Craven: Baylor's fate rests in Jarrett Stidham's hands

[caption id="attachment_19746" align="alignright" width="300"]Photo by Pat Carrigan Photo by Pat Carrigan[/caption] Baylor is still a contender in the Big 12 and for a spot in the College Football Playoff despite the news that starting quarterback Seth Russell underwent season-ending surgery after an injury against Iowa State. The Bears currently sit second in the rankings of the AP and the Coaches Poll behind Ohio State entering this weekend. Russell was leading college football in nearly every passing category, including touchdown passes. He led the Bears to a 7-0 record and to five-straight 60-point scoring games for a Baylor offense dominating opponents. There was an unusual lull for the Bears in the second half against Iowa State, but it became obvious why after the game when the announcement of Russell’s injury. Most teams would be finished after losing a starting quarterback, but we’ve seen programs overcome it before. In fact, Ohio State – the first winner of the College Football Playoff – rode a young and inexperienced backup quarterback to a championship last season and that is what Baylor hopes to do for the rest of the year. The scary part for future Baylor opponents is the Bears might be better at quarterback today than it was last week with a healthy Russell because freshman Jarrett Stidham may be the best quarterback Art Briles has ever had at Baylor. Stidham was once a commit to Texas Tech before Briles and his staff convinced the former Stephenville High School star to flip his pledge to Baylor late in the 2015 recruiting cycle. Briles is very familiar with Stephenville – a program he helped lead to prominence before moving on to coach college football at Houston. Stidham was regarded as one of, if not the, best quarterbacks in the state of Texas last season. Stidham hasn’t played a ton in the first seven games for Baylor, but he does have more touchdown passes (6) than he has incompletions (4) so far. He is 24-of-28 for 331 yards. For people not good at math, that is an 85.7 percent completion rate. That will likely fall and Stidham will eventually miss more passes than he completes for touchdowns, but there is no denying Stidham possesses the tools to be Baylor’s next great quarterback. Stidham is also placed in a good position because of the amount of weapons at his disposal. Being a freshman quarterback is hard, but it becomes a little bit easier with Corey Coleman and KD Cannon at wide receiver and Shock Linwood at running back. The pieces are still in place for Baylor to capture the crown of college football. The only difference now is that it is in the hands of a true freshman.