I know it's had its own thread, but Baylor's physical size has always been a mystery to me under Briles. I was thinking about this last night after the Cowboys game.
Forget Tech not looking like Baylor. Virtually no one looks like Baylor. Arms, thighs, chest, everything, they look like an NFL team. Their receivers are ripped. Their linemen are barrel-chested and huge. Their last three QBs -- Petty, Russell and now even Stidham -- are bigger than anything we have on defense minus the inside tackles.
Why?
Steroids is the easy, default no-proof answer. Look, I'll believe Briles will do just about anything, but wholesale steroids on a college football team seems like a leap of fantasy if you really stop to think about it.
To pull this off for the last 4-5 years, you're talking about over 100 players easily involved. You're talking about massive amounts of Winstrol and HGH delivered clandestinely to Waco. Think about all the secrecy involved for just one person in MLB to do it -- getting stuff secretly through a Miami clinic, etc. Now multiply that by many many.
Then there's the long-term health risk. I can't believe all of these players would sign off on it. There would have to be some objections to it no matter what your goals are.
Plus, people talk. Players leave. They talk to girlfriends, friends. Disgruntled players would spill the beans. There would be something of substance if there were wholesale use. SMU in the 1980s couldn't keep a slush fund quiet, but in the age of social media, you're going to keep a steroid scandal quiet?
Not buying it.
But at the same time, if it's just good old off-season conditioning, weight training and nutrition, why aren't other programs looking like this? College football is a copy cat world, and that includes strength training. Those S&C coaches have their own organization and own clinics. Most, you would think, do a lot of the same thing. But Baylor looks like grown-ass men compared to virtually every other team.
I guarantee you, if Justis Nelson were in Baylor program, he'd be a 225-pound outside linebacker by now. And, knowing one of his former Sunday School teachers, I promise you he'd never sign off on steroids.
Maybe I'm naive, but I don't realistically see how you pull off any kind of steroid use like this. But then again, I don't see how Baylor looks like they do, and so few others can match it.
Forget Tech not looking like Baylor. Virtually no one looks like Baylor. Arms, thighs, chest, everything, they look like an NFL team. Their receivers are ripped. Their linemen are barrel-chested and huge. Their last three QBs -- Petty, Russell and now even Stidham -- are bigger than anything we have on defense minus the inside tackles.
Why?
Steroids is the easy, default no-proof answer. Look, I'll believe Briles will do just about anything, but wholesale steroids on a college football team seems like a leap of fantasy if you really stop to think about it.
To pull this off for the last 4-5 years, you're talking about over 100 players easily involved. You're talking about massive amounts of Winstrol and HGH delivered clandestinely to Waco. Think about all the secrecy involved for just one person in MLB to do it -- getting stuff secretly through a Miami clinic, etc. Now multiply that by many many.
Then there's the long-term health risk. I can't believe all of these players would sign off on it. There would have to be some objections to it no matter what your goals are.
Plus, people talk. Players leave. They talk to girlfriends, friends. Disgruntled players would spill the beans. There would be something of substance if there were wholesale use. SMU in the 1980s couldn't keep a slush fund quiet, but in the age of social media, you're going to keep a steroid scandal quiet?
Not buying it.
But at the same time, if it's just good old off-season conditioning, weight training and nutrition, why aren't other programs looking like this? College football is a copy cat world, and that includes strength training. Those S&C coaches have their own organization and own clinics. Most, you would think, do a lot of the same thing. But Baylor looks like grown-ass men compared to virtually every other team.
I guarantee you, if Justis Nelson were in Baylor program, he'd be a 225-pound outside linebacker by now. And, knowing one of his former Sunday School teachers, I promise you he'd never sign off on steroids.
Maybe I'm naive, but I don't realistically see how you pull off any kind of steroid use like this. But then again, I don't see how Baylor looks like they do, and so few others can match it.
