From the desk of Dave Campbell

Dave gives his take on Baylor's upcoming game against Iowa State

So now the Baylor Bears get down to brass tacks.    This Saturday in the unfriendly stadium of the Iowa State Cyclones, before a packed house of 54,600 shrieking Cyclone fans, they will begin 2014 Big 12 Conference play.    They will do so as the No. 6 or No. 7 team in major college football (that's depending on which national poll you believe), and as they get ready for the trip, they do so as the number of unbeaten major college football teams in the land is shrinking. And, let's face it, a number of those teams still boasting unblemished records have yet to be really tested.    Yes, among those teams is Baylor. The Bears have defeated their first three opponents by the lopsided scores of 45-0 against SMU, 70-6 against Northwestern State of Louisiana and 63-21 on the road against Buffalo.    No real down-to-the-wire nail-biter there.    But that may be about to change.    Iowa State may be only 1-2 in this season's record book - the Cyclones may have been upset in their season opener by North Dakota State, which ranks No. 1 nationally in the coaches' subdivision championship poll as of this past Tuesday, and they may have lost to Kansas State in their own Big 12 Conference opener - but historically they can rise up and blow away just about any highly-ranked team's hopes and dreams if the game is in Ames.    Now about that Iowa State loss to Kansas State: Highly-respected K-State coach Bill Snyder's team jumped ahead to a 13-0 lead — just the usual Wildcat victory, K-State partisans thought.    They thought wrong. The Cyclones scored the next 28 points, and they were going to start league play with a 28-13 victory. Victory seemed in the bag. But it wasn't. Snyder's team started scoring and scoring and the Wildcats didn't stop until they could walk away with a 32-28 victory. Iowa State fans walked away crushed. They couldn't believe it. But it happened.    Does that tell you which team will win in Ames this Saturday? No, but it does tell you the Cyclones are unpredictable and capable of scoring in large bunches.  And the Baylor Bears better be prepared.    They declare they will be.    And if statistics mean anything, the Bears should win.    They rank No. 1 nationally in major college football in scoring (59.3 points per game) and in total offense (654.9 yards per game), and their defense is right up there as well (second nationally in points allowed per game and third nationally in yards given up per game).     More interesting facts and figures: BU leads the NCAA in fewest first downs allowed per game; the BU offensive line has not allowed a QB sack this season; the Bears have scored at least one touchdown in the 12 quarters they've played to date; BU has been ranked in the AP Top 25 now for a school-record 21 straight weeks; Baylor is 18-2 in its last 20 games (both losses were to teams ranked in the Top 15); Baylor is 3-0 for the fourth straight year (a program first); and if the Bears can beat Iowa State, that victory would enable them to start 4-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1937 and '38. And that, sports fans, is going back to the era while the Great Depression was still tormenting the land.    And not a bit of that has anything to do with what will happen Saturday in Ames when the first kickoff comes 7:20 p.m. before the Fox TV cameras.     Las Vegas handicappers are picking Baylor to win by at least 22 points.    That also means nothing. The odds may make the Cyclone play harder (but they're going to play their hardest regardless, and Briles expects the Bears to do the same.)    Meeting with media members last Monday, the coach said the open date came along at just the right time, after the Bears had played three games in 19 days. They needed to rest a moment, get well and get primed for the upcoming juggernaut, five Big 12 games before they can rest again, and three of those (Iowa State, Texas and West Virginia) are on the road.     All of those could be tough. So could TCU in a game at McLane Stadium on Oct. 11.    "Iowa State is good team, extremely well coached. And this is a conference game, a step up for us," Briles said. "Buffalo wasn't anything like Ames will be."    But the Bears will go to Ames better armed than they have been. Briles believes star wideouts senior Antwan Goodley (preseason All-America choice) and sophomore Corey Coleman will be ready to play and senior Clay Fuller might be. They could join a blue-ribbon cast of receivers that already includes the likes of star-spangled KD Cannon, prize newcomer Davion Hall and the rapidly-blossoming Jay Lee, a jet-propelled junior. Cannon currently ranks third in the country in TD catches and yards per game. And folks, cross my heart, Cannon is a true freshman.    Also, power back Devin Chapin (6-0, 225-pound sophomore) appears to have recovered from his ailments, which would put still another gun in Briles' arsenal.    But of course what you want to know first and foremost is this: will star quarterback and Heisman candidate Bryce Petty still be good to go (a sore back caused him to miss the Northwestern State game) after playing well against Buffalo? Answer: he promises to be the best he's been.    "I thought he got better as the game went on against Buffalo," Briles said. "He's a very determined young man, the best he's ever been. He so wants to do everything right. If he has a sock on crooked, he wants to correct it.    “Overall, I think our running backs are coming on, getting better. I certainly don't think we've peaked, we’re getting better."    But left unsaid is the need for the running game to get better. And the kicking (specifically, the field goal kicking where the Bears are only 1-for-5)? "Yeah, that's something we've got to get better, no doubt."    History department: the Bears have only won twice in Ames in the modern era of football and one of those victories (the one really decisive one, 35-0) came back in 1988 during Baylor's days as a member of the old and beloved Southwest Conference. The Bears' most recent win on Ames turf came in 2005 when Guy Morriss was coaching the Bears and Shawn Bell and Colin Bell were co-captains.     That was the only road game the Bears won that year, but that was not a bad team. The Bears only lost to Oklahoma in Norman by seven points and only to Texas A&M in College Station by three points in double overtime.    Grant Teaff's Bears won the one landslide victory in Ames when Iowa State was still a member of the Big Eight. Brad Goebel (All-SWC quarterback as a 1987 freshman), safety Mike Welch (All-SWC as a senior in 1990), Robert Blackmon (All-SWC and All-American as a senior in 1989) and linebacker Gary Joe Kinne (All-SWC in 1988) were among the five team captains chosen by the players themselves that year.    Among the Bears NOT chosen as a co-captain in 1988 was a true freshman, Santana Dotson. He would wind up the most decorated Bear of them all. Consensus All-SWC in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and unanimous All-American as a senior in '91. He would go on to star at Tampa Bay as their Defensive Rookie of the Year and at Green Bay as a defensive lineman on two Super Bowl teams.    The last I heard of Santana he was in Milwaukee on a sports radio show there, hoping that will lead someday to a role in a booth at a big-time TV football game. And you never know, one of these days he may be helping in the TV commentary at a Baylor game in McLane Stadium.