By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Sawyer Robertson’s breakout season forever altered the trajectory of Baylor football.
With head coach Dave Aranda on the hot seat, preseason starting quarterback Dequan Finn out indefinitely and the offensive line struggling to adapt to Jake Spavital’s new scheme, the Bears looked like they might limp to the finish line.
But Robertson, a Mississippi State transfer who threw more interceptions than touchdowns as a sophomore, changed the equation. After sitting behind Will Rogers for two seasons in Starkville and losing camp battles to Blake Shapen and Dequan Finn in Waco, Robertson’s career teetered on the edge of a “what-if.”
Those four lost camp battles lit a fire under the Lubbock native, who took over in Week Three when Finn went down — and never looked back. Robertson closed the regular season on a six-game win streak to save Aranda’s job and secure the program’s second winning season of the 2020s. He finished the season with an 83.7 QBR, fifth-best nationally and highest in the Big 12.
“Sawyer’s up there all the time, wants to get better,” Aranda said. “There’s confidence with him, and there’s confidence in him, and there’s equally or even greater confidence with guys for him. I just think that there’s such a belief in what he can do, and when he talks, people listen.”
For the first time in his college career, Robertson is entering spring ball locked into a starting role. Write it in pen or in Sharpie — wherever he goes, the team follows. That security has opened the door for him to lead more fully, offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said.
“He knows it’s his team and he’s doing a great job with it,” Spavital said. “He’s trying to take that leadership role over. Last year at this point, he was just trying to win the quarterback competition. And now he’s put together a pretty solid year. He knows what he needs to improve individually … but where you notice him the most is just the leadership role that he has.”
In 2024, Robertson threw for 3,071 yards, 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions. No other Big 12 quarterback reached the 3,000-yard mark on fewer than 456 attempts — Robertson did so with 368. His 28 touchdowns through the air ranked second in the Big 12 behind Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, a projected top-five NFL draft pick.
“I do think they’ve got a pretty good vibe of how the offense is and how we can play with a tempo and we can spread it around,” Spavital said. “I think that Sawyer is getting very good with his checks. I’m giving him a ton of freedom right now, which is fun to watch because he’s learning that sometimes it’s too hard to do it. He’s taking too long to do certain things — but that’s just the trial and error of what you do in spring.”
Spavital has coached plenty of elite college quarterbacks in his time, from Johnny Manziel and Kyler Murray to Geno Smith and Brandon Weeden. The biggest similarity he sees between Robertson and most of those players, he said, is football IQ.
“I think just the intelligence side of it all,” Spavital said. “You could literally just call a formation and Case [Keenum] could get you in the right play. And I challenged Geno with that, and Will Grier and even Brandon Weeden, and a lot of guys over the years. And that’s what I’m doing with Sawyer: I’m letting him check, I’m letting him call.”
High praise from fans and coaches can easily get to a quarterback’s head; appearing on a preseason award watchlist is an easy dopamine hit. Robertson pointed to the long developmental road ahead of him, saying he’s “keeping his head down” and preparing the way he always has.
“I’m not where I wanna be,” Robertson said. “I’m off social media, which helps a lot. Now, sometimes it’ll get sent to me by a family member or a friend. And that’s fine, it’s just part of it. But like I said, I know my weaknesses and things that I’m trying to attack right now, and so blocking that stuff out is important and deleting social media is something that’s helped a lot.”
Back-to-back disappointing seasons in 2022 and 2023 lowered expectations across the program. In the NIL and transfer portal era, Baylor seemed at risk of falling behind. Robertson is spearheading hope for the opposite.
“He’s a great leader as a mentor to that quarterback room,” Aranda said. “I know defensively, guys have a ton of respect for him and just the dog that he is and the learner that he is and the communicator that he is. We’re blessed to have him.”
