor and the direction in which he has the Baylor program headed.

12:09 Bill Whitaker: Very funny. Just out of curiosity, Dave, how do you watch games on TV? I mean, what kind of setup do you have at the Campbell home so that you can keep up with the sport, especially with so many broadcasts throughout the weekend during the season?

12:16 Dave Campbell: We have no special setup at my house for watching or grading football telecasts. It’s all strictly for enjoyment and information. If I should get involved in the future again in writing about games or forming opinions on games that I need to transmit to another entity, I would have to get a more involved setup. But for now what we have is more than satisfactory. Right now, I spend more time watching MSNBC than football.

12:17 Bill Whitaker: Which brings us to one of our first questions, this one from TC, who asks the following: “I’d be interested to get your thoughts on the Internet and its impact on sports and sports reporting?” John, how about it? You’ve been uniquely involved in this field through the Internet. How has the Internet changed sports coverage and what special talents do future sportswriters need to know to master it?

12:20 John Werner: Well, it’s been a big help to track down information. If you need to see what other newspapers are writing or to look at stuff on the Websites of teams, it’s been invaluable. I think you also have to track down more rumors. A lot of those rumors have no substance, but some do.

12:21 Bill Whitaker: Kit has a question next for Dave. Here it is: “Dave — I have enjoyed you for years. Give us your insight on Baylor Football and Coach Art Briles. Give us some meat to chew on as to your true candid thoughts. Let us know if you think the Bears will ever be competitive and win 7 or 8 games a year.” Kit signs himself as a BU grad of ‘71.

12:28 Dave Campbell: As I have told any number of people, I have been greatly impressed and gratified with the job Briles has done at Baylor, starting with the first day when he went to Copperas Cove and talked Robert Griffin into switching his verbal commitment from Houston to Baylor, and with that action Baylor suddenly had a quarterback with Big 12 ability. Overall, Briles has the connections with Texas high school football coaches and the proven ability to size up talent that almost guarantees Baylor a good flow of talent, and in the Big 12 (or in virtually any conference these days), it all starts with talent and then doing something with that talent. In short, after Art’s first season, so far, so good.

12:28 [Comment From Brad] How many games do you think Baylor can realistically win next year?

12:28 Bill Whitaker: John, how about Brad’s question and the whole question of what this team is capable of next year, especially after this season?

12:32 John Werner: I think they can win six or seven games if all goes right. They need to go at least 3-1 in nonconference games, and that would mean they would need to beat Wake Forest or Connecticut. Wake Forest will be tough on the road, but I think Connecticut is beatable at Floyd Casey Stadium. They’d probably have to win at least one Big 12 road game. That means they’d probably have to beat Iowa State or Texas A&M on the road.

12:32 [Comment From jeff] Talk about Robert Griffin and what he means to recruiting at Baylor Football.

12:33 Bill Whitaker: Griffin’s been an inspiring figure at Baylor. Over to you, Dave.

12:35 Dave Campbell: No question, Robert Griffin’s presence at Baylor makes recruiting a whole new ball game because his presence suddenly makes Baylor football competitive. Top-grade prospects want to sign with a school that offers them a very good chance to win. Griffin offers Baylor that chance. What Briles & Company now must do is surround Griffin with top-grade talent. That will take time but I think it will happen.

12:35 [Comment From Brad] What’s your sense of how recruiting efforts will be different this year with Art Briles in the saddle?

12:35 Bill Whitaker: John, how about it? Recruiting is under way as we speak (or write).

12:39 John Werner: They’ve already got verbal commitments from 14 recruits, and they’ll need to add eight more before February. The stars of the recruiting class so far are four-star recruits Glasco Martin from Round Rock Stony Point and four-star offensive lineman Ivory Wade from Dickinson.

They still need to add some defensive linemen and some skill people, but I think recruiting is going pretty well and they’ll get higher level recruits than they’ve had in the past.

