Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas

by Nick Eatman

  When they arrived at their hotel around 6 p.m., they were greeted with welcome signs, green and gold balloons, and a few dozen fans, mostly players’ parents who had made the trip to see the game.

  Following a team meeting and then brief sessions with each position group and its coach, the players headed to dinner, a prepared meal in one of the larger ballrooms. After that, many players were free for the next few hours before a 10:30 p.m. bed check. If they had family in town, it was a good time to visit, while others just hung out with teammates in one of the hotel rooms and listened to music or watched TV to pass the time.

  It wasn’t as much fun, though, for a handful of student-athletes who had to be reminded about the “student” part of the equation. As it was a Wednesday night, ten players had to take tests for classes they either had missed that day or for which they would be absent Thursday morning. Baylor travels with a rather large support staff, but particularly so when games fall during the week and extra administrators are needed for schoolwork. A separate meeting room in the hotel had been cleared just for test-taking purposes.

  “Gotta hit those books!” junior defensive back Patrick Levels said as he rushed down from his hotel room and into the makeshift classroom. The players had about an hour to get their work done, although there would be even more time Thursday morning before they had to prepare for that night’s game.

  Just outside the room, a group of Baylor fans were meeting with some of the players. Among them was Stidham, who didn’t look like a freshman about to make his first start—on national television, no less. Even though he was in Manhattan, Kansas, or the “Little Apple” as they call it in the Midwest town, Stidham was feeling right at home, especially after he saw a couple of familiar faces from where he grew up in Stephenville, Texas.

  Brothers Matt and Mitch Copeland had known Stidham nearly his entire life, as their father, Mike, has been a longtime football coach on the Stephenville staff. But the Copelands weren’t just there to support Stidham. They were even closer to the Briles family. Both Matt and Mitch played for Art at Stephenville. Matt was Briles’ first quarterback for the Yellow Jackets while Mitch won two state titles in 1993 and 1994, and was considered one of the best defensive players ever to suit up for Stephenville. Mike had been the defensive coordinator for all twelve of Briles’ seasons in Stephenville and had been on the sidelines with the Yellow Jackets in some capacity for forty years.

  The owners of a highly successful apparel franchise, Barefoot Athletics, which originated in Stephenville but had since branched out to several college cities, Matt and Mitch were actually visiting both the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas the day before, and couldn’t believe it worked out so perfectly to come back through Manhattan for this game.

  Also in attendance was past NFL starter and another standout Yellow Jacket quarterback, Kevin Kolb, who brought his entire family along for the game. Like the Copelands, he was also a Briles supporter, having played four years for him at the University of Houston.

  With three former Stephenville passers all huddled around a table, the talk shifted to a friendly debate on who was the best quarterback in the school’s history. Different answers were offered, but it was believed by more than a couple that the best of the best was actually Kendal Briles, the Bears’ offensive coordinator who also led Stephenville to a state championship in 1999.

  These discussions helped take Stidham’s mind off the upcoming game. Before he headed up to his hotel room, he was asking friends and other Baylor staff members for a good movie recommendation before he went to bed. He’d been studying Kansas State’s defense religiously for nearly two weeks now, so it was time for a change. He decided on the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, featuring Matt Damon and Robin Williams. After saying goodbye to his hometown friends, he tucked his iPad under his arm and went upstairs.

  “He’s ready,” Kolb said with a confident head nod. “This kid is special. He’ll show everyone tomorrow night.”

  The next morning before the game, as the buses loaded up in the parking lot of the hotel, the operations staff in charge of the itinerary couldn’t stress enough the importance of getting there early. If they knew anything about Briles, it was that he had never been described as the most patient of human beings. When it was time to go, it was time to go, even if it was a few minutes before the scheduled departure.

  Once during a road trip to the University of Texas-El Paso, while Briles was still the head coach at Houston, after all of the players had boarded the buses at the hotel, the head coach told the driver, “Let’s go,” even after being informed that three others hadn’t made it on just yet. “That’s fine. We need to go.”

  As for his wife, Jan, and daughters, Jancy and Staley—they were left to take a cab to the game instead.

  That story seemingly got told every road trip, and so no one usually even came close to missing a bus on game day. As the team rolled into Bill Snyder Family Stadium, Briles was stopped by an ESPN reporter for a quick interview that made it on SportsCenter before the game. One of the first questions he was asked concerned Stidham and how the coach expected him to play.

  “Well, we’ll see when he gets out there, but we have confidence in him,” Briles said. “He’s just good. He’s prepared. I think he’s ready. But, we’re about to find out.”

  Just before kickoff, the Bears ran out of the tunnel to their sideline and were met by thousands of raucous KSU students who were positioned just behind the bench. In the first row, one fan was rather proud of his homemade sign that read “Baylor Traded its Integrity For Victories,” an obvious reference to the story back in August that had put the school and Briles under fire. But the sign also acknowledged the Bears’ sudden success, and when a few of the offensive linemen gazed up, one of them yelled back.

  “Yeah, and we’re going to get another one of the victories right here.”

