By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Riding its first four-game winning streak since 2021, Baylor football is still looking to prove it can keep the hot streak rolling with improved defense and steady offense against Houston at 6 p.m. Saturday at TDECU Stadium in Houston.
After the Bears (6-4, 4-3 Big 12) clinched bowl eligibility with a 49-35 win over West Virginia, the growth of the team was on the top of head coach Dave Aranda’s mind. Despite a 5-13 record spanning from the 2023 season to the first bye week of 2024, there was always a “belief” that brighter days were ahead.
“There’s a bunch of dudes that have just been through a lot of adversity, pressure [and] disappointment,” Aranda said. “I think anytime you go through that, the easiest thing to do is quit, just to walk away from it and be like, ‘Why am I doing this? Why?’ So, having not done that, and to continue to fight through it … for you to now have success and flip the tables, I think that’s pretty cool. So, to have another game and to celebrate all that is pretty neat.”
On Saturday night, a Baylor spokesman confirmed that Aranda would return to coach the team in 2025. After a 2-4 start to the season and a sour 43-21 loss to a ranked Iowa State team before the bye week, the fifth-year head coach managed to pile negative momentum into the team’s second-longest win streak with him at the helm.
“When I remember the Iowa State game, it was a pretty brutal feeling,” Aranda said. “More than that, though, I think everyone knew we were a good team, and everyone knew we were way better than this.”
Senior tight end Gavin Yates has been through the highs of a Big 12 Championship and the lows of a 3-9 season in 2024. The veteran said the bounce back and poise from the team this year was different than years prior. To Yates, there was no question Baylor football was going to achieve big things, even after a disappointing start.
“I think a lot of people would’ve folded [and] threw in the towel after Week 4,” Yates said. “I think it shows the coaches really believe in us, and we have a belief in our coaches that they’re going to put us in the best position and we’re going to have a good strategy to win the game.”
Above all else, Yates said the team was fighting for a bowl game appearance for Aranda as much as for each of the guys next to him.
“I love that guy. I love playing for Dave Aranda,” Yates said. “I love everything that he stands for and the man that he molded me to be. I want to see him here, and I want to come back for alum games and see Aranda on the field with his little glasses and his playsheet, screaming at the defense. I love it. It fires me up. So, of course, I wanted to go to a bowl game for Aranda.”
Yates said the team has discussed the potential bowl game sites and opponents, but the goal is to conquer the regular season first.
“Obviously, you work for a national championship, but a bowl game is in the right direction,” Yates said. “So, it’s exciting, and it’s an opportunity to be with your best friends and teammates in a different place. We know the more games you win, the better bowl game you get, so we’re still trying to win out. That’s the plan. We want to get the best bowl game we can.”
Over the past four weeks, Baylor has averaged the most points (45.8) and rushing yards (259.5) per game in the Big 12. Behind redshirt freshman running back Bryson Washington, who has scored eight touchdowns in the last two games, and redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson, who is sixth in the nation in quarterback rating (84.9), the offensive tone set by Jake Spavital has been instrumental in the turnaround.
“The coaches were pouring into us and harping on us the little details,” Washington said. “They knew we had it in us, but it was just like we needed them to push us a little more so we could see that we had the dog in us to do what we were capable of doing.”
The Bears’ next challenge is facing a Houston (4-6, 3-4 Big 12) team that Aranda considers “dangerous,” with the best front seven Baylor has seen this season. The Cougars have allowed 22.5 points per game behind a top-6 rushing and passing defense. Already in a groove, Washington said he felt Baylor’s winning impulse would give them the energy to keep rolling against a strong run-stopping squad.
“That winning momentum is something serious,” Washington said. “I never really realized it until I got to the collegiate level. I feel like the team is ready to play going into every week. Our practices are more hype and everybody has energy and everybody has juice.”
Clinching bowl eligibility was sweet for the Bears, but Aranda was still fixated on allowing a garbage-time touchdown against West Virginia. Although the Bears have clawed together victories, they’ve allowed 33 points per game during their four-game winning streak, a number the defensive-minded head coach isn’t pleased with.
“I think we’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Aranda said. “It’s one of those things where it gets to be a part of the year where you kind of are who you are. I was trying to say that in the right way. I was pretty pissed on Saturday night. When you’d like to get better by leaps and bounds and miles and miles, but it’s a fight to get better by an inch. It’s a straight fight.”
Aranda said he hoped for a strong defensive response against the Cougars. Houston has allowed the second-most sacks and scored the fewest points per game (14.0) of any Big 12 program (30). Without sophomore safety Carl Williams IV, who underwent surgery for a torn meniscus, the Bears will rely on redshirt sophomore safety Corey Gordon Jr. and a group of young players with less experience to hold their ground.
“To not be discouraged and to continue to fight for that inch and to believe that you’re going to get it and all that is the most important thing,” Aranda said. “I think the game on Saturday is a good example of that. I wish that it would be way prettier than what it is, but you’ve got a new baby; it’s an ugly baby. And you’ve got to love it, nonetheless.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. as the Bears take on the Cougars in Houston for the first time since 1995 at TDECU Stadium. The game will be broadcast on FS1.
