Practically three years in the past, with a convention title on the road, Baylor’s protection become a brick wall.
Within the closing minute of the 2021 Large 12 Championship Recreation, Oklahoma State had 4 tries to get 2 yards and a go-ahead landing. The Bears allowed simply 1 3/4, and Baylor gained the Large 12 crown in coach Dave Aranda’s second season.
On Saturday night time at Colorado, Baylor wanted one other game-sealing cease within the closing minute, with decrease stakes (the groups’ Large 12 opener) and rather more wiggle room: 45 yards to defend and solely two seconds for the Buffaloes to cowl them. However in a scene harking back to the one Kordell Stewart and Michael Westbrook produced 30 years in the past, Shedeur Sanders and LaJohntay Wester linked on a miracle Hail Mary to ship the sport to additional time, the place the Buffaloes finally gained 38-31.
These two endings, 33 months aside, encapsulate how far Baylor has fallen from its peak underneath Aranda, who’s now 25-27 with this system.
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“The top-of-regulation play is one thing I’ve by no means seen,” Aranda advised reporters.
That may simply be in-the-moment postgame hyperbole, however the Bears executed their defensive plan so poorly that it was affordable to imagine Aranda had by no means seen a game-winning Hail Mary.
Quarterback Sawyer Robertson and the Baylor Bears are 2-2 after their loss Saturday at Colorado. (Christopher Hanewinckel / Imagn Photographs)
As soon as the highest-paid assistant in faculty soccer revered for his defensive genius, Aranda entered the season squarely on the new seat in 12 months 5 of his first head teaching job, and the Bears’ crushing loss to Colorado appears like a possible turning level. Can he recuperate?
For the reason that 2021 season, when Baylor went 12-2 with that Large 12 title and a Sugar Bowl victory, this system is 11-18. The offensive and defensive staffs have turned over, which has been a theme of Aranda’s tenure.
After this system appeared to hit all-time low with a 3-9 end final 12 months, Aranda vowed to make extra adjustments, going heavier into the switch portal, leaning more durable into title, picture and likeness compensation and putting in himself because the defensive play caller for the primary time since serving as LSU’s defensive coordinator in 2019.
The primary three weeks of the season supplied promise. The Bears seemed extra proficient and performed with an edge that appeared to be lacking final 12 months, and Aranda’s transition to turn out to be extra hands-on with the protection labored effectively.
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Even in opposition to Colorado, there have been encouraging indicators. There have been eight sacks of Sanders and plenty of extra pressures, a number of of which got here from Texas Tech switch Steve Linton. There have been nice offensive performs from quarterback Sawyer Robertson and receivers Monaray Baldwin and Hal Presley. There was a common look of competence all through the staff that didn’t typically exist a 12 months in the past.
However how Baylor misplaced Saturday was embarrassing. The Bears gave up a 24-10 lead, they usually squandered a number of alternatives to place the sport away in regulation.
After back-to-back sacks of Sanders led to a punt on fourth-and-31, Baylor — main 31-24 with 3:58 left — took over on the Colorado 26 with an opportunity to take a two-score lead. The Bears ran the ball 3 times and settled for a 46-yard Isaiah Hankins area objective try that sailed large proper with 2:16 left.
On Colorado’s closing fourth-quarter drive, Baylor had the Buffaloes backed up, going through a second-and-24 at their very own 31 with 55 seconds left. But the Bears gave up all these yards on the subsequent three performs, maintaining the Buffs alive.
And earlier than Wester’s score-tying catch, Colorado flirted with a game-winner on the earlier play, as receiver Will Sheppard dropped a move from Sanders on the 2 after getting behind Baylor cornerback Caden Jenkins.
On Baylor’s closing defensive play of regulation, which Aranda mentioned is named “Victory Cigar,” the Bears pressured Sanders and flushed him from the pocket to his left earlier than he launched the bomb to Wester. Aranda detailed a missed task on the strain, which he mentioned was “inexcusable” contemplating Baylor known as timeout to arrange the protection earlier than the play.
“I take full accountability for that,” he mentioned. “I’ve to have the ability to coach that higher.”
Baylor followers all over the place nodded in settlement. It is likely to be the Bears’ most painful loss since Sept. 11, 1999. That night time, Baylor led UNLV 24-21 and possessed the ball with 20 seconds left and the Rebels out of timeouts. As an alternative of taking a knee, the Bears ran the ball and fumbled; UNLV returned it for a 100-yard landing and a 27-24 win.
This Baylor staff, as a substitute of returning residence 3-1 with optimistic momentum, should now recuperate from the emotional intestine punch, with a smaller margin for error on this ultra-competitive convention.
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If Saturday’s loss spawns a shedding streak, it is going to be the third consecutive 12 months of frustration for the Baylor devoted. The upcoming schedule is just not forgiving. This weekend Baylor hosts No. 22 BYU, which simply dominated Kansas State. Then comes consecutive street video games at No. 18 Iowa State and Texas Tech earlier than returning residence for No. 20 Oklahoma State to shut out October.
If the Bears can’t rapidly choose themselves up, Aranda’s seat could possibly be on fireplace heading into November. Though Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades hasn’t publicly dictated a sure variety of wins for Aranda to outlive the season, making a bowl is a baseline expectation. That was made so much more durable by squandering Saturday’s recreation at Folsom Discipline.
The season is just not over, by any means. Baylor (2-2) is only a third of the way in which by means of the schedule, and if the Bears can rebound rapidly and snag a win over the Cougars, it might go a good distance towards transferring previous Saturday’s nightmare end. This 12 months’s Large 12 is certain to be unwieldy, with three of the highest 4 groups within the league’s preseason ballot having misplaced their convention openers.
However urgency in flipping the script is paramount. The Large 12 championship season in 2021 is the outlier of the Aranda period. Baylor had shedding information within the different three years and is now 13-25 total mixed in yearly besides 2021. The final time Baylor had consecutive successful seasons was the ultimate two years of the Matt Rhule period (2018 and 2019).
Baylor management needs Aranda to succeed. He’s effectively favored across the constructing as a result of he comes throughout as considerate and real. He’s not the fire-breathing caricature that’s typically the soccer coach stereotype. In faculty teaching, being a pleasant man can purchase you further time, and it actually helped earn Aranda this 12 months, regardless of declining outcomes.
Whether or not he will get one other depends upon how Baylor responds to its newest debacle. The choice gained’t be made a technique or one other due to Saturday’s outcome. However the way in which the Bears misplaced will definitely stick out if there’s any ambiguity concerning the future when Rhoades weighs the choice at season’s finish.
After Saturday’s loss, Aranda mentioned the Bears would attempt to get their coronary heart again of their physique and known as the loss “a giant wake-up name.”
“I do know we’ll reply,” he mentioned. “I do know this staff. And I do know we’ll come out stronger due to this.”
In the event that they’re going to hoist one other trophy of any sort underneath Aranda, they higher.
(High photograph: Andrew Wevers / Getty Photographs)