Baylor's Briles outlines vision to playoff spot

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Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty will start the season as the Big 12's all-conference quarterback, but that isn't where Bears coach Art Briles wants the song to end.

Briles, who was in Houston on Wednesday for a speech to the Houston Touchdown Club, is still steamed that Petty didn't get an invitation to New York last December as a Heisman Trophy finalist after throwing for 30 touchdowns with two interceptions during the season for the Big 12 champions.

He believes Petty can play his way to New York this fall by duplicating last year's numbers or, perhaps, improving upon them.

"If we're sitting here in January and he does that again and leads us to a Big 12 championship, which gives us an opportunity to be in the final four (of the new NCAA playoff), there's nothing wrong with that," Briles said.

"I'm not sure what else he can do. I know what he's capable of doing. I know if there's something different, it will come from leadership and mental capacity. When he says something, people will believe what he's saying, where a year ago they might have looked at him and said, 'Do something first.' "

Starting high helps

Baylor head coach Art Briles photographed before the 2014 Marathon Oil Corporation Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards at the Royal Sonesta, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) Baylor head coach Art Briles photographed before the 2014 Marathon Oil Corporation Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards at the Royal Sonesta, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Baylor's Briles outlines vision to playoff spot 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A year after the Bears climbed to as high as No. 3 in the rankings and won the Big 12 title, Baylor's seven representatives on the preseason all-conference list are the largest contingent of any school. Also included are wide receiver Antwan Goodley, offensive lineman Spencer Drango, running back Shock Linwood, linebacker Bryce Hager, punter Spencer Roth and punt returner Levi Norwood.

Texas was represented on the team by running back Malcolm Brown, defensive lineman Cedric Reed and defensive back Quandre Diggs, Texas Tech by offensive lineman Raven Clark, and TCU by defensive linemen Devonte Fields and Chucky Hunter and defensive back Sam Carter.

Briles said the image and perception built by individual accolades and last year's performances will give Baylor a leg up this year, the first season of the new playoff system.

"What we have done as a football program is that we've been productive on the field, we have played a dynamic state of football that is a little varied from what anybody else does, and people like our brand," he said. "We have worked hard to establish ourselves as national contenders, and with that comes responsibility.

"If you start in the Top 10, you have a better chance of getting in that top four than if you start at No. 23. We've done it both ways, and hopefully we'll be in that Top 10 range where if you hit a hot streak, the next thing you're No. 3 in the country like we were a year ago. The image and perception allows you to start with a higher ranking, which allows you a better possibility of getting in the final four."

Open-ended system

Briles has espoused wide-open offensive thinking since his days in the 1980s as a high school coach at Hamlin, Georgetown and Stephenville. Baylor came into the Fiesta Bowl last year as one of the hottest teams in the country but was upset 52-42 by Central Florida, which indicates the game of cat-and-mouse adjustments that teams will continue to make to Briles' style, and vice versa.

"Defenses make you stay trendy. They make you stay current," he said. "We never shut the book and say this is how it's always going to be done from an offensive schematic concept standpoint. It's the same way on defense. That's the thing we always ask as a staff is what can we do differently to give our guys an opportunity to be successful on the field.

"It's like writing a song. When you're the lyricist of a song that never existed before, and all of a sudden everybody gets this visual image of the song you wrote, they can see it and feel it. It's the same with an offensive or defensive play or scheme. If you can create something that has never been created before, all of a sudden it has substance. We always are searching for something better to do."