It the midst of Big 12 Media Days, it’s hard to avoid hearing, watching and reading about the rivalry between Baylor and TCU.
Even in the offseason, fans of both schools feud on Twitter, as if Baylor’s 61-58 comeback victory over the Frogs happened yesterday.
But the Horned Frogs and the Bears aren’t having any part in the mudslinging between their supporters. Actually, they said they don’t even see it as a rivalry.
TCU safety Derrick Kindred said he doesn’t think of the rivalry more than any other game he will play in this season.
“I mean, I don’t feel like it’s a rivalry,” Kindred said. “It’s just a regular game to play.”
Baylor offensive tackle Spencer Drango has similar thoughts. He thinks both programs have a lot of respect for each other.
“I think the rivalry was big back when we played them every year and we came back to that. I think it’s more of a rivalry between the fans than between the players.”
TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin didn’t pump up the TCU vs. Baylor feud either.
“The way that we’re coming up – you can never say Texas and Oklahoma are going to fall off the map as far as a rivalry game, that will forever live,” Boykin said. “But we’re playing better and we just try to go and leave it all out on the field.”
Baylor defensive end Shawn Oakman didn’t have much to say about the rivalry, either.
“You want to be the best in Texas,” Oakman said. “There’s not one team you want to slack off against because any given day any of those teams can beat [Baylor] or TCU.“
Oakman’s head coach, Art Briles, said he tries not to look past the team’s current opponent.
“If we’re looking past that game, somebody has come up here and slapped me in the face and got me down and rubbed my face in the dirt because that’s just stupid,” Briles said. “I want to make sure that I have today first.”