Top 26 storylines for 2016: No. 17 – What does Baylor look like?

[caption id="attachment_24676" align="aligncenter" width="5000"]Photo by Justin Armstrong Photo by Justin Armstrong[/caption] Let’s level with one another. It is a nigh impossible to sum up what has happened at Baylor over the past year in any sort of sufficient yet human way. It’s a fool’s errand. The only way to do it without missing something, sounding insensitive or being unfair to some party is to methodically and unfeelingly describe each incident in full. With that being understood, here is what I believe to be the most succinct summary of the situation: Following a series of reports that the university and the athletic department mishandled sexual assault allegations by — among others — football players, Baylor fired head coach Art Briles, jettisoned athletic director Ian McCaw and chancellor Ken Starr, lost almost the entirety of its banner 2016 recruiting class, lost almost every one of its 2017 prospective recruits, and brought in Jim Grobe in an interim capacity to steer the football team as best he can. How’s that? Hard as it is to fathom after we’ve become privy to such despicability in Waco, as a thought exercise, imagine for a moment that none of that had happened. Everything was relatively normal. What would we think of Baylor entering the 2016 season? After an injury-riddled 2015 season, the Bears had their share of question marks. The offensive line would need to be largely rebuilt; same with the defensive line. But there was enough talent on the roster — especially with the return of quarterback Seth Russell from a neck injury — to put Baylor on the short list of Big 12 title contenders. But snap back to reality. All those things that were so difficult to sum up? They did happen. And they’re now the defining characteristic of the Baylor football program. Fair or not, the remarkable on-field renaissance that Baylor has experienced in the past half-decade is a footnote to the now-apparent off-field horror story — at least for the foreseeable future. And so we’re left with a simple yet confounding question: what, exactly, will the Baylor football team look like in 2016? On one hand, most of the talent that would’ve made up the hypothetical conference title contenders remains on the roster — Russell, star running back Shock Linwood, an array of receivers led by K.D. Cannon, a promising secondary. That’s remained relatively static. On the other hand, how can we expect a team to not be adversely affected by the worst offseason this state has seen since SMU’s infamous Death Penalty? As the offseason mercifully comes to an end in Waco and the spotlight shifts from off to on the field, how the Bears will fare in 2016 remains one of the defining questions in the Lone Star State. The answer to that question may lie more between the ears of the players than between the sidelines.