12:39 Bill Whitaker: I see where Baylor’s Robert Griffin was named the Big 12’s offensive freshman of the year on the coaches’ all-Big 12 team. Plus, three Baylor players earned first-team all-Big 12 accolades — senior offensive tackle Jason Smith, junior linebacker Joe Pawelek and junior safety Jordan Lake. That’s a historic moment. Any surprise there? Dave?

12:44 Dave Campbell: For Baylor to put three players on the All-Big 12 first team was unprecedented and more to the point, very encouraging. It shows the impact Briles (and also Robert Griffin) had in his first season at Baylor, getting the players motivated and prepared to compete against first-rate Big 12 competition. Those players realized they could compete and win; they realized there was no reason for them not to play up to the full extent of their ability. When they did so, suddenly Baylor was winning games on the football field or were extending the games down to the last minute before the final score had been decided.

12:44 Bill Whitaker: Well, we’ve got the Big 12 championship game this weekend between Oklahoma and Missouri. We’ve also got a lot of bad feelings among Texas fans. What’s your take on the whole BCS controversy? What needs to happen to prevent this kind of conflict again?

12:48 John Werner: I think it’s a shame that the Big 12 South tie-breaker has come down to this. But it was the fifth tie-breaker for the Big 12, so a perfect storm had to happen. I can see why Texas fans are mad since the Longhorns beat Oklahoma, but Texas also lost to Texas Tech. So Red Raiders fans also have a gripe. The Big 12 is reviewing its tie-breaking procedure. But you’re probably going to have a controversy if a similar scenario happens again.

1:03 Dave Campbell: I think the Big 12’s unhappy and unfortunate experience with using the BCS standings as a tie-breaker is one that is going to be shortlived — namely, it is going the way of the do-do bird, becoming a one-year wonder. Already there is wide agreement that changes are necessary and I am convinced that changes are on the way, like the first meeting the Big 12 policy-makers have after the new year arrives. Better to use the old SWC rule that prevailed in case of a three-way tie, that the school that was involved in the tie that had been shut out of going to the Cotton Bowl (or in this case, the Big 12 Championship Game) would be chosen, would have been better than the current rule. Incidentally, I am reminded of what coach Jess Neely, that wisest of old Rice Owls, once told the Houston Post’s Jack Gallagher when Gallaher asked him to compare Texas with another SWC team (I think Arkansas). Texas had defeated Arkansas in a much earlier game, and now it was nearing the end of the season and the Razorbacks appeared to be much better. But Neely’s reply was on target. “Why, Jack,” he drawled, “I believe those two teams have already been compared.” Likewise, Texas and Oklahoma were compared in mid-October this season in their meeting in Dallas.

1:03 [Comment From Travis Briggs] Do you think that OU will win the national championship?

1:06 John Werner: I think they’ve got a pretty good chance to win it all if their offense continues to score a lot of points. But this isn’t a good Oklahoma defense, so they might have trouble against an SEC team like Alabama or Florida.

I’d probably give the edge to Alabama or Florida against the Sooners.

1:06 Dave Campbell: I really think the SEC champion (Alabama or Florida) will win the national title. Oklahoma’s defense, which has been weakened by injuries going back to the Texas game when the Sooners lost their very good middle linebacker for the season, is not of national championship caliber.

1:07 [Comment From Rob] Have you seen the new football facilities? If you have, what do you think of them and what impact do you think they’ll have on recruiting?

1:09 John Werner: They’re awesome. They’ll have a great impact on recruiting. Baylor has never had a facility that they can show to recruits on campus, and you can’t top this one. The great thing is that everything is under one roof — the weight room, the academic center, the locker room, training room and coaches offices.

1:12 Dave Campbell: I have not seen the new facilities yet. I am booked to see them next week. But no question, having these new facilities (and I understand that they truly are exceptional) and having them on campus is going to be a major plus for Baylor football coaches in ttheir recruiting. They are the answer to a Baylor coach’s prayer, and that’s going back through a number of coaches (Teaff, Reedy, Roberts, Steele and Morriss, and now Briles).

