By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
When redshirt junior offensive lineman Ryan Lengyel went through summer workouts before his freshman year, he introduced a signature look that has since been a staple of personality on the O-line. On game day, Lengyel trots onto the field with his helmet on and his majestic mullet rolling out the back and blowing in the wind.
Flashing his personality and flair, the left guard gets to play the game without needing to be anything more than himself.
“I like the way it looks out of the helmet. I like that it’s not professional per se because it makes me feel young and full of life. I don’t really want to have a high and tight haircut right now,” Lengyel joked. “Yeah, I can have a high and tight haircut the next four years of my life, or I’m gonna go bald for all I care. Might as well enjoy it while it’s growing.”
Baylor’s starting left guard embodies everything head coach Dave Aranda has fought for since taking over five years ago. Lengyel lives the memento that Aranda has preached, that “football is what I do, not who I am,” while enjoying every opportunity he sees on the field. Before the 2024 season, the Dallas native had seen limited playtime but still came into practice every day with a smile and a fight to get better.
“It’s definitely been a journey. I sat the bench for three years, played a little bit of field goal here and there, but nothing really substantial, no meaningful snaps,” Lengyel said. “Going into the offseason, I really didn’t have a positive outlook. I think when the coaching staff transitioned over to what it is now, I kind of had a lot of maturity and growing up to do.”
The offseason posed a unique challenge for the entire offensive line, including Lengyel. When offensive coordinator Jake Spavital was hired, he filled his staff with new coaches, including Chris Kapilovic, who was brought on in mid-December to man the O-line. Just two months later, Kapilovic bailed on Baylor for an opportunity at Alabama, leaving the Bears in limbo.
Needing to find a new leader, it only took two days for Spavital to bring in Mason Miller to fill the vacancy.
The coaching carousel wasn’t the only thing that threw a wrench into the Bears’ plans on the O-line, as touted transfer Kurt Danneker went down with an injury in the first week of practice and was forced to medically retire prior to the season.
“We didn’t really have a set coach or set depth chart going into the spring ball,” Lengyel said.
The competition for the starting left guard position spanned from spring camp until the final week of fall camp when Aranda praised Lengyel for his work ethic. Doing it his own way, Lengyel has pumped up the entire offense.
“He’s a fighter. He scraps, he fights,” Aranda said. “I think some of the things that he does, they’re not necessarily graceful, and probably not the way you draw it up, but he fights guys down, he gets hands on people and he finds a way to get him onto the ground – finish them. And that’s been consistent.”
With his third different offensive line coach during his Baylor tenure, Lengyel’s development has also been attributed to how he wants to approach life after football. He’s seen three completely different styles and personalities, each of which has changed how he approaches football.
“You see kind of what you like about people, what you like about coaches, what you like about the relationship you have with a certain coach,” Lengyel said. “Maybe with one coach, I didn’t really want to play. I always felt like he was putting me down. I didn’t want to succeed. It was easier in the shadows.
“One coach tried to bring the best out of me by yelling, another coach is pure business. So all this stuff helps me in being able to see what I want from future employers, or how I would like to be as an employee.”
A constant bright spot for Lengyel has been second-year graduate assistant Craig Watts, who works with the offensive line. Watts played a key role in helping Lengyel find his confidence to compete for the newly open starting left guard position. However, at the end of 2023, Lengyel understood that if 2024 wasn’t his year, his role would probably never come. So Watts urged him to give it his all.
“12 months ago, I wasn’t even traveling, so being able to go into the offseason kind of saying [the starting left guard] is what I want it to be. And if I go for the top job and I don’t get it, that’s okay. I did my best.” Lengyel said. “Craig Watts has this great quote and goes, ‘If you’re going to go for the top thing, you have to be able to accept the lowest result.'”
Before fall camp, the 6-foot-5, 310-pound offensive lineman was considering working as a hunting guide or game warden. But with one last shot to earn his keep, Lengyel won the starting job and has been playing at a high level that has led to national recognition.
“It’s now or never. If I don’t perform this year, they’re not going to want me back for a fifth year. My playing days are over. I would have been a practice guy, so I kind of lit a fire underneath me,” Lengyel said. “Staying here, I mean, they’ve poured so much energy and effort into me, it just doesn’t feel right to leave.”
The ‘now or never’ mentality has worked so that the decision to return in 2025 for a redshirt senior season now falls on Lengyel rather than the coaching staff.
With so much change, the redshirt junior had to adjust to the new Air Raid offense, which forced him to bulk up from 295 to 315 pounds at the start of spring camp. Even after gaining the weight needed to hold his own in the offense, Lengyel ran 17.9 miles per hour during the summer. So when Miller sat down with Lengyel early in the season to reaffirm the “foot fire” and speed needed for the offense, making a change worked wonders.
In the past two games, the Baylor offensive line hasn’t allowed a sack and Lengyel’s tenacity in the trenches has resulted in several pancake blocks that allowed the offense to keep running.
“Moving someone against their will is a really cool feeling,” Lengyel said. “I had this really cool one that [the coaches] were highlighting the other day, and everyone’s going, ‘Ooooh, ahhhh!’ That’s a cool feeling, because all the guys know what it takes to get those and those aren’t easy at this level.”
But for as many times as Lengyel forces a player to the ground, there are a few times in which he finds himself laid onto the turf. But for Aranda, Lengyel’s ability to bounce back has elevated his game tenfold.
“One of the things that is most appreciative about him is that he’ll do that after he was the guy just the play before getting taken to the ground. That doesn’t faze him. All that stuff would faze me. But it doesn’t phase him,” Aranda said. “He gets right back up, and the very next play is putting somebody else into the dirt. I think there’s a contagious thing that goes with that, and he’s right in the center of it. I’m really proud of him.”
From watching Baylor football win a Big 12 Championship on the sidelines to starting in the Bears’ highest-scoring game against a Big 12 opponent under Aranda, Lengyel’s journey has been far from easy. But with a smile on his face, he rode the lows of struggling to find a place on the team to becoming one of the most exciting offensive linemen in the Big 12.
And all of it while staying open to the possibility of failure. So when asked what he would say if he knew this was where he would be to his high school senior self, he was happy for the ride and still spotting the bright spots.
“I think that if you told me about the last three years [when I was in high school], I’d be like, ‘Oh, maybe not so much fun.’ But I think I knew all that could happen coming here, and I said, ‘Okay, I’m willing to work for four years and see what happens. And if not, I got a great education, great school and good friends,'” Lengyel said. “If I told myself that, he’d probably be pretty happy,”
The Bears will be back in action against Oklahoma State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium. The game will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
