Sunday, September 09, 2007
By John Werner
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Baylor quarterback Blake Szymanski never watches the jumbo screen in Floyd Casey Stadium’s south end zone.
But he didn’t need to watch replays to know he had the best night of his college career.
Szymanski set school records with 412 yards passing and six touchdowns Saturday night as the Bears buried Rice, 42-17.
It was Szymanski’s first win as a quarterback in five career starts, and was especially impressive coming off a 27-0 season-opening loss to TCU.
“Blake was right on the money most of the night,” Baylor coach Guy Morriss said. “I don’t think we were as surprised as some of the people in the stands because we know what he can do. It’s just a matter of everyone rallying around him and doing a good job.”
With a 19-yard touchdown pass to Ernest Smith with 1:12 remaining in the third quarter, Szymanski broke Shawn Bell’s five touchdown passes against Kansas last season.
Szymanski hit 29 of 46 passes and threw touchdown passes to five different receivers. The sophomore came out of the game with 10:35 remaining after becoming the first quarterback in Baylor history to throw for 400 yards.
“We wanted to get the bad taste out of our mouths after last week,” Szymanski said. “When we got into the red zone tonight, we executed and made plays. We just kept going after them. I was able to find the holes in their defense and hit different receivers.”
Baylor offensive coordinator Lee Hays said his game plan wasn’t much different than last week’s approach against TCU. But the results were miles apart.
Under more pressure, Szymanski hit 23 of 47 passes for 216 yards with three interceptions against the Horned Frogs. Rice sacked Szymanski just once and he didn’t throw an interception.
Szymanski got off to a blazing start when he became the first quarterback in school history to throw four first-half touchdown passes.
Though starting left tackle Jason Smith was out with a knee injury, Szymanski got good protection from a patched up offensive line that featured Dan Gay at left tackle and Chad Smith at left guard.
With time to throw, Szymanski mixed deep and short passes and took advantage of the Owls’ man-to-man coverage. Five different receivers had catches of 30 yards or more including a 44-yarder by Krys Buerck.
“We figured Rice couldn’t match up with our speed,” Smith said. “We just kept going after them and Blake kept hitting us. Blake put his name in Baylor history tonight and we’re all glad we could be a part of it.”
jwerner@wacotrib.com
