By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
It’s time for Baylor football to hand the ball off more to one of its most dynamic weapons — sophomore running back Richard Reese. The Bears thrive when he’s given opportunities and struggle when he isn’t.
There was a six-game stretch last season in which Reese rushed 137 times for 710 yards (5.2 yards per carry) and 10 touchdowns. Baylor went 4-2 in those contests.
In the seven games following that span, Reese toted the rock just 60 times across two seasons, totaling 216 yards (3.6 yards per carry) and two touchdowns. The Bears went 1-6 in those games, including the six-game losing streak that ended Saturday against Long Island.
So, what happened?
To start, it didn’t take long for Reese to make an impact in Waco. The former three-star recruit turned heads in his first game at McLane Stadium, turning nine carries into 62 yards and two touchdowns. Two weeks later, he burst onto the scene against Texas State, rushing for an obscene 156 yards and three scores on just 19 carries. It was officially the “Year of the Reese.”
Just three games into his college career, Reese was becoming a program building block. He averaged 5 yards per carry against Oklahoma State, then a top-10 team. He racked up over 200 total yards and two touchdowns against Kansas and 160 yards and three touchdowns a week later against Texas Tech. His legend was growing.
But then, just as quickly as he’d arrived, he was gone.
Reese was a national sensation, notching 791 yards and 12 touchdowns while carrying the Baylor offense to new heights. In Reese’s six games with double-digit carries, the Bears averaged 36.3 points — a mark they cleared just three times against FBS opponents during their Big 12 Championship run in 2021.
Reese scarcely played the following week against Oklahoma, as he was fighting off the flu, and he finished with four carries and a touchdown as backup Craig “Sqwirl” Williams gave the performance of his life to lead the Bears to victory. Rather than reclaiming the bell cow role, Reese began to fade into the background.
In the six games prior to Oklahoma, Reese was among the nation’s leading rushers, tallying 710 yards on 23 carries per game and leading the Bears to what would’ve been a top-20 offense nationally. In the following six games, he rushed for fewer than 35 yards per game.
It’s a significant shift. Reese set the school’s freshman rushing record for a reason — he’s one of the fastest players on the team, and his body control and shiftiness have earned the Bears gobs of extra yardage. His fall from the offensive coaching staff’s good graces has coincided with Baylor’s worst stretch of losses since 2017, when former head coach Matt Rhule opened his Baylor career with eight-straight losses.
The addition of transfer portal junior running back Dominic Richardson in December was puzzling for both parties. There’s a lot of overlap between Richardson’s and Reese’s skill sets, as both are at their best navigating around multiple blockers in space. Richardson is strong enough to play more of a power back role when necessary, but he didn’t present a different enough archetype to fully justify “thunder and lightning” comparisons. Richardson was leaving a secure situation to join a team with an entrenched starter.
So far, Richardson has proven to be Baylor’s top running back, turning 30 carries into 156 yards (5.2 per carry) before missing Saturday’s game with a high ankle sprain. In the two games Richardson was healthy, Reese had 14 carries for 35 yards (2.5 per carry). Neither scored a touchdown.
Far from thunder and lightning, this feels like a lightning-only backfield. Richardson has struck, but where’s the second act?
Reese got back to his old self on Saturday against the Sharks, rushing for 82 yards and two TDs on 6.8 yards per carry, but the coaching staff still didn’t trust him to be the primary rusher. Freshman tailback Dawson Pendergrass (21 carries, 111 yards, one TD) slotted in for Richardson, and freshman running back Bryson Washington (10 carries, 45 yards) earned himself snaps as a power back.
Reese is a rhythm runner who gets better the more carries he gets. Saturday’s game against No. 3 Texas is a critical moment for Reese and the offense at large. If the offensive line can iron out its issues under the lights, and Reese can get back to his 2022 self, the Bears could take a huge step toward getting their season back on the right track.
