Sonny Cumbie opened up his press conference by stating how strong of an offense Baylor has. He credited QB Gerry Bohanon for his strong season as the junior leads the No. 9 Bears, but an injury in the first half held Bohanon out against Kansas State last week. That led to QB Blake Shapen stepping in, who led the Bears to a 20-10 victory.

Cumbie said they're preparing this week to see Bohanon, but will make adjustments if Shapen ends up playing for Dave Aranda's crew.

Baylor is a big running threat on offense as well as they lead the Big 12 Conference in rushing yards per game with 232. The Bears rank first in the Big 12 as well in total offense with 447 yards per game. However, they are eighth in the conference in passing yards per game. Aranda's offense ranks fourth in the league with an average of 34 points per game.

Cumbie said the Red Raider offense will have its hands full with a pesky Baylor defense that has two of the best linebackers in the country in his opinion.

Baylor's defense ranks fourth in total defense compared to Texas Tech's seventh ranking in total offense.

Cumbie recapped the shutout loss to Oklahoma State by saying there was positives during the loss. However, he knows they weren't executing on offense at all. they weren't clicking on any cylinders. Add in a top defense and you won't have much success. That's going to be something to fix going against yet another top team in the country.

The group of running backs for Baylor are similar to the Cowboys as well as Breece Hall at Iowa State. They key to stop them there is to watch the outside zone runs, but also discipline in filling gaps and watching for cutbacks if mistakes are made.

Abram Smith and Trestan Ebner are the two-headed backfield for the Bears. Smith leads the team in rushing with 1,249 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground. Ebner has only scored twice running the ball, but has posted 710 rushing yards.

Will the pumpjack travel to Waco this weekend? Cumbie laughed when asked and said a pumpjack is heavy to move, but maybe they'll find a trailer for it. He added if it doesn't travel that the team has embraced the motto and encouragement it brings.

He doesn't know if this will continue beyond his days at Texas Tech, which is unknown at this moment once Joey McGuire takes over, but he knows it will live forever with his current players and coaches.

Where did this mentality arrive from? Chad Rogers while he was in Snyder as athletic director/head coach and Cumbie was his quarterback. Cumbie said he doesn't think Rogers had a physical pumpjack like the one he has, but Rogers shared that with him and Cumbie brought in back over the past month with the changes happening around the program.

Cumbie emphasized that it's something his players can carry the rest of their life as they grow into husbands and fathers.

Cumbie said at QB Donovan Smith will start, but this week Henry Colombi is ready to go and will play behind him. Behren Morton is third in line. Tyler Shough will be a no-go for the Red Raiders.

WR Myles Price will be a game-time decision. He rolled his ankle last Tuesday then re-aggravated it on Saturday against the Cowboys.

TE Travis Koontz, OL Landon Peterson and WR J.J. Sparkman will be available to go on Saturday. DL Nelson Mbanasor is out for the rest of the season with a pectoral injury.