By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor & Audrey Tucker | Broadcast Sports Reporter
As Damari Alston walked out of the interview room, he paused. He had one more thing to say.
“Three things are certain,” Auburn’s leading running back said. “Death, taxes and Auburn running the football.”
Auburn ran the football plenty Friday night. Led by former Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold (137 yards rushing, two touchdowns), the Tigers ran for 307 yards, breezing to a 38-24 victory over Baylor at McLane Stadium.
LTVN’s Audrey Tucker brings you to sidelines for the season opener
“There [were] designed quarterback runs that we really should’ve fit up better,” Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. “I think the biggest disappointment in all of it was just the tackling. I wish the tackling would’ve been so much better, and that’s something we might have to address.”
The mural of the game could be painted in fourth downs.
Aranda, whose Bears finished second in the Big 12 in fourth-down conversions last season, gambled early and often, ultimately sending out the offense seven times on fourth downs.
Replays ruled redshirt senior tight end Michael Trigg a half-yard shy of the first-down marker on the game’s opening drive, bringing up fourth-and-short. The offense didn’t budge. Redshirt sophomore halfback Bryson Washington, who finished with 54 yards on 14 carries, moved the chains up the middle.
Washington picked up 17 more yards up the right sideline on a speed-option toss before handing the reins to true freshman Caden Knighten, who turned his first career carry into 17 yards. Redshirt freshman kicker Connor Hawkins, a newly minted starter after a lengthy camp battle, converted a 36-yard try for his first career points.
“I think that’s one of the better defenses we’re gonna play against, had a lot of talent, and obviously [our wide receivers] were making a lot of plays,” said redshirt senior quarterback Sawyer Robertson, who completed 27-of-48 passes for 419 yards and three touchdowns.
Baylor’s defense forced a three-and-out, stuffing quarterback Jackson Arnold on third down to regain possession. Two plays later, senior wideout Kole Wilson beat press coverage and hauled in a 57-yard bomb to put the Bears back in prime real estate.
This time around, though, the offense stalled, and the Bears turned the ball over on downs. In the seven plays following Wilson’s catch, Baylor netted six total yards.
“We sputtered there for a little bit in the second quarter, but I think we moved the ball effectively and played well for the most part,” Robertson said. “We just gotta finish better.”
Defensive lineman Jackie Marshall went down with a lower-body injury following Auburn’s first conversion of the game. The redshirt senior has battled injuries throughout his career and attempted to hobble off the field before stumbling. Trainers ultimately helped him to the sideline.
“It sucks when you have a player like that go down,” redshirt junior linebacker Keaton Thomas said. “That’s my brother; sad that he wasn’t in the game. It’s always tough when you have somebody with so much potential out. But it’s next man up at that point, it’s football.”
As the Bears sputtered, Auburn came alive. Arnold led the Tigers on a 12-play, 96-yard touchdown drive while personally toting the ball three times for 36 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown scamper. One drive later, they ran the ball six straight times for 57 yards and a score.
After a breezy first possession for Baylor, the script was fully flipped. The Bears managed just 22 yards in 2 1/2 drives after Wilson’s catch, including another turnover on downs. Despite not losing any interceptions or fumbles, only two of Baylor’s six scoreless possessions ended on the foot of preseason All-American punter Palmer Williams.
“I thought that we had a good beat on what they were in and what they were gonna give us, and so it gave us a really clear view of what we had to dial up to get that down,” said Aranda, who sent the offense out seven times on fourth downs, converting thrice and drawing a penalty on a fourth. “And then, two, I thought that defensively we were struggling to stop them, and we needed to create some momentum and [to] keep the ball with the hot hand, so to speak.”
All three possessions resulted in Auburn points, dropping the Bears into a 17-3 hole. Facing fourth-and-8 on the Auburn 33-yard line, Aranda called for yet another fourth-down conversion attempt — his fourth of the night — and got it.
Nobody lined up over senior Alabama transfer Kobe Prentice in the left slot. He darted upfield, outran the Auburn safeties and secured the first touchdown of Baylor’s young season.
With 20 seconds left in the half, pinned on their own 42-yard line with three to gain, Baylor did it again. Robertson threw a dart to senior wide receiver Louis Brown IV, drawing a defensive holding call to keep the fire burning. But the clock ran out on the drive, sending the Bears into halftime with a 17-10 deficit.
“The vibe in the locker room, as far as that went — [we] stuck in it, stayed fighting,” Robertson said. “That’s kind of what summarizes this team: a lot of dudes who are gonna fight to the very end.”
Auburn continued to gash the Bears on the ground in the second half, again averaging over five yards per carry and tacking on another ground touchdown, this time from Jeremiah Cobb. But more gambling brought the Bears back within one score.
Back in the red zone, the Bears’ offense continued to sputter. With four to gain and the game on the line, the Bears turned to Knighten, who secured a pass in the flats for his first career touchdown. The Bears finally had some momentum in their favor.
Then Auburn’s Rayshawn Pleasant returned the kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.
“Maybe internally a little bit [frustrated], because it’s always disappointing to see something like that happen,” Wilson said. “But as far as being one of the leaders on the team, I kind of have a little controlled aggression … [There’s] no time to be down, anything can happen.”
The Tigers had a 93.5% win probability entering the fourth quarter, per Game on Paper. Washington broke off a 49-yard sprint to open the frame, but it was called back for holding. The offense backed up from the Auburn 3-yard line to its own 40.
A series of spectacular catches salvaged the drive. Redshirt senior Josh Cameron broke a half-dozen tackles for 27 yards across the middle, Wilson tacked on another 22 and Trigg hauled in a 16-yard first down and a 4-yard score. One-score game.
With just under 12 minutes to play, Auburn responded, mounting a scoring drive which ended — perhaps fittingly — with a fourth-down conversion. Arnold went 27 yards on the Tigers’ only fourth-down attempt of the game to score what became the game’s final points.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Thomas said of Arnold’s success on the ground. “When you have a quarterback who has the skillset that he has, it’s tough. It goes from 10-on-11 to 11-on-11 when you have a quarterback that can scramble like that, and we just have to get him down.”
Baylor’s final drive concluded where its first scoring drive began: facing fourth-and-1. Trigg couldn’t corral a tough pass in the back of the end zone, handing Auburn the ball at their own 11-yard line to run out the clock. The die was cast, and it came up navy and orange.
“It’s a tough locker room to leave,” Aranda said at the start of his media availability. “It’s tough to go through a game like that. … I thought there was a bunch of try-hard and want-to, [but] the execution, just so much to be desired. There’s too many times where we would make a move and try to get in the thing, to only get in our own way.”
The Bears’ defense never found its footing in the run game. The unit allowed 307 yards on the ground (5.9 per carry), the worst showing of Aranda’s Baylor tenure. Baylor’s 4% run stuff rate (two total stops) ranks in the 0th percentile of all FBS defenses.
Next week, the Bears will look to right the ship against SMU, a reigning College Football Playoff team that also features a dual-threat quarterback in Kevin Jennings. The game will kick off at 11 a.m. Saturday at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas.
