Around college football: Baylor gets back 1,000-yard rusher and two defenders

Baylor will get a boost for its Big 12 opener Saturday against No. 3 Oklahoma with the season debuts of 1,000-yard rusher Terence Williams and two defenders who were expected to be starters.

Williams, the junior who ran for 1,048 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, will be back in the lineup after missing the first three games while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

“I think it takes a little bit of the pressure off the young guys,” coach Matt Rhule said Tuesday. “I think Terence gives us the physicality and a presence running the football that you can clearly see on tape. He brings us that ability to run you over and make you miss.”

Rhule said senior safety Taion Sells has completed his three-game suspension for an unspecified offseason incident and cornerback Grayland Arnold is back after breaking his left arm during a preseason scrimmage. Jordan Tolbert, another cornerback, is also expected back from an injury.

Players face felony charges over hazing

Five members of a Christian college football team in suburban Chicago face felony charges in the hazing of another team member who alleges they duct-taped his hands and feet and attempted to sodomize him with an object before dumping him half-naked in an off-campus park.

The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office announced Monday that the five Wheaton College players are charged with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint. All five players have been suspended from the team.

A judge signed arrest warrants and set $50,000 bonds for the players, who are expected to turn themselves in. As of Tuesday morning, none of them had done so, according to Paul Darrah, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office. Darrah said the most serious charge — aggravated battery — carries a maximum sentence of two to five years in prison.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the victim, a freshman, told police he was in his dormitory room watching basketball on television in March 2016 when his teammates tackled him, put a pillowcase over his head and punched him when he yelled at them to stop.

The student alleges the five put him in the back seat of a car and — with Middle Eastern music playing — made offensive comments about Muslims and told him that he was being kidnapped by Muslims who wanted to have sex with goats and that he would be their “goat’ for the night.

After the attack, the victim drove himself to a hospital where he was treated for bruises and muscle tears in his shoulders. Records indicate that an emergency room nurse called police.

Irish eyes not smiling

Even with a 49-20 win at Boston College and a handful of rushing records to go with it, most of the talk about Notre Dame immediately after the game focused on what went wrong.

On the ground, quarterback Brandon Wimbush was historically brilliant, breaking a 48-year-old, single-game record for an Irish quarterback with 207 rushing yards. Wimbush also added four rushing touchdowns, the most scored by any Irish player since running back Emmett Mosley ran for four scores in 1994.

Through the air was a different story. Wimbush completed only 11 of his 24 passes for 96 yards with an interception and at least six overthrown incompletions.

After three games, Notre Dame ranks fifth in the country in rushing at 330.7 yards per game. But through the air, the Irish (2-1) rank only 114th in passing yards with 163.3 per game and a woeful 124th in passing efficiency out of 129 rated FBS teams.

“We can’t appease people in terms of what looks good as much as what we’re going to be good at,” coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday. The Irish face Michigan State on Saturday.