By Savannah Cooper | Staff Writer
Nearly halfway through last spring semester, Baylor nation was ecstatic with the double headlines announcing the faces behind the new and needed changes in our leadership. Not only were we gaining Baylor’s first ever, more than qualified, female president Dr. Linda Livingstone, we also gained a credible head football coach from the City of Brotherly Love.
The arrival of head coach Matt Rhule, despite being in the height of March Madness basketball, was nothing shy of red carpet treatment. Attached to his arrival, a mantra for Baylor football, the upcoming season and his presence as a coach was epitomized into one simple hashtag. #BaylorLit grew like wildfire across timelines of Baylor Bears everywhere.
Unsure of its origin or meaning, it simply created an excitement as well as a step out from the sexual assault dark days Baylor football faced.
Fast forward several more hashtags, memes and interceptions later, we’re now 1-8. With such a record, some may say Baylor is no longer lit; I say that’s quite the contrary. Yes, I love winning, probably more than the average person, due to being an only child who played individual sports, but I know that this is what rebuilding looks like.
As not only a Baylor student, but also a female fan, I know that I’m cheering for a team that is quite young, but is free from the ugly skeletons of 2014. With that in mind, I stay all four quarters and support this team because they’re working against a great amount of backlash and ridicule for things they didn’t commit.
Week four’s home game against Oklahoma featured a fourth quarter student section roaring “B-U!” with Baker Mayfield lying on the ground, showing that this student body is still rallying behind our team. Win, lose or draw, this current team needs this type of support more than ever. I mean, we’re a family right? If one of your family members is having a bad season or semester, you can’t just drop them for another one. You have the stick it out and trust the process.
Trust the process is another theme that Rhule has implemented throughout the season when asked about his thoughts and feelings. So, we have to just trust the process because with a slight remix of Marilyn Monroe’s iconic quote, “If you can’t accept Baylor at it’s 2017 season, then you don’t deserve it at it’s 2020 season.”
Baylor Nation, I ask you to support your fellow bears as another season wraps up at McLane. At times, we have rough semesters, so it’s OK that our team is having a rough season. One day, we’ll be laughing about this season from a secured playoff seed.
