Baylor still has one football game left to play before the bowl season, but the outlook is looking worse and worse by the day for the future of the program.
Baylor’s Class of 2017 is down to just one remaining recruit committed to play for the Bears when National Signing Day comes around in February, but there are no guarantees even he will remain. Remember, verbal commitments are non-binding. Baylor has learned that the hard way in recent months. As noted by Yahoo Sports, it is pretty much expected an FBS program would have at least 10 verbal commitments at this point in time, with National Signing Day quickly approaching in a little over two months.
Take a look at where Baylor stands in the national recruiting rankings compiled by 247 Sports. Seriously, look at these rankings as of November 28, 2016…
Let’s be clear here. You shouldn’t be ranked behind Houston Baptist and Tennessee-Martin. Sam Houston’s a solid program, but c’mon. This is not good for Baylor. This wouldn’t be acceptable in basketball, let alone football.
Now, we all know the reason for this abysmal ranking. Baylor is a hot mess lacking leadership capable of steering things around. They brought in Jim Grobe to just get through the 2016 season, which was nice but he wasn’t going to win Baylor a Big 12 title. Plus, if Grobe was only a temporary figurehead, just how much is he going to be devoted to recruiting efforts? This is a tone deaf program when it comes to the serious actions that have damaged it, that it stands to reason nobody should want to go to Baylor. And the recruiting rankings sure demonstrate that loud and clear.
I don’t want to smite the entire Baylor football community, because I know there are good people mixed in the wacky and misguided bunch. And here’s hoping Baylor can make a solid hire with the ability to see this program through these dark and bleak times. They need to make that hire soon, because the program is going to punt on a recruiting class this year and that can take a long time to recover from.