By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
One year ago, Sawyer Robertson was riding the pine.
The Mississippi State transfer sat for two seasons in Starkville before transferring to Baylor, where he lost position battles to Blake Shapen and Dequan Finn. He stuck around.
With Finn injured heading into Week 3 of the 2024 season, Robertson stepped into the starting role and flourished, finishing fifth nationally in quarterback rating and leading the Bears to six straight wins to close the regular season.
One year later, all thoughts of the bench are in the rearview mirror. Robertson won AP Player of the Week honors for his performance against No. 17 SMU (1-1), and now heads into Week 3 as a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender.
“Sawyer’s been ripping it,” redshirt junior offensive lineman Kaden Sieracki said. “He’s been dicing up the defenses.”
Robertson completed 34-of-50 passes for 440 yards and four touchdowns Saturday, leading the Bears (1-1) to a 48-45 double-overtime victory over the Mustangs. Stretching back to last season, he’s racked up over 400 yards passing in each of his past three games — against LSU, Auburn and SMU. All told, he completed 61.1% of his passes for 1,304 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception in that span. National pundits are taking notice.
“The guy’s got all the skillset that you want,” CBS Sports analyst Danny Kanell said. “He’s got a cannon for an arm. … He looked like the best quarterback in the country. In the end, somebody else may win the Heisman, somebody else may have a team that’s better, but for me, he’s the best quarterback in college football.”
Despite only playing two games — some teams have played three — Robertson leads all Power-conference quarterbacks in passing yards (859) and ranks second in touchdown passes without an interception (seven). He’s outpacing the Big 12’s second-place passing yards-per-game leader, Arizona’s Noah Fifita, by 162.5 yards. In a conference of gunslingers, he’s quickest on the draw.
“You can’t take Sawyer for granted,” head coach Dave Aranda said after Saturday’s victory. “[For] us, for Baylor, to have Sawyer Robertson, you can’t take it for granted.”
SMU halfback TJ Harden’s third rushing touchdown put the Mustangs up 38-24 with 8:38 to play. The rest of the way, Robertson went 6-for-9 for 112 yards and two touchdowns to force overtime — and the rest, as they say, is history.
“It was just a one-play-at-a-time mentality,” Robertson said. “In my brain, I was thinking that we’ve got to make something shake and pretty fast. Thankfully, we did, and then we had to get the ball back and go do it again. Pretty crazy.”
The Bears’ first score down the stretch came on a 48-yard heave to redshirt senior Josh Cameron, who wrestled through two tacklers into the end zone to cut the lead to seven. With 34 seconds to play, sitting just outside the red zone, Robertson found senior wideout Kobe Prentice — who’d split the defense up the seam — for a game-tying 21-yard touchdown.
“The game has slowed down so much for me,” Robertson said. “I’m so in the mindset of doing everything I can to win the game. Leave it all out there. I don’t know how many more times I’ll be able to play — we had some guys go down with injuries today, and it could’ve easily been me. So I’m playing every snap like it’s [my] last and those things take care of themselves.”
Cameron’s game-high 151 yards receiving paints an incomplete picture of Baylor’s passing game. Eight players have caught a pass, and five have crossed the century mark — including Cameron and sixth-year wideout Ashtyn Hawkins crossing the 200-yard mark.
“They’re balling out,” Sieracki said. “Sawyer has been throwing for 400 yards or whatever, and so I think watching those guys, the athletes out there make plays, and watching Ashtyn jump like 50 inches, it’s pretty sweet to watch. It’s fun watching those guys be athletes.”
Robertson and the Bears will play a tune-up game against FCS Samford (0-2) Saturday before heading into Big 12 play. The nation’s most chaotic conference has already begun to swing topsy-turvy, as preseason darlings (and soon-to-be Baylor opponents) Arizona State and Kansas State have struggled against lower-level competition.
Led by the nation’s No. 1-ranked passing attack, Baylor will host the Sun Devils (1-1) next week before heading north to face the hapless Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-1). In the meantime, the Bears will look to keep offensive coordinator Jake Spavital’s high-flying offense limber against the Bulldogs.
“It’s really cool to see how explosive they are and just how well they work together, like seeing Sawyer and Spav and the relationship they have,” redshirt junior safety Michael Allen said. “It’s been a blast.”
