By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
In the wild, bears are known to hibernate for up to seven months at a time.
In Waco, that number is drawing closer to two years.
Head coach Dave Aranda’s Bears spent their 2021 season gathering sustenance for the winter; a Big 12 Championship and a sweet Sugar Bowl victory were more than enough to stave off the initial hunger pangs of the following year’s 6-7 campaign. As losses began to mount up higher than their stash of foraged berries and acorns, though, so did concerns that the apex predators would never re-emerge.
But in Saturday’s loss to No. 11 Utah, something changed. As the Bears trailed 23-0 in the second quarter, a pair of massive eyelids flipped open, revealing two yellowed irises flaring with renewed vigor. It was too little, too late in the 23-12 loss, but the team showed off something that’s been conspicuously missing for the past several seasons: fight.
“I thought the guys continued to fight and play, and there was great effort,” Aranda said after the game. “There’s a great want-to. There was never a moment of, ‘Hey, this is going to get away,’ or ‘Hey, I’m packing it in.’ There was never that.”
Baylor fluttered to a hapless first quarter, totaling -10 offensive yards and a turnover while allowing Utah to score its most first-quarter points since 2019. The Bears needed six drives to get a first down – and that successful drive ended with a blocked-kick touchdown for Utah. Even in the notoriously dangerous Rice-Eccles Stadium, it’s difficult to imagine a more disastrous opening quarter.
Through one quarter:
Utah: 17 points, 151 yards, 11:03 time of possession
Baylor: 0 points, -10 yards, 3:57, lost fumble#SicEm— Jackson Posey ✞ (@ByJacksonPosey) September 7, 2024
As the first half drew to a close, offensive coordinator Jake Spavital began opening up the playbook for the struggling offense, which immediately found a new pep in its step. Sixth-year senior quarterback Dequan Finn, who had completed just one of his eight passes for five yards, scrambled for seven yards and hit senior wide receiver Hal Presley for 18 more.
Two plays later, a targeting call on Utah’s Alaka’i Gilman put the Bears in field goal range as time wound down. With the earlier blocked kick in the rearview mirror, redshirt junior kicker Isaiah Hankins drilled this one from 44 yards out to send the Bears into halftime with a 23-3 deficit – and, magically, a touch of momentum.
A quarter-opening three-and-out soon felt like a distant memory, as Hankins hit another field goal and redshirt junior wide receiver Josh Cameron made perhaps the most sensational play of his career, outrunning the entire Utah secondary for 47 yards and his first career touchdown. A questionable two-point conversion attempt notwithstanding, Baylor had drawn the lead to within 11, while out-gaining the Utes 134-4 in the third quarter.
Josh Cameron is just too fast ⚡️@BUFootball takes one back vs Utah 🐻 pic.twitter.com/GD0mSbQWOa
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 7, 2024
Volumes could be written on the Bears’ offensive performance Saturday, and not in a good way. Finn finished nine for 21 with 122 total yards, while the ground game managed just 108 yards on 2.7 yards per carry. But the Bears were never expected to find much success in an offensive game against a team that ranked 19th in scoring defense in 2023. The real revelation was Baylor’s own defense.
After that catastrophic first quarter saw the Utes pick up 151 yards and 17 points, the Bears’ defense reset and locked in, allowing just 141 yards in a shutout performance in the final three quarters, while cutting the offense from 7.9 yards per play to 3.4. The improvement was particularly clear in the rushing game, where Utah’s typically dominant offensive line was held under 4 yards per carry for the final three frames.
The punting game, too, was magnificent – and not just because of the unusually high number of kicks. Sophomore Palmer Williams had the game of his life, turning six punts into a jaw-dropping 376 yards, sending all six sailing 50-plus for an average of 62.7 yards per punt. Two were downed inside the 20 and a third hit the front right pylon. Nothing helps a defense quite like good field position, and Williams’ special-teams performance was MVP-caliber.
Ultimately, Baylor’s offense just didn’t have enough juice to eke out a victory that seemed to rest just out of its grasp. The blocked-kick touchdown marked a 10-point swing, but that wasn’t the team’s only critical error. The Bears’ first drive ended after Finn overthrew Jamaal Bell on a screen pass; the second, after Finn lost a fumble at his own 3-yard line. The blocked kick itself was made more difficult by redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Kaden Sieracki’s false start.
And in the fourth quarter, with a two-score deficit and the game on the line, redshirt sophomore center Coleton Price’s false start on fourth-and-4 forced the Bears to punt the game away.
Yet amidst the bevy of errors that whittled away a winnable game, reasons for optimism began to bubble up. By taking on defensive play-calling duties, Aranda has reinvigorated a unit that dropped from 10th in the nation in 2021 to 116th last season. Williams looked like the most exciting punter in the country. A young offensive line held up admirably against a seasoned Utah front seven. The passion is back. And somewhere out there, the bear is waking up from its slumber.
“I’m seeing the fight, and I’m seeing guys that care, and I’m seeing guys that are committed,” Aranda said. “I’m seeing guys that are invested and don’t want to let other guys down. So, I’m seeing a start – there’s a long way to get to the finish.”
