Rain is not in the forecast today in Waco, Texas.

But if Mother Nature should surprise Kansas and Baylor during their Big 12 Conference football game at Floyd Casey Stadium, the Bears should be prepared.

Trying to put an end to a rash of turnovers, BU coach Kevin Steele made his team practice with a wet ball during its bye week.

“We’ve turned the ball over too much on offense, and that’s really our biggest problem,” Steele said. “We focused on trying to take care of the football. Sometimes, you can overemphasize things and make people over-paranoid. But when the issue is as important as turnovers, you’ve gotta talk about it.”

Baylor (2-2 overall, 0-0 Big 12) opened the season with a 70-22 loss to California on Aug. 31 at Berkley, Calif. The Bears had five turnovers in that contest.

A week later in Waco, BU coughed it up only once and came out on top in a 50-12 victory against Samford.

On Sept. 14 at Albuquerque, N.M., Baylor had three turnovers and was back on the wrong end of a 23-0 blowout against New Mexico.

The Bears had to overcome five turnovers a week later in a 37-25 home victory against Tulsa, which dropped to 0-5 last Saturday night following a 43-33 loss to Kansas.

While KU is back on the road for the second straight week, Baylor (2-3, 0-1) had two weeks to fix its turnover woes and prepare for its first league game.

“When we don’t turn the ball over on offense, we have a chance to be in the football game,” Steele said.

“That’s the biggest thing. It’s there. We just have to finish things off and not turn the ball over.”

Baylor, which has lost 29 consecutive conference games, does have its share of weapons.

Senior receiver Reggie Newhouse has recorded 100-yard games in three of BU’s four outings. The son of former Dallas Cowboys running back Robert Newhouse ranks third in the league and 14th nationally with an average of 61/2 catches per game.

A former Jayhawk also could cause problems for KU’s defense. Receiver J.T. Thompson is BU’s third-leading receiver with eight catches for 61 yards. Thompson caught eight passes for 130 in seven games for KU as a freshman in 2000, but he transferred to Kilgore Community College in his Texas hometown for the 2001 season before joining Baylor this season.

The man throwing them the ball is quarterback Aaron Karas. The sophomore has completed 48-of-85 passes for 668 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions.

“He’s a young guy that makes young-guy mistakes from time to time, but he’s highly competitive,” Steele said. “He’s an accurate thrower. He has leadership qualities. He learns from his mistakes, and I think he will get better and better.”

Junior Jonathan Golden leads BU with 263 yards rushing and seven touchdowns, but 108 of those yards and five of his touchdowns came in the Samford blowout.

“We need to get him the ball more and establish the running game more than we have been,” Steele said.

If Baylor can hold onto the ball, the Bears might have a chance to snap that pesky losing streak.

“I’ve thought about it,” Steele said. “We’ll talk about it with them, make sure they understand what’s before them. … We’re not just gonna hide it. These guys are mature enough to handle it. It’s out there. We have the opportunity to do something about it.”

Rest assured that both coaching staffs are scouring their Tulsa tapes.

“Because it’s recent and a common opponent, it helps to have something that’s recent,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “Usually you play your first couple of opponents and you’re still looking at film from 2001. So yes, it’s helpful. I can’t tell you that they’ll do all the same things on offense and defense that they did against Tulsa, but we have an idea of how they approach things and how they react to some things.”