WACO, Texas — We begin in a stuffy gym in Garland, Texas, because where else would underappreciated, undervalued and overlooked live?
It is here where the high school quarterback desperate for an opportunity to play big-time college football found an angle. Seth Russell walked up to Philip Montgomery that day four years ago and told Baylor’s offensive coordinator he could dunk.
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Montgomery, now the head coach at Tulsa, laughed. Yeah, so?
Russell then raced to the basket, leaped and turned his back to the rim, brought the ball down between his legs and swiftly back up — and threw down a thunderous reverse tomahawk.
“Seth is not what you think he is,” Montgomery says.
If that doesn’t do it for you about Baylor’s new quarterback, get a load of this: Russell is faster than the receivers he’s throwing to. That’s right, on a team full of physically-gifted players, the guy no one knows — and no one would believe — is the best athlete of all.
Not man-child defensive end Shawn Oakman. Not star wideout KD Cannon. Not even 400-pound tight end LaQuan McGowan.
“Seth’s a freak, man,” Cannon says. “He’s going to surprise a lot of people.”
The best part of this story of what’s to come is the way we got here. The monster of a program that has been feeding under coach Art Briles is riding out the very natural — and now, very predictable — progression from laughingstock to the cusp of greatness with the very position that got it here in the first place.
Russell, the player who had to beg colleges to watch his game tape, is the sum of all the Baylor quarterback parts before him.
“When you think about it, it can be a little overwhelming if you don’t have confidence in what you can do,” Russell said. “If you don’t have confidence, you’re basically worthless.”
So says the guy who, if you lined up every Baylor player shoulder to shoulder, you’d never choose as the one who would win the team’s dunk contest. So says the guy who you’d never imagine would be the next in line to take those 18 returning starters and do the one thing Baylor hasn’t done under Briles: win it all.
If you don’t think that’s the goal at the end of the mercurial rise of this program, you obviously haven’t been watching what has transpired in Waco with the most important position on the field.
Robert Griffin III was the dynamic, transcendent athlete who won the Heisman Trophy. Nick Florence was the unflappable force who proved it wasn’t all about RG3, but more about Baylor. Bryce Petty was the prototypical passer who got the Bears to the edge of playing for it all in two straight seasons, but never over the hump.
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Now here is Russell, the player who only signed with Baylor after RG3 left early for the NFL and opened up a roster spot (or, Russell admits, who knows where he’d be right now?), rolling into his chance of a lifetime — only to hear nonsensical talk that heralded freshman signee Jarrett Stidham will eventually win the job.
This is the way it works in the recruiting-stars driven world: you’re only as good as the number of stars behind your name. Until, that is, the coach comes to see you and you throw down a backward tomahawk dunk that suddenly makes everyone take a second look at that game tape.
What they saw was a terrific athlete with a live arm; a player big on upside but with raw ability. Three years of learning and developing under Briles and Montgomery and new offensive coordinator Kendall Briles has led to this moment.
After two seasons of the quarterback position at Baylor evolving into a thrower with Petty, Russell will allow the Bears to run more from the spot — making a dangerous offense more difficult to defend. That and a player who can make all of the hashmark to sideline throws on time in Baylor’s numbers-to-numbers spread offense.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Seth,” Briles said. “You don’t get the keys to the Ferrari if you’re not ready to drive it.”
And you don’t find yourself in this position, with an opportunity to make unique happen, without some good fortune. If Turner Gill hadn’t been fired by Kansas after the 2011 season, Russell would probably be in Lawrence right now.
If RG3 didn’t leave for the NFL, if Montgomery never walked into that gym and saw that dunk, if Russell didn’t wait his turn like Florence and Petty, the evolution of the Baylor quarterback wouldn’t be nearly the story it is now.
After all the star quarterback recruits Briles has won with at Baylor; after the Heisman and the multiple Big 12 offensive players of the year, his program might just take the biggest step of all with the organically-grown, forgotten recruit no one wanted.
“My job is to continue the legacy,” Russel said. “I just have to find my place in it.”
Don’t be surprised if it happens with a thunderous statement.