By Jerry Hill

Tribune-Herald assistant sports editor

Guy Morriss didn’t borrow Jerry Jones’ line about “socks and jocks,” but he said Sunday that everything will be evaluated to see why the Baylor football team has faded so miserably in the last two weeks.

“Some of it will be solved with recruiting obviously,” Morriss said. “But everything’s got to get looked at. Are we getting the work we need in the weight room to compete? Are we in good condition? Are we eating right? When you’re not getting the results you want, something’s got to change.”

The Bears (4-7, 3-4) have lost three in a row, including Saturday’s 66-24 pounding by Oklahoma State in Stillwater, and have been outscored 121-45 in back-to-back blowouts to Texas Tech and OSU.

“It starts to wear on you, and the season gets long,” Morriss said. “You’re going to get beat up during the course of a 12-week stretch. Obviously we could use an open date. But we don’t have it, so we’re going to do the best we can without it.”

Eliminated from the bowl picture, the Bears will host No. 16 Oklahoma (8-2, 5-1) at 11 a.m. Saturday in the final game for 32 seniors.

“I’m speaking for me now, but I get excited about playing Oklahoma,” Morriss said. “And if I’m a player, I’d be excited. If I’m a senior, it’s my last hurrah as a football player here at Baylor. My parents are going to be here watching me. Plus, it’s just something I like to do is play football. And I’m hoping they will take that approach.”

In his second start, sophomore quarterback Blake Szymanski was 24-of-41 for 262 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions and two sacks. But Morriss said he had a tendency to “make up his mind where he’s going. He’s locked on.”

“I feel like if you sat him down and asked him his progression on almost every route, he could tell you,” Morriss said. “But when you’re operating it on the field, things are happening a lot faster, and there are people coming at you. It’s just a process of being in the environment and playing games long enough to feel comfortable with it. I think the more he plays, the better he’s going to be. Right now, he’s just struggling a little bit.”

Szymanski did commit four of the Bears’ season-high six turnovers. With 32 turnovers for the season, Baylor is tied for the most nationally with Army (3-7) and Illinois (2-9).

“The challenge for us as coaches is we obviously need to do something different to get through to them as far as ball security, execution, details,” Morriss said, “because that’s the stuff that’s killing us.”

The defense continued a second-half slide that has seen the Bears allow 503.6 yards and 50 points per game over the last five weeks. Mixing in options and counters, the Cowboys piled up 387 yards rushing and averaged 7.2 per attempt.

“It’s just more of the same,” Morriss said. “Guys are just not getting in the gaps, not getting lined up right, missed tackles and poor communication. There’s no reason for it. As coaches, we’ve got to find a way to get them lined up right and make sure we’re not asking too much of them or confusing them with too much so that we can communicate and be able to execute.”

jhill@wacotrib.com

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