By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
A month after officially naming a starter, Baylor’s quarterback battle is finally over. In the wake of Saturday’s 31-3 victory over Air Force, there should be no doubt that Sawyer Robertson is the best option to captain Jake Spavital’s offense.
The Bears managed to control the ball for fewer than six minutes in the first half as the Falcons’ triple option attack ground the clock to a pulp. But while the sun set, the Bears’ playbook opened up, and Robertson began to show off his improved arm strength and decision making. The redshirt junior completed 18 of 24 passes for 248 yards and chipped in a touchdown run as the Bears secured a 31-3 victory.
“I thought Sawyer came in and performed really well,” head coach Dave Aranda said after the game. “I thought there was poise with him in times in camp with all of it. The rush was kind of getting in his face and he was getting the ball out prior to all of that happening, so there’s that calm in the pocket, that pocket presence, was good to see. The ball was distributed to guys that could go do something with it. That was a positive.”
Robertson spent the offseason battling for the starting job, eventually losing to sixth-year senior Toledo transfer Dequan Finn. It was familiar territory for Robertson, who lost another position battle to former Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen the offseason prior. But the vibes felt distinctly different the second time around.
Reports throughout the offseason were seemingly in lockstep: Robertson looked impressive. SicEm365’s Grayson Grundhoefer said in April that Robertson was pushing Finn “far more than I think anyone anticipated.” As the battle stretched into fall camp, Aranda remained mum amid constant questions about the position: “They’re battling.”
“It’s a close competition,” Aranda said in mid-August, days before naming Finn the starter. “Guys are battling. And when I say that, Sawyer’s battling. And I think Dequan is battling.”
Finn, a big-time transfer from Toledo, ranked among the most decorated quarterbacks in the portal this offseason. The 2023 Mid-American Conference MVP brought 8,914 career all-purpose yards and 88 touchdowns to Waco and entered the offseason as the presumptive starter.
With a big offseason recruiting push – and, presumably, some sweet NIL money – thrown Finn’s way, it would’ve been a major surprise to see him holding a clipboard in Week 1. But Robertson’s offseason play still made Finn sweat enough that Aranda pushed the final decision back to fall camp. Apparently recovered from an ankle injury that hobbled him for much of 2023, the former Mississippi State transfer planted himself firmly in the conversation for QB1.
Finn’s first game as a power-conference quarterback was up-and-down: his three touchdowns, highlighted by an electric read-option sprint up the right hash, were undercut by two interceptions and several other ill-advised deep shots into traffic. Aranda noted in the postgame press conference that his to-do list included addressing Finn’s decision making on when to pull the ball and scramble.
But the following week was disastrous. Finn had posted stellar performances in previous power-conference road games against Ohio State and Illinois, but seemed rattled at Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium. Finn completed nine of 21 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown, missing several screen passes around the line of scrimmage and taking a 22-yard strip-sack on the team’s second drive.
It was a completely uncharacteristic performance for Finn, who posted his worst passer rating with more than 20 attempts since the 2021 Bahamas Bowl. His day could’ve come to a close after sustaining a shoulder injury in the second half, but he muscled through and led the Bears to a 12-0 run across the final two-and-a-half quarters.
The fit of Spavital’s air raid offense continued to look shaky – Finn is at his best playing on the move outside of structure, whereas the air raid is predicated on quick decision-making and precision passing. The pair were strange bedfellows that never seemed fully on the same page. But a home match against Air Force stood as a prime opportunity to get right before hitting the road for Colorado.
That opportunity to get-right never happened. Aranda said after the game that Finn was “day-to-day” all week, though he still donned a sling Saturday. The dull echo of fans clamoring for Robertson to start (a familiar cry over the past two seasons) finally found fertile soil, though not in the way anyone hoped.
Dequan Finn is wearing a sling on his right arm pic.twitter.com/dTAymbCN89
— Darby Brown (@darbyjobrown) September 14, 2024
Despite inauspicious beginnings, Robertson made the most of his first start of the season. The Bears’ offense spent two weeks looking disjointed, wheels spinning, but suddenly smoothed out in the second half against Air Force. Robertson looked poised and accurate, with improved zip and command on the ball. He’s played in the air raid offense since high school, and looked completely comfortable within Spavital’s system.
“Really happy for Sawyer,” Aranda said. “Sawyer has been in a bunch of battles. He has won a few of them and has come out second in the majority of them. And so, to go through all that, and to kind of grow as a person, and to kind of self-reflect, and to kind of mature and show that maturity and help other people when they’re going through that. That’s Sawyer.
“It’s just way cool, man. For him to have his time and to make the most of it is really cool to see. There’s a lot of fans of his in that locker room right now.”
It’s hard to compare Finn and Robinson in a vacuum. Pick a metaphor – fire and ice, thunder and lightning, mountains and beaches – they’re classic opposites. Finn would play much better in Air Force’s offense, for instance, and spent years playing terrifically in Jason Candle’s scheme at Toledo. But Robertson’s home is the air raid. And for now, it’s a house he deserves a chance to live in.
The offensive flow felt night-and-day from the Utah and Tarleton State games. Hitting the quick “gimme” routes native to the air raid made life way easier for the Bears’ offense, which wasted several plays cramming a round peg into a square hole against the Utes. Finn’s sudden quickness was missed – Robertson’s six yard score was his longest rush of the night – but Spavital’s scheme doesn’t require a dynamic dual-threat quarterback. It needs a decisive, accurate one. It needs Sawyer Robertson.
“Saw-Dawg, man, he’s great,” breakout redshirt freshman running back Bryson Washington said after the game. “A lot of people don’t know too much about him. He’s a quiet dude. He’s down to earth. I love everything about Sawyer. Like, he’s a great friend. He kept me out of my head when I was going through my troubles. He’s a great leader. There’s nothing else I can really say – he is a great leader.”
Finn remains hobbled, but whether he’s 100% or not, there should be no question about who earns the starting nod against Colorado in Boulder. It’s only Air Force, but Robertson answered every question and checked every box. Unfortunate injury aside, there’s no point in pretending otherwise: the Bears have found their guy at quarterback. And there’s no point wasting time pretending otherwise.
