By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
With a blackout on the horizon, Baylor football will look to snap the second-longest home losing streak to FBS opponents in the nation when it clashes with Air Force in a rematch of the 2022 Armed Forces Bowl, one of the coldest bowl games in college football history, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium.
Baylor (1-1) will debut its brand new dark “Anthracite” alternate uniforms in front of a crowd that is encouraged to wear black for a promotion called ‘Mission Black Ops.’ The annual Salute to Service game will be the first time the Bears wear black uniforms since the university’s Nov. 17, 2018, when they played TCU. Since the university’s rebrand in 2019, Baylor has been without a dark jersey in its arsenal.
Coming off a losing effort against No. 11 Utah, the green and gold will be forced to pivot quickly to defend an Air Force (1-1) team built on the triple option. Even while digging into film of the Falcons, head coach Dave Aranda dissected every moment from last week’s game against the Utes to clarify what needs adjusting.
“There’s a lot we have to prove. That first quarter is not acceptable. I think the start of it — the big plays that we gave up, getting the kick blocked and the strip sack and all of those things were just completely avoidable. I take responsibility for all of those,” Aranda said. “We cannot win playing that brand of football.
“Now, the ability to kind of regroup and to fight through and to make adjustments, I’m proud of that, and I think we’ve shown the ability to do that through these last two games. That will extremely be tested in this game. There’ll be a million adjustments in this one.”
Not only are the Bears looking for revenge, but trying to prevent their home losing streak against FBS opponents from extending into double digits. The green and gold are just one of four teams in the nation that have lost their last seven or more home games against FBS opponents. The other schools are Massachusetts (10), Stanford (9) and Cincinnati (8), a team Baylor beat on the road in 2023.
While redshirt junior safety Devin Lemear believes the loss against the Utes revealed “things to work on,” he has seen significant progress from the 2023 squad, which has given the team hope that they will complete the turnaround.
“We’re resilient. We didn’t quit. In the past, I’ve been a part of teams where you could definitely feel the shift. It would be like more so, ‘Oh, here we go again. We’re going to fold.’ But this game showed that we have a lot of fight in this team, and I’m really proud of that,” Lemear said.
One of the Bears’ primary focuses in the lead-up to the game was shoring up the offensive line. Aranda continued to back the steady competition, and junior offensive guard Omar Aigbedion also claimed that having more guys push each other would better the position group. After allowing eight pressures in Week 2, Aigbedion wasn’t shy about stating that the group needed to improve.
“We learned that we still have a lot of work to do. We had an unsuccessful game. And I think our team is very hungry, and we’re determined not to let that happen again,” Aigbedion said. “Losing in the fashion we did — not having a very successful first half, not really a successful game at all. The offense starts with the O-line, so we definitely have to do some self reflecting and go back to work this week. “
In the fourth quarter against Utah, sixth-year senior quarterback Dequan Finn left the field with an injury. He returned one series later, and Aranda felt his leadership in those moments helped turn the tide and gave the team momentum leading up to their clash with Air Force.
“Dequan took a hit to the ribs and was feeling sore and was wanting to come right back. I was walking with him off the field, he was just saying, ‘There’s no way I’m coming out of this game.’ And so his determination, everything to come back — I think the whole team saw that, and was able to kind of get a bump and everything off of that,” Aranda said.
Defensively, Lemear and the Bears have shouldered a bigger load this week as they anticipate run after run. As Air Force shows off their physicality in one-on-one matchups, Baylor will stay competitive by matching intensity and decisiveness.
“I’ve experienced it before in 2022 — well actually, we practiced for it for an entire month. So you just go into it knowing it’s going to be a physical game, knowing that you need to read your keys; they’re going to do a lot of moving. So, if you don’t have your eyes in the right place, the ball can get out fast,” Lemear said.
When the Bears battled the military academy in the 2022 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, Baylor allowed 67 rushes for 276 yards. Over the course of the game, Air Force only attempted seven passes and had possession for 40:03, more than two-thirds of the game.
The Falcons have changed since then, losing a great deal of seniors who were a part of the third consecutive nine plus win team in 2022. They are coming off a 17-7 loss to San Jose State University and currently sit 130th out of 135 in offensive success rate with a 30% passing play percentage. Air Force bottoms the FBS in offensive yards per play, but their unique playing style keeps the Bears from taking it lightly.
At the end of the day, Baylor wants desperately to make up for a crushing bowl game loss in 2022.
“It’s just to prove a point that we’re a physical team. Because, I mean, that’s the reputation that Air Force and all the teams that run the triple option have. So there’s a lot of doubts the past couple years just about our physicality,” Lemear said. “So this is a time to prove that we can match up with them, not even match up, but just exceed anything that they bring.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium, with the game broadcast on FOX.
