By Rory Dulock | Copy Editor
It only took a few seconds into the start of the first quarter for the tone to be set for the rest of the afternoon Saturday at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas — a game which featured struggling defenses for both teams.
While SMU redshirt junior quarterback Kevin Jennings’ pass to redshirt senior wide receiver Romello Brinson for a 75-yard touchdown was the first strike against the Bears — and the first play of the game — it was ultimately Baylor redshirt freshman kicker Connor Hawkins’ field goal in the second overtime that led Baylor to a 48-45 win over SMU.
SMU (1-1, 0-0 ACC), coming off a College Football Playoff appearance after beating East Texas A&M 42-13 in Week 1 and was ranked No. 17 heading into the game against Baylor. The Bears’ win against SMU marks the first time since Jan. 1, 2022 that Baylor beat a ranked opponent; the last time being a 21-7 Sugar Bowl victory over No. 8-ranked Ole Miss.
Baylor (1-1, 0-0 Big 12) entered the game coming off a 38-24 loss to Auburn last Friday, with noticeable weaknesses in its defense — something that Baylor head coach Dave Aranda addressed after the game.
“We’ve got to be able to clean up their eyes and where they fit and everything — I have to coach that better,” Aranda said after the Auburn game. “We’re just focusing on getting better and getting back out there.”
Aranda had said some of the things the team was going to fix before facing SMU included not only avoiding beating themselves, but also finding ways to be creative and contain the quarterback, one whom Aranda had compared to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.
“This film is going to be ugly, but it’s always good to deal with ugly stuff when you have a win,” Aranda said after the game.
As for speaking to the resilience of the team and what they had to overcome, Aranda said they showed up in the end today due to their team’s understanding of what it takes to get the job done for their teammates.
“They care about each other; it’s a tight team,” he said. “I think they care about the leaders of this team. I think what the leaders represent and who they are and how they go about what they do — they aspire to be that — so they want to see guys like that win.”
However, the Bears struggled to slow down the Mustang offense or its quarterback throughout the game. The Mustangs finished the game with a higher yards-per-catch average than the Bears (18.4) and were successful with their only fourth-down attempt, whereas the Bears went 3-for-6 for fourth-down efficiency.
“It’s football,” Baylor redshirt junior linebacker Keaton Thomas said. “Crazy things happen all the time. You have to be ready for anything. You can’t be too high; you can’t be too low. When things like that happen, that’s adversity, that’s life. Jump over that hurdle and keep pushing and keep making plays, keep dominating, keep being physical because you never know who’s going to get the last laugh.”
The Bears were able to get the offense going in the second half, with redshirt senior quarterback Sawyer Robertson finishing the game with 440 yards and 34 completions.
“I thought Sawyer at the start of the game was kind of feeling his way through it … you can’t take Sawyer for granted, us for Baylor, to have Sawyer Robertson, can’t take it for granted,” Aranda said. “The type of person that he is, the leader that he is — he’s inspiring our own players.”
Robertson said the team has put in a lot of hard work since the end of last season to be able to pull off wins like Saturday’s. He also said the team’s mentality was centered around “one play at a time” to come up from behind in the fourth quarter.
“I’m just so in the mindset of like doing everything I can to win the game,” Robertson said. “Leave it all out there. I don’t know how many more times I’ll get to be able to play. We had a couple of guys go down with injuries today, that could’ve easily been me. So just playing every snap like it’s your last.”
The Bears will now prepare to close out their nonconference schedule next week against Samford (0-2, 0-0 FCS) for the teams’ first matchup since 2002. They will kick off 11 a.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium.
