WACO, Texas – The players insist everything is the same.

Jim Grobe is Baylor's acting head coach, but his staff is the exact group Art Briles employed in his final season with the Bears in 2015. The roster is depleted, but the team’s practices, from the way periods are structured to the team’s water breaks, is static.

“We have pretty much the entire staff we had before,” senior quarterback Seth Russell said. “We’re missing one of our key components, but we had a guy that came in that hasn’t missed a step.

“It makes it a lot easier to know (Grobe is) not going to mess with it.”

Practices and day-to-day work are per usual in Waco, or as normal as they can be in the wake of a sexual assault scandal that continues to rock the University.

But one thing, at least early in fall camp, is different. The Bears are practicing “good-on-good” with a much higher frequency. The first-team offense continually lines up to face the first-team defense.

It’s not an uncommon sight on college football fields during preseason practices. But for Baylor, the decision made out of necessity. Despite a bevy of front-end talent for a team coming off three consecutive 10-win seasons, depth is an issue.

The Bears, after a significantly diluted freshman class and a horde of offseason transfers and dismissals, have 71 scholarship players on the roster, well short of the NCAA-allotted 85. It’s an issue that’s forced Baylor to load up on walk-on contributors, there are currently 36, players who will be critical to the team’s efforts moving forward.

“It’s going to be really important now that our scout team does a great job,” Grobe said. “The numbers issue is basically we’ve gone a lot of good against good. Now we’ll have to ask our scout team to be warriors and give us a good look.”

Still, premier talent is prominent in Waco.

Russell threw for 2,104 yards and 29 touchdowns while completing 60 percent of his passes before a neck injury cost him the second half of the 2015 season. Those numbers placed him among the nation’s elite through seven games.

Senior running Shock Linwood, a two-time All-Big 12 performer, is on pace to break nearly every Baylor rushing record. Junior wide receiver KD Cannon is a potential All-American, senior center Kyle Fuller is considered a strong NFL prospect as is senior safety Orion Stewart.

“Don’t sleep on us,” Fuller said.

Yet the back end of the roster is a concern.

In the first three minutes of Grobe’s Tuesday press conference, he mentioned the word “depth” unprompted three times. The skill is there, but the Bears are smarting at positions such as offensive line and quarterback behind Russell. There are scholarship players at other spots, but the players are inexperienced as Baylor returns just 10 starters.

“Everybody out there (on defense) is pretty young,” said senior defensive back Ryan Reid. “You only have a couple of leaders that’s more experienced than everybody. We just have to learn how to communicate and make sure everybody is on the same page.”

The Bears don’t currently face any NCAA sanctions or even a formal investigation, so the team’s loss of scholarships has more to do with the moral fallout than anything.

In terms of roster makeup, at least for this season, Baylor looks a lot like USC, which lost 30 scholarships over three seasons and received a two-year bowl ban in 2010. Despite the punishments and lack of depth, the Trojans managed to win 10 games in 2011 thanks to its talent pool.

Baylor is likely to feel the impact of its issues moving forward. The Bears lost 12 players from the 2016 class following Briles’ departure, including the team’s six highest-ranked signees. Looking toward the future, Baylor holds just two commitments in the 2017 class – the average Big 12 program currently sits at 13.

In the short term, however, the lack of depth creates opportunities, especially for the team’s remaining freshmen.

“Six or seven true freshman may end up playing for us this year,” Grobe said. “A lot was made about the kids who didn’t show up, but not enough was made for the kids that are here. It’s a really talented group.”

Grobe, who said earlier this year “walk-on kids, for us, would be like gold”, said the Bears currently have 103 or 104 total players on the roster, so holding full practices shouldn’t be an issue for the team.

If Baylor, ranked No. 23 in the preseason Associated Press poll, can avoid injuries, its talent remains similar to that of the team that’s won two of the previous three Big 12 championships.

“Man, the depth on the roster doesn’t even look like we’ve lost a lot of people,” Reid said. “It doesn’t even look small because of the talent we have.”

At least for now, Baylor is still Baylor.

The Bears will feature the same potent offense that’s finished first nationally each of the last three seasons. They’ll be a bit different on defense with a switch to the 3-4, but the goal remains well-executed simplicity.

Baylor’s future as a program is murky. But for the 2016 season, the Bears can view everything as the same, at least on the field.

“We’re going to be Baylor,” Russell said. “We’re going to play fast and put up a lot of points.

“They know what we can do. They know what we had. They know.”