By Zach Babajanof-Rustrian | Intern
Baylor football suffered its fifth home loss of the season to Iowa State by a score of 30-18 Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium. It marked the first time the Bears lost on homecoming since a 38-36 setback to West Virginia on Oct. 21, 2017. They entered Saturday having won the last four homecoming contests.
Baylor (3-5, 2-3 Big 12) head coach Dave Aranda said he’s not concerned with the athletes’ effort as much as he is in the “execution in the beginning of a game.”
“I thought that there [were] opportunities to make plays with the plays that we had, and whether it was a cut here or a dropped pass there or a missed assignment here,” Aranda said. “I think there’s too many opportunities that we can capitalize on that we really emphasize and make it a big factor for us.”
Senior tight end Drake Dabney echoed Aranda’s sentiment, saying the team needs to work on its first half execution.
“I think we just waited too long to get going. We didn’t start fast enough, and we didn’t execute early on and make the plays early on,” Dabney said. “I think there was just a lot of that going on early on in the game and then by the time we got it going it was too late.”
The Bears need to win three of their final four games to become bowl-eligible. Dabney said there’s still a belief in the team to make that happen.
Even though Baylor is struggling at home, it’s 2-0 in road contests so far. Aranda said he’s working on trying to get the squad to embrace the mentality it has when faced with road adversity.
“Just being honest about it. It’s a frustrating thing because I think when you go on the road, it’s clear that it’s only us versus all of them,” Aranda said. “So we wanted to really kind of capture that here at home and have that feeling.”
Seventh-year senior safety Bryson Jackson said the locker room was hurting after the loss to Iowa State. It marked the seventh straight home loss to an FBS opponent, dating back to Nov. 12, 2022.
“We know there’s a lot of disappointment and frustration, but the one thing that we’re really good at that I trust — and that a lot of guys in that locker room trust — is that we’re going to come back on Monday,” Jackson said. “We’re going to come back tomorrow and watch film, go to work and we’re going to recover from this. We’ll come out stronger.
“There’s always opportunities to learn, and that’s the one thing that is the main message to the guys in that locker room. There’s always opportunity. We’re not giving up on each other and the coaches are not giving up on each other. We’re going to fight and we’ll come out the other end of this, for sure.”
Although the Bears’ weren’t able to capture the same feeling of playing away at home, they have another chance next week when they go up against Houston at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at McLane Stadium.
