JD PicKell: Blake Shapen will be one of the best quarterbacks in Big 12

After appearing in just five games for the Baylor Bears last season, Blake Shapen finally has the keys to the offense in Waco. Although Gerry Bohanon was great last year, Dave Aranda made the switch to Shapen in the spring. That led to Bohanon’s transfer to USF and Shapen to have a lot of steam behind him entering the fall. On3’s JD PicKell is a Shapen believer himself and thinks he will play a significant role in the Big 12.

PicKell included Shapen on his list of breakout players for this season during a recent episode of ‘The Hard Count’. He says Aranda’s decision to change out a perfectly good quarterback for Shapen is all we need to know about what he can bring to the table at Baylor.

CLICK HERE to subscribe to the On3 YouTube channel today for all of the latest news on college football, recruiting, NIL, more!

“Blake Shapen is going to be QB1 at Baylor not because Gerry Bohanon, the Big 12 champion quarterback, was going to the NFL, graduating or anything like that,” said PicKell. “They just said during the spring, ‘Blake Shapen, we think you’re the best quarterback on our roster. You give us the best chance to win and we’re gonna roll with you.’ If that doesn’t tell you enough about Blake Shapen, I don’t know what does.”

Shapen came to Baylor in 2020 as a Top-50 QB in On3’s Consensus Top Recruits. After redshirting a year, he played sparingly behind Bohanon last season. He did help Baylor to big wins over Kansas State and Texas Tech. However, his real moment came on the conference’s biggest stage. He threw 23/28 passes in the Big 12 title game against Oklahoma State for 180 yards and three touchdowns.

That glimpse was all people like Dave Aranda and JD PicKell needed to see to buy in to Shapen as Baylor’s starter. In a deep quarterback conference, PicKell fully expects Shapen to be among the best in 2022.

“He’s a guy that’s going to pop. I think he’ll be right up there in that top three category in terms of quarterbacks in the Big 12,” PicKell said. “It’s going to be a deep conference. You got JT Daniels, Dillon Gabriel, Quinn Ewers, etc. I think Blake Shapen is going to be right up there in the upper tier in the Big 12.”

JD PicKell is just as on board as the rest of the Baylor program. Overall, Shapen is the guy they believed could keep them in contention moving forward. It’s now on him to prove his believers right by having Baylor where they want to be. That journey will start September 3rd when the reigning Big 12 champions kick off against Albany.