Bears' Dave Aranda: Baylor 'Going to Be Challenged at Line of Scrimmage' Against BYU
The Baylor Bears are hitting the road this week for a top-25 matchup against the BYU Cougars, a road game that will serve as an early measuring stick for the Bears.
Last season against the Cougars at home, the Bears pulled out a 38-24 victory, which was a marquee non-conference win. However, while it was a two-touchdown difference on the scoreboard, the Cougars gave the Bears all they could handle.
The Cougar offense put up 409 yards of total offense, with 342 coming through the air. In their Week 1 game last week against the South Florida Bulls, the Cougars recorded 575 yards of total offense in a 50-21 blowout victory.
BYU won't make life easy for the Bears this week, as coach Dave Aranda is prepared for the challenge they'll face on Saturday.
"They're a veteran group, there's eight guys back on either side of the ball," Aranda said. "A lot of experience on top of just that as well. They've been playing for a while."
"There's a great physicality about them. Their size and their physicality really stands out. They play a real physical, kind of old school type of game and it's cool to see. It's cool to see from the outside, but it's another thing to be lined up against it. We're definitely going to be challenged at the line of scrimmage."
In their Week 1 win over the Bulls the Cougars recorded 314 rushing yards, a number the Bears will hope to contain. Of course, the Baylor defense is much stiffer competition, but if the Cougars can get the ground game going once again, then their offense will be hard to stop. Even for a defense as good as Baylor's.
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Connor Zimmerlee is a writer and reporter for the FanNation network. Zimmerlee received his Bachelor's of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism with a Master's of Science in Journalism with a Specialization in Sports Media.