Is Blake Shapen Baylor's Long-Term Answer at Quarterback?
Blake Shapen closed the 2022 football season much worse than he opened it. As murmurs of the quarterback's competency heightened, his performance declined.
Parlay that with Kyron Drones transferring, and Dave Aranda, Jeff Grimes and Shawn Bell have another complicated offseason ahead.
Going by the numbers, here's a look at Baylor's only remaining scholarship quarterback:
In September, Shapen started his season with seven touchdowns, one interception and 773 passing yards. Few questioned the Big 12 Championship quarterback at this juncture in the season, but his honeymoon was up.
In November, with everyone expecting Shapen to have developed into a seasoned quarterback, it all fell apart. The redshirt sophomore threw for 783 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions on 27 more passes than he threw in September.
blake shapen in september: 69-100, 773 yards, 7 TD, 1 INT
— drake c. toll, party animal. (@drakectoll) November 30, 2022
blake shapen in november: 75-127, 783 yards, 3 TD, 5 INT
sure, the competition was much stiffer toward the end, but you'd expect at least a semblance of progression.
The lack of development with Shapen leaves Aranda and company with three choices:
1. Ride with Shapen as the starter in 2022.
2. Hit the transfer portal to create a legitimate quarterback competition.
3. Go full-on Jimbo Fisher and start true-freshman Austin Novosad in game one against Texas State next season.
Those answers are as of yet unclear. That's what the millions of dollars are thrown to coaches for.
However, here's what we do know: this is a bad spot to be in.
Baylor decided that Shapen would be a better option than Gerry Bohanon in 2022. If the better option is a quarterback who captains a 6-6 team, that is bad.
Sure the defense and special teams were in the bottom half of the Big 12, but Baylor also had the fewest touchdown passes in the league. That is bad.
The coaching staff very clearly wanted a better arm than Bohanon in 2022, but it did not equate to wins.
Get ready for another offseason with quarterback storylines abound.
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