Why Baylor Bears Should Not Fire Jeff Grimes
There is no way around it, the Baylor Bears offense looked lethargic and downright pathetic in Thursday's loss against Air Force and the unit has been up and down all season. They were outcoached against the Falcons and didn't get their second score of the night until Air Force went into a prevent defense.
That said, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes isn't getting fired by coach Dave Aranda this off-season, and honestly, that might not be a bad thing.
Every day on social media, I see the armchair analysts clamoring for Grimes to be sacked, with the volume of such posts only going up when the Bears pull out a performance like the one they pulled out in the Armed Forces Bowl or when defensive coordinator Ron Roberts got fired last month.
Yep, the coaching is trash, starting at the top. Aranda is a great coach, he’s just not a head coach. Grimes should have been fired on the field directly after the last drive of TCU game.
— Crypto Cruz (@CryptoCruzn) December 23, 2022
Can someone explain why we kept Grimes but fired our DC? Defense has not be the problem this season with Grimes and Shapen at the reins
— Makenzie Goll (@makenziegoll) December 23, 2022
And we fired Roberts instead of grimes?
— Bryce Griffin (@bdgriffin50) December 23, 2022
I understand the sentiment to some degree, as well. They were outcoached by Air Force Thursday. They couldn't put the ball in the end zone against Kansas State, their biggest game of the season to that point. The quarterback who looked so promising last year, who every Baylor fan had so much confidence in (despite what they say in hindsight) regressed mightily, and they struggled to get the passing game really clicking at any point in the season.
But I said they should stick with him, so I should get to that.
First, I feel Baylor fans have this great revisionist history when it comes to the Bears' offense and quarterback play, specifically in the 2021 season. At no point that season was their offense prolific, at no point were they slinging the ball all over the field and at no point did the offense win them a game. None.
The strategy has always been the same, win the game in the trenches, wear the defense out with power running, and maybe take the top off the defense once a game. Gerry Bohanon was great for Baylor and a terrific leader, but he was not a prolific quarterback.
In 2021, Bohanon completed 63% of his passes and threw for 2,200 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions, while regressing with his accuracy and ball security the last month of the season. In 2022, Blake Shapen completed 63% of his passes and threw for 2,700 yards, 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, while his accuracy and ball security regressed the last month of the season.
Suffice it to say, the people who wish the coaching staff didn't gracefully give Bohanon a heads up in the spring that he wasn't going to be the starter so he could quickly transfer are also the same people who think a pound of rocks is heavier than a pound of feathers.
It is easy to forget the Bears were a formidable offensive unit for most of this season, but...well...they were a formidable offensive unit for most of this season. The median total yards per game average in the Big 12 this year was 424, a mark the Bears bested seven times this season. Baylor scored 25 points or more in four of their seven losses in 2022, a point total they didn't surrender defensively in all but two games in 2021.
What I am trying to say is: the team changed, and the offense didn't. Running back Richard Reese was excellent this season, but he wasn't the mature, clock-killing, physical back Abram Smith was and wasn't closing every game for them. They didn't have an automatic goal line target and deep ball threat like Tyquan Thornton was, they had young and talented receivers finding their footing in the college game. They didn't have one of the nation's best and hungriest defenses giving them short fields every game, but rather a young unit that still didn't live up to expectations.
The last and maybe most obvious point in all of this is they sure as heck aren't going to fire their offensive coordinator after the bowl game. The Bears seem to be having a tough enough time finding a defensive coordinator even after firing Ron Roberts nearly a month ago. There aren't exactly Big 12-ready play callers growing on trees this time of year.
With another year to grow, another spring and fall camp, and another few months of film study, I think the 2023 Bears are going to adhere to Grimes' (and Aranda's) system and be built in their mold a lot more than what we all saw in 2022.
Grimes isn't going anywhere folks, and this young team might just be better off for it.
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Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.