1:12 Bill Whitaker: Dave, I guess you saw downtown developer Rick Sheldon’s video (at wacotrib.com) showing his vision for the future. It includes Baylor’s building a new BearDome stadium in the area where the George W. Bush Presidential Library was planned before it went to SMU. On the other hand, Baylor already has a stadium in Floyd Casey and hasn’t jumped to the idea of constructing a new stadium on the Brazos. Do you see any logic is abandoning Floyd Casey and going with a golden-domed BearDome?

1:15 Bill Whitaker: While Dave’s answering that question, I just want to say Baylor’s final game against Texas Tech was a humdinger, even if Baylor did finish the game as the loser, 35-28. I was actually off working on a freelance project last weekend and I had taken a break to walk in the neighborhood when the mailman stopped me to tell me, very excitedly, very breathlessly, what the score was — that Baylor was actually walloping Texas Tech. He stopped me again about 20 minutes later to update me on Baylor’s progress in the third quarter. I remember him saying, “You know, Baylor may not win this but that team has sure grown up. They’ve sure grown up!” A lot of excitement there.

1:18 Dave Campbell: I think having a domed football stadium across the Brazos River from the campus is a case of somebody’s daydreaming getting out of control. Everyone I talk to thinks the present Baylor Stadium is first class, plus it has the approaches (road network) already in place. It probably would cost $100 million, maybe $150 million, to build a 50,000-seat stadium. What Baylor needs is a terrific football team, not a new stadium. First things first.

1:18 John Werner: The Bears came into the game highly motivated and believing they would win. I think a lot of people were shocked that the Bears jumped out to a two-touchdown lead in the third quarter against the No. 7 Red Raiders when you think about how badly Tech had beaten the Bears in the last 12 years. The Bears didn’t pull it off, and winning close games seems to be the next evolution for Art Briles’ program. But I think they’ll start doing that next season.

1:19 [Comment From Terry] With Coach Briles being from Texas, do you see him doing more recruiting on the local level?

1:21 John Werner: I think he’d love to get all the high-quality Central Texas recruits that he can find. With his ties to Texas coaches, he’s going to get into the doors of a lot of homes. I think he’s already gotten better recruits than recent Baylor coaches.

1:22 Bill Whitaker: Gene asks the following of Dave: I just received a DVD (no sound) of the ‘56 A&M game that A&M won 19-13. Baylor was leading late in the 4th Qt and recovered a Jack Pardee fumble only to have the official, Mr Hale, overturn the call. Does Dave remember that play and what are his thoughts of that game? I was only a kid and that was the only play that I can remember from the game. Thanks.

1:30 Dave Campbell: The A&M fumble late in the 1956 game remains a bone in the Baylor throat. It seemed to most of us in the press box and to all the Baylor fans in the stands (and the game was played before a full house at Baylor Stadium) that the Bears had made the recovery. If that had been the ruling on the field, Baylor very likely would have won the game and remained undefeated. Regardless, it was an unforgettable game, one of the very best I’ve ever seen. And for years after that game went into the record book, A&M coach Bear Bryant and two of his standouts on that team, All-America linebacker Jack Pardee and running back (and future Heisman Trophy winner) John David Crow told me that the 1956 Baylor-A&M game was “the meanest, bloodiest, most savagely-fought game” they were ever involved in.

1:30 [Comment From Robert] There are so many uses for a domed football stadium - the only reason Waco did not get to host the 5-A football championships is because of not having a domed football stadium.

1:30 Bill Whitaker: Fellow Trib sportswriter Brice Cherry says that’s not the only reason, that a number of factors have to be in play to host the 5-A football championships, including an array of TV facilities.

1:30 [Comment From Robert] Why do you not agree with a dome stadium? This is a new face of Baylor football and to build a domed stadium in Waco on the river no doubt would create more excitement. Also, Waco did not get the 5-A Texas High School football championships because it did not have a domed stadium. If there were one in place here, Waco is the most central part of the State of Texas, the UIL would possibly look at Waco being the location for both 5-A and 4-A state championships with television deals. That could bring a big boost to the Waco economy along with other events that could be held at the stadium. Do you think it will ever happen? And, why the sharp no on that question earlier?