  All they needed was for Stidham to keep the train on the tracks. Just before taking the field for his first snap, Briles leaned in with one last word of encouragement.

  “Hey, go show the world what we already know.”

  On the first drive, it couldn’t have gone any better, thanks to the play calling. All three of Stidham’s completions were short screen passes, letting the playmaking receivers and running backs do the work. But the young quarterback finished the drive by scoring on a 1-yard run for the game’s first score, taking less than two minutes off the clock to gain a 7–0 lead.

  “Just like that,” Kendal Briles said to Stidham as he went to the sideline. “Beautiful! Now, let’s do it again.”

  And so he did. Stidham’s next pass was also a touchdown—a 55-yard strike to KD Cannon that gave Baylor a 14–7 advantage.

  Midway through the second quarter, after a Baylor interception, Stidham stood on the sideline during a timeout. Showing just how loose this nineteen-year-old was, he tapped one of the Bears’ administrators on the shoulder, but then slid to the side so that when she turned around, she didn’t see him or anyone there. It was an elementary joke, of course, but typically didn’t occur just before someone is going out to perform during a nationally televised college football game. Stidham laughed it off, buckled his chinstrap, and headed out onto the field.

  On the first play of the drive, he launched a perfectly thrown ball to Corey Coleman for an 81-yard touchdown and a 21–7 lead. He might have been just a kid, but he was showing the world he was a kid with a great arm.

  Baylor likely should’ve blown the game wide open and nearly did so early in the fourth quarter, but the offense settled for a field goal and just a 31–10 lead. That opened the door for Kansas State to score twice in the final frame, trimming the score to 31–24 with 4:07 to play.

  Just like that, the game was on the line again, but in trying to protect the lead, Baylor didn’t coddle its freshman quarterback. Instead, they let him do what he does best.

>   On first down, Stidham went to throw and fired a ball in between defenders to Cannon for a 40-yard gain. The Bears nearly scored a touchdown, but a penalty stalled the drive, and they eventually missed a field goal. Baylor would hold on after a late interception by safety Terrell Burt, escaping Manhattan with a win and giving Stidham his first victory as a starter.

  As he met with reporters following the game, Stidham didn’t seem concerned with his 23-of-33 passing for 419 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.

  “Hey, we just got the win, and that’s what we came here to do,” Stidham said with black smudges still on his cheeks. “Our defense got some big stops for us. I thought we moved the ball well. It was a great team win. I’m just excited to be a part of it.”

  When it was Briles’ turn on the mic, he sat down with a little more attitude than usual, perhaps understandable considering he had just won a road conference game behind a freshman quarterback.

  “I thought it was a powerful win,” he said. “I don’t know what anyone else thinks and don’t really care, but we think we’re a football team full of survivors. We’ve been through a lot. You can slap us around, talk bad about us, whatever you want, but when you look up here in November, we’re still around. We’re going to be a tough out, and we’re going to fight and find a way to win.”

  When asked about Stidham, Briles chuckled and gave an “I-told-you-so” response.

  “He played like we knew he would,” Briles said. “The guy is really good. I thought he was unbelievable tonight. If you have talent, you don’t need confidence. You all saw what we’ve been seeing. Our hearts and souls are with Seth right now. We hate that he’s not with us. Seth did a great job of getting us going and putting us in position. Now it’s time for Jarrett to trust his instincts and take over.”

  Briles showed some surliness, likely stemming from a sloppy fourth quarter that saw Kansas State rally and make it closer than it should’ve been. He was also looking to make a louder statement to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee that had introduced its first poll two days earlier, placing his team sixth despite a number-two ranking in the Associated Press poll.

  “I still think we’re the new kids on the block,” Briles said. “If you’re over the age of thirty, I doubt people say, ‘Hey, let me tell you about the history of Baylor football.’ That’s just the reality. But it’s our job to win. That’s all we can do.”

  And through the first eight games of the season, that is all they had done.

  Sunday

  Every football coach in America, whether it’s Pee Wee ball, the high school ranks, or even in the NFL, has to toe the line between success and duty.

  Most coaches will admit it’s their duty, or responsibility, to not only teach young men the X’s and O’s of football, but to also mold young men into upstanding citizens in the community and even to prepare them for life after football.

  But coaches also have a commitment to winning games, or else they won’t have a job—simple as that.

  So every coach comes to a crossroads a few times during the season when they must make those tough decisions, ones that might hurt the overall success of the football team, but are needed to enforce discipline and accountability among the ranks.

  All coaches want to win. And sometimes coaches will give players a second, third, fourth, and maybe even fifth chance to turn their lives around and fix whatever issue is holding them back.

  But in some sad cases, enough is enough.

  Heading into the eighth game of the season, the Cowboys had finally had enough of Joseph Randle and decided to part ways with the talented running back.

  When most players are released, someone—usually from the football operations department—seeks out the player and tells him the head coach wants to meet with him. The term “bring your playbook” is the catchphrase no player wants to hear, knowing a meeting with the coach and being asked to bring the playbook is a sure sign for getting released.

