When Greg Cicero went down in the second series against Minnesota, in the second game of the year, Baylor’s hopes of success may have gone with him. “I actually got up after the hit,” Cicero said. And after waiting to re-enter play after a time-out was called by Minnesota, Cicero realized that “my shoulder was hurting pretty bad.” Cicero started the season as Baylor’s highly touted quarterback. The leader of the team. This was supposed to be Cicero’s break-out year. Fans and Baylor coaches knew he had a strong arm. They still know little else about him. Now he watches games from the sidelines with his left arm secured in a sling. His diagnosis: a broken collarbone. In 1997 Cicero began his collegiate career. After a redshirt and then another season at Texas, Cicero tried out Palamore Junior College in San Diego. After a season there, he transferred to Baylor. Currently he is waiting out a decision by the NCAA to see if he has earned a medical redshirt. Cicero justifiably feels as though an “opportunity has been taken from me.” He has not gone quietly into the night, though. Tomcheck said Cicero now spends his time on the practice and game fields working with other quarterbacks. The redshirt freshman will start on Saturday against Iowa State. He does so because it is difficult to “sit there and watch football.” So this is something to occupy his time, while also enabling him to “take an active role” in the team’s success. But time has been on his side. And he has a lot of time to sit and wonder about the success of the team without him. Cicero feels that although Baylor is inexperienced (the Bears will start nine freshmen and sophomores), they should prove to be a formidable opponent for Iowa State. “Our quarterback [Tomcheck] played a lot better against South Florida [Baylor’s previous oppponent] than he did against Minnesota,” Cicero said. Tomcheck threw for 223 yards on 20-28 passing and three touchdowns against South Florida. Defensively, the fallen quarterback says the Bears “have a few good defensive players.” Cicero knows from his days in Texas, that to compete in conference play, Baylor must “step up our play,” Cicero said, from their 2-1 record [a record composed of wins against North Texas and South Florida] because “this is the first time this year we are going up against a Big 12 opponent,” he added. Baylor Head Coach Kevin Steele knows the Bears face an uphill battle. He said to ESPN.com, “We’re trying to accomplish the feat of learning how to win.” Steele also likens his team to the Cyclones of a few years ago: trying to build a successful program out of years of unrewarded labor. Although Iowa State and Baylor will see their first action of Big 12 play circa 2000 this weekend, this isn’t the first injury Cicero’s body has endured. “I’ve had freak injuries,” Cicero said. While at Texas, Cicero had an offensive linemen fall onto him. Cicero came away with a torn medial-caleteral ligament after that play in Austin sidelined him for most of his redshirt-freshmen year. But injuries have not plagued him his entire life. “That’s what’s weird,” Cicero said. Before that injury, he said, he had never broken or injured anything that would take him away from action for a significant amount of time. So the injured Baylor quarterback whose coach assured him of a starting spot when he returns, has taken his first steps on the road to recovery. “It should take three or four more weeks to rehab,” Cicero said. From there, throw another “eight weeks” to the calendar before he returns to full strength. As for the rest of this season, Cicero says that Baylor is still “want[ing] to go to a bowl game.” “We are going to play as hard as we can,” Cicero said.