1:31 Bill Whitaker: I have a feeling the sheer expense of it is one major hurdle.

1:31 [Comment From dallasbloke] I understand that you have always been a regular tennis player. I have wondered if your “sports fan” enjoyment has included watching the recent BU tennis teams? And, if so, what are your thoughts on the influx of non-US players on NCAA sport? As an aside, please give my best to your tennis buddy, Mr. R.

1:39 Dave Campbell: Yes, I have been a tennis player of longstanding (although I would not call what I play now as tennis) but I do love the game and enjoy watching it as well as playing it. The influx of foreign imports in Baylor tennis does not bother me at all. The truth of the matter is that the school that does not include top-notch non-US players in its program is not going to be very competitive (Stanford might be the exception). I just want the Bears (and Lady Bears) to be as good as they can possibly be, up to the national championship level. As for Mr. B, his tennis days are behind him. He has significant health problems. But we had a great run.

1:39 Bill Whitaker: Dave, another question for you, this one involving Texas Football magazine.

1:39 [Comment From Harold] Dave- your Texas Football magazine elicits the same excitement from me as a Sears Christmas catalog used to when I was a kid. That being said, as you now look back on the magazine and its appeal, a) what are you most proud of and b) if you had to do something over (in regards to the publication) - what would it be?

1:49 Dave Campbell: Regarding Texas Football magazine, I guess I am most proud of the fact that it absolutely started from scratch and became a hit and now is gearing up for its 50th year. When we first started, if someone had told me that we would outlast the wonderful old Southwest Conference, I would have thought that person had lost his mind. As for what I would do differently, I probably would spend more money on it, use more color, provide more coverage especially for the high school section, maybe include more features, but we really did do about all we could do with the money we had available. All in all, it was a success beyond my fondest dreams.

1:50 Bill Whitaker: Dave, to wrap up: What’s the most thrilling moment you’ve seen in football this season (so far) and the biggest disappointment in terms of games?

1:51 [Comment From Guest] Would someone inform Robert that an indoor football facility in Waco is a terrible idea. Aside from the enormous cost (more than the $100-$150M suggested), the Cowboys and Texans now have indoor capable facilities. HS players would much rather play where the pros play - and San Antonio is a great example of an indoor facility that doesn’t generate the revenue necessary to justify its existence.

1:54 Bill Whitaker: Well, an interesting comment there from “Guest” for Robert regarding the Bear Dome. Incidentally, downtown developer Rick Sheldon says he’s aware of the fact Baylor may be completely happy with Floyd Casey Stadium and reluctant to even think of the major expense of building another stadium in town. That said, he has commented to our staff writer J.B. Smith that he believes his vision for downtown Waco can still be splendidly all-encompassing — even without the Bear Dome. But back to Dave’s answer on his season highlights.

2:07 Dave Campbell: I think the most thrilling moment (or moments) for me this football season was seeing Baylor become competitive again, pretty much Saturday after Saturday, like it was back in that golden era of 1949-1957 , for part of the John Bridgers era and again through the Grant Teaff era. The Bears actually proved it can be done (a lot of fans were saying otherwise); now they have to go out next year and prove it all over again. And I think they will. They had golden opportunities to win the Connecticut and Missouri games and certainly they were in position to win the Texas Tech and Nebraska games as well. So if they can recruit well (juco ranks) and get significant help from this fall’s redshirts, it is hardly a “reach” to think of them being a 7-victory team next fall. As fir this season’s biggest disappointments, I would probably go to the two games they lost by field goal margins (Connecticut and Missouri, two teams virtually assured of bowl berths).

2:09 Bill Whitaker: Well, we busted our time limit again — by more than an hour — and still didn’t have a chance to get all questions answered. Thanks to everyone for participating. Thanks especially to Dave Campbell for taking time out to answer everything so completely and articulately. And thanks, too, to John Werner, my colleague here at the Trib, for adding some to our knowledge of Baylor’s season and the Big 12 this season.

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