It seems like it happens every year at Baylor. Whenever a new quarterback is handed the reins, there is talk that he will be even better than his stellar predecessor.
It happened when Robert Griffin III graduated. Even though he won the coveted Heisman Trophy, Nick Florence actually amassed more yardage and points than Griffin did. And following that, Bryce Petty took the Bears to new heights, leading the nation in total offense in both of his years as the starter.
And this time around, it's Seth Russell. It's obvious, right? There's no way he can be as good as Petty. Right?
Not so fast.
Russell, a 6'3", 220-pound junior from Garland, TX, made his first career start last year when Petty was injured. In that route of Northwestern State, Russell threw for 436 yards and five touchdowns.
Against SMU in Friday night's season opener, Russell was not quite as flawless, but he was still pretty darn good. He ended up completing 15-of-30 attempts for 376 yards and five touchdowns. And it wasn't just the stats, Russell also exhibited his elusiveness and running ability on multiple occasions.
Here's what Big 12 writer David Ubben had to say about Russell, via Twitter:
"In case you haven't figured it out, Seth Russell is the most athletic Baylor QB since RG3. Way quicker/faster than Petty/Florence."
Now being athletic does not necessarily guarantee success, but in a spread attack with as many dynamic weapons as Baylor has, it is nearly impossible to stop a running quarterback.
In Kirk Herbstreit's annual Herbie Awards, he picked Russell as his "Breakout Star."
"Unless you're dressing 12, you just don't have enough to defend the mobile quarterback [in Baylor's offense]," Herbstreit said.
And he's right. Baylor spreads it out like few others do. It is common to see the receivers lined up outside of the numbers, meaning that the defense literally has to defend from sideline to sideline. And with the speedy receivers that the Bears have running vertical routes, coupled with the strong running attack that Shock Linwood and Devin Chafin bring to the table, defenses just don't have enough resources to account for Russell's legs.
So even if Russell doesn't have quite as much throwing ability as the previous BU signal-callers, he could still lead the Bears to the best offensive season yet. Against SMU, the Bears racked up 723 yards and averaged 10.4 yards per play, the latter of which is a school record.
Those numbers are downright awesome, but they are even more impressive considering that the Bears struggled a bit at the beginning.
"We hit a lull in the second quarter but luckily the defense stepped up," Russell told John Werner of the Waco Tribune. "I missed some passes and had the interception. We have to get better and not have things go wrong."
But Russell made up for the lull with a flurry of a finish. In a span of about six minutes - the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth - Russell led the Bears on three scoring drives that each covered at least 70 yards. He hit Jay Lee on back-to-back possessions for 22 and 41-yard touchdowns, and then he hooked up with Corey Coleman for a 57-yard score in the fourth quarter.
“When our offense is clicking I feel like we can be unstoppable,” Russell said, via Werner. “We weren’t quite sure what SMU would do but we came out looking to hit the deep ball early to help out our running game. We knew this would be a shootout with the energy in the stadium. We knew we had to put up a lot of points.”
They certainly put up a lot of points, much thanks to Russell. "Unbelievable" was the word that All-American offensive tackle Spencer Drango used to describe his quarterback.
It's easy to get caught up in Baylor's phenomenal offensive schemes and forget that the quarterback has to be very good to make it go. It's not like anybody can put up 50 points and 500 yards game after game.
So Russell is not simply a "system quarterback," he is incredibly talented as well. In this summer's Manning Passing Academy, he won the Air-it-Out challenge, which measures how accurate the quarterbacks can hit moving targets. He beat college football stars including TCU's Trevone Boykin, USC's Cody Kessler and Penn State's Christian Hackenberg, proving that he can throw the ball.
But through it all, Russell is not trying to match or exceed Griffin, Florence, or Petty. He wants to be himself.
“You can’t compare yourself to someone who’s won the Heisman,” Russell told Jake Trotter of ESPN.com. “If I try to do what they’ve done, it’s not going to work the same. I have to focus on my strengths."
Well, as we have already witnessed, Russell has plenty of strengths. And, if I had to make a prediction, I would say that he is going to lead Baylor to it's most productive offense season yet. The cornucopia of explosive weapons on the offensive side of the ball is enough to overpower any defense in the country.
Add in Russell's legs, and the offense will be absolutely lethal.