  Randle met first with Jason Garrett and then Jerry Jones on Tuesday in their respective offices at Valley Ranch. Despite all the issues and trouble he had found himself in during the last two years, those who were nearby Randle as he cleaned out his locker say he was “stunned” at the news.

  Ironically enough, Randle was released just five days before the one game that was supposed to be his chance to shine. Sure, the Cowboys had already faced DeMarco Murray and the Eagles back in Week 2, but with Murray making his first return trip to Dallas, where he had ripped off a franchise-best 1,845 rushing yards just a year ago, this was the national stage that Randle coveted. He was the one who said Murray left “meat on the bone” in 2014 and vowed to not only replace Murray as the starter, but also improve the running game.

  However, he never made it to the halfway point of the season.

  “We just think it’s time for him to not be on the roster,” Jones said on his radio show that week on 105.3 The Fan. “That’s the decision we made. But we stand ready to help him work through any of his other issues.”

  When a player gets cut in somewhat surprising fashion, especially when the team refuses to list a specific reason or instance, rumors will tend to surface. There was no exception with Randle, who was said to have had gambling issues or at least a debt with a casino. There were some reports the Cowboys were worried about Randle’s mental health, but nothing of serious substance ever materialized.

  Plain and simple, Randle wasn’t released because of one major thing. There were several circumstances that kept piling up, forcing the Cowboys’ hand to let him go.

  Nearly a year earlier, Randle was arrested at a shopping mall for stealing cologne and boxers. While detained, police video caught Randle not only flirting with a female employee at the jail, but also trying to justify his mistake. “Dez didn’t miss no games for slapping his mama,” Randle said, referring to an incident in 2012 when Bryant and his mother had a domestic dispute, although no charges were filed. When word of those comments came back to Bryant, the receiver and Randle nearly got into a physical altercation on the practice field and had been separated by Jason Witten.

  In the 2015 off-season, Randle was arrested on domestic violence and marijuana charges. While the authorities in Wichita, Kansas, decided not to pursue the allegations, the NFL wasn’t about to turn its head. The league had been investigating all of Randle’s situations, which included a visit back in August that forced him to miss the team’s kickoff luncheon. But before he was issued a fine or suspension, or perhaps both, the Cowboys decided to wash their hands of the situation.

  And by doing so, a message got sent throughout the locker room as well. Severing ties with a starting-caliber player also opened a few eyes, hammering home the point that each player must take care of his business on and off the field.

  “The NFL is like life,” said veteran defensive end Jeremy Mincey. “You’re here one day and gone the next. It’s the nature of the business. We wish him the best and hope everything works out for him.”

  Another vet with similar words was Darren McFadden, who now seemed to have a stranglehold on the starting running back spot. McFadden said he sent a text message over to Randle to “keep his head up.” But words of encouragement can only go so far, especially from ex-teammates who must keep their focus on the task at hand.

  Now, it was McFadden vs. Murray in his return trip to AT&T Stadium, the game coming just seven weeks after Murray had rushed for a grand total of two yards on thirteen carries. And while he had started to find his groove somewhat in Philly’s fast-paced offense since then, Murray never seemed to be a great fit for Chip Kelly’s scheme.

  Murray was able to tie the game with a second quarter touchdown, and also did his best to help out his defense at times. Sideline cameras caught the running back barking out some of the Cowboys’ plays and tendencies.

  In one instance, Murray wa
s telling Eagles cornerback Nolan Carroll to “watch the hitch,” and sure enough, Carroll was covering Bryant, who indeed ran a hitch route. Still, the Cowboys found a way to be productive, at least more so than in the previous week’s loss to the Seahawks that saw them put up only four field goals. This time, Matt Cassel hooked up with Cole Beasley for a pair of touchdowns and was looking to break a 14–14 tie early in the fourth quarter when an unlikely nemesis popped up yet again.

  Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks, the same defender who fell on top of Tony Romo in Week 2 and broke the quarterback’s collarbone, picked off a Cassel pass and raced sixty-eight yards for a go-ahead touchdown, sending many of the announced crowd of 91,827 back into their seats with a feeling of “here we go again.”

  However, the Cowboys made things interesting, thanks in large part to Bryant, who still wasn’t 100 percent healthy in his second game back from a broken foot. Cassel had been with the team long enough to know that, if needed, he could just chunk it up to Bryant and hope for the best. And during a wild sequence in which the quarterback was about to be sacked, that’s exactly what he did.

  In what essentially became a “Hail Mary” pass, Bryant rose above a sea of hands and came down with a remarkable catch, tying the game and sending the crowd back into a raucous frenzy that the stadium hadn’t experienced since the Week 1 comeback thriller to beat the Giants. In that season opener, safety J.J. Wilcox made a signature play early on when he smacked wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. over the middle, jarring the ball loose and setting the tone for a physical night of football.

  This time around, the Cowboys and Eagles would go into overtime, but on their first possession, Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford found a streaking Jordan Matthews over the middle for what appeared to be a big gain to around the home team’s 25-yard line. Instead, Wilcox failed to come up with the big hit, or any hit for that matter, and let Matthews sneak past him for a game-winning 41-yard touchdown.