By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Texas Tech’s Homecoming game paid a fitting homage to Lubbock — for all the wrong reasons.
Lubbock natives, redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson and redshirt sophomore linebacker Kyler Jordan, took to the field as team captains with the Bears and won the opening coin toss. Jordan chose Baylor over the Red Raiders coming out of Cooper High School; Robertson, a four-star recruit and Gatorade Player of the Year from Coronado High School, never received a Texas Tech offer at all.
Robertson walked into Jones AT&T Stadium on Saturday with a newfound swagger, playing the best game of his college career and securing a 59-35 victory in the town he once called home. The dual-threat signal-caller completed 21 of 32 passes for 274 yards and five touchdowns, earning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors en route to Baylor’s biggest conference win in two years.
Former Texas Tech edge rusher Steve Linton showed out early, racking up three tackles for loss and a sack in a Homecoming of his own. Baylor’s defense tallied six tackles for loss and picked off Red Raider junior quarterback Behren Morton at home for the first time this season.
With Robertson at the helm, Baylor’s offense showed a renewed sense of moxie that’s been missing the past few seasons. Redshirt freshman running back Bryson Washington, leading the team in carries for the third time this season, rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. Former walk-on wide receiver Josh Cameron caught three touchdown passes.
The green and gold were humming on all cylinders, as the Bears’ offense set a Dave Aranda-era scoring record. And yet the win itself was less important than what it represented: a sea change. To use a Wall Street metaphor, the Bears have finally broken resistance.
It’s been a long time since the Bears have won a Big 12 game in convincing fashion. It’s been even longer since they outperformed expectations like this. Don’t Feed The Bears excepted, few national pundits picked Baylor to pull the upset. But the Bears got up for the game and dominated. To many fans, the win felt like a breath of fresh air.
“Locker room, man, is excited,” head coach Dave Aranda said after the game. “A lot of frustration has been let out. It’s just such a trying (time) and not meeting expectations, and giving effort, to not tap into what you want and what you need — to have a taste of success gives you confidence.”
Baylor’s road to a bowl game still looks tenuous: it’ll have to win three of five down the stretch to earn a spot in the postseason. The Bears haven’t done that against FBS teams since 2022. But a relatively porous schedule, paired with a suddenly explosive offense and gritty passion, make for a welcoming path forward.
A Homecoming dance with Oklahoma State (3-4, 0-4) offers an opportunity for the Bears to string together consecutive wins for the first time in almost two full calendar years. Baylor opened as 6.5-point favorites over the Cowboys, who have lost four straight after making the Big 12 Championship Game a year ago.
Carrying that momentum into blackout Revivalry matchup with TCU (4-3, 2-2) could be big. Outside of quarterback Josh Hoover (Big 12-leading 2,270 yards passing) and wideout/tight end extraordinaire Jack Bech (748 yards receiving, seven touchdowns), the Horned Frogs have looked vulnerable.
West Virginia (3-4, 2-2) is always dangerous in Morgantown, but Baylor should be favored in its final two games: at Houston (2-5, 1-3) and against Kansas (2-5, 1-3). Aside from beating TCU, Willie Fritz’s Cougars have lost three conference games by a combined score of 106-14. Kansas’ Jalon Daniels has the second-worst passer rating of any Power 4 quarterback with at least 180 attempts. A Baylor team heading into this stretch with at least four wins should be bowl-bound.
The stakes, scraping the tile for the better part of two seasons, have been cranked back up to 10. Every game matters, and on Saturday, the Bears played like it. The vibes were high; the intensity was even higher. If they keep it up, the Bears should finish with a winning record — and on a high note — for the first time since 2021.
