Sports Take: Baylor football is (finally) fun again

By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer

It only took Baylor football one game to match its 2023 home win total.

The bar wasn’t high. After an abysmal 2023 that saw just one home victory (and a miserably rainy one at that), fan enthusiasm cratered. Nevertheless, head coach Dave Aranda embraced a new vision for Baylor football, featuring a high-flying offense, a bevy of new transfers and a defense orchestrated by Aranda himself. Early returns look promising.

“To have a lot of our transfers come in and under the bright lights in the big city and go out and make plays, and consistently make plays, and bringing a swagger and all of it to the team, that was cool to see,” Aranda said after the Bears’ 45-3 victory over Tarleton State. “It’s been like that in practice, so to get that over across the bridge into McLane when it matters most, that was cool to see, too.”

Several of Baylor’s 16 incoming transfers led the charge on offense. Sixth-year senior and former Toledo quarterback Dequan Finn opened up the gates with a 39-yard rush up the right hash, the longest Baylor touchdown run since junior running back Richard Reese broke one off against Texas State in September 2022. Two drives later, Finn became the first Baylor quarterback to throw and run for an explosive touchdown since Blake Shapen in that same game, giving former Bobcat wide receiver Ashtyn Hawkins a chance to whoop-de-do a defender and tiptoe all the way to the end zone.

Über-athletic redshirt junior and Ole Miss transfer tight end Michael Trigg caught a touchdown of his own, while former Mississippi State quarterback, redshirt junior Sawyer Robertson, made the most of his fourth-quarter opportunities by hitting former Arkansas senior wide receiver Ketron Jackson for six.

Perhaps the biggest score of the game came on the other side of the ball, when redshirt sophomore transfer linebacker Keaton Thomas – one of the “defensive weapons” Aranda spoke of in the offseason – jumped an underneath slant route for a smooth pick-six.

“I walked him out of the locker room today prior to the game, and I mentioned, ‘Hey bro, you got this, you’re gonna kill this today,” Aranda said of the former Northeast Mississippi Community College and West Virginia linebacker. “I think the kid cares so much, and he wants to prove people wrong … and so for him to kind of just be in the moment itself, I think that’s probably going to be a continued thing with him, because there’s a lot of energy there. So we get it focused. It’s good for him; good for us.”

It’s a new game in a new age. Sixty percent of FBS starting quarterbacks are transfers. Oklahoma State announced plans to add NIL QR codes on the back of their helmets, before the NCAA nixed the idea. And Baylor, for the first time in the Aranda era, is sitting right at the forefront of the changes.

The mentality shift was evident from the first drive of the game. After three straight handoffs to Reese, the former Big 12 Freshman of the Year who in 2023 saw his role diminish to a shadow of its former self, Finn pulled down a read-option from 39 yards out for the Bears’ first touchdown of the season. The ever-stoic Aranda donned spectacles on the sidelines for the first time, inciting a viral photoshop of his face over famed Turkish silver medalist Yusuf Dikec.

For the first time in a long time, the Baylor offense looked decisive. Dynamic. “Speed kills,” and new offensive coordinator Jake Spavital has taken that mantra to heart. Even with vanilla play calling – Reese estimates the Bears showed around 50-60% of their offense – receivers were flying open all over the field. On several occasions, Finn had his pick of multiple wide-open deep threats. With every first down, something dormant seemed to awaken within the green and gold. As the young people all want to say, “We are so back.”

Beating such an outmatched opponent should be a given. But after two years of repeated home failures, winning in such dominant fashion feels like a breath of fresh air after a deep-sea dive gone wrong.

But behind the exhilarating veneer lie hints of future problems. Most prominent was an offensive line that struggled to generate push against what should’ve been an eminently movable Tarleton State defense: aside from Finn’s touchdown scamper, the Bears averaged fewer than three yards per carry against a team that allowed 4.35 yards per carry to McNeese State.

Finn played fast and loose, showing off the characteristic highs and lows of his playing style. Electric speed and deep touchdown tosses? Check. Questionable decision-making and uneven arm strength? Also, check. The Air Raid offense depends heavily on quick, accurate passing, which was simply never occasioned against this Texans defense. Reserving judgment for FBS opponents is the name of the game, but keep an eye on how Finn develops within this scheme.

Aside from a vulnerable third quarter, the defense got the job done, holding Tarleton to three points (and zero first-quarter yards). Most importantly: Aranda seems to have fixed the tackling issues that have plagued the team for the past two seasons. The front seven played thoroughly excellent football, with a smothering first-half pass rush and sparkling run defense. The Texans averaged just 2.5 yards per carry, finishing with their fewest rushing yards in a game since 2022.

The pass defense was less consistent. After Thomas’ pick-6, Tarleton benched junior quarterback Jaden Pete for junior Daniel Greek, a Mississippi State transfer who fared a lot better through the air. The talent gap saved Baylor from giving up more gash plays, but once the Texans’ offense opened up, a few cracks in the secondary began to appear.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It’ll take time to settle into new schemes and mesh with new play callers. The offensive line will still take weeks to gel, especially with five clear starters yet to be named. But wins are wins, and especially in McLane Stadium – where victories have been hard to come by as of late – beating Tarleton State is cause for a minor celebration.

Are they good? It’ll take a lot more than beating a newly-minted FCS team for the Bears to overcome the stigma of last year’s struggles. But if nothing else, Baylor football is finally fun again. And for now, that’s enough.