By Foster Nicholas | Editor-in-Chief
Behind redshirt senior quarterback Sawyer Robertson, 2025 feels like Baylor football’s best shot to make a College Football Playoff run. But head coach Dave Aranda and the Bears left a sour taste Saturday with an underwhelming second half against Samford.
The 42-7 win over the Bulldogs (0-3) felt eerily similar to Baylor’s (2-1) lackluster 30-7 win over Long Island on Sept. 16, 2023. With then-starter Blake Shapen dealing with injuries, Robertson earned his first career start, completing 10-of-22 passes for 113 yards and one touchdown.
“Some of the Sawyer that we saw today was maybe the Sawyer from two years ago or further back,” Aranda said. “We’ve got to get the Sawyer that we’ve got now, we’ve got to get him back to himself, as last year or the beginning of this year. That was not what was happening today.”
Robertson’s grown a lot since 2023, and Baylor has been spoiled with solid quarterback play. Over the course of the nine games prior to Saturday afternoon, Robertson’s play was the Bears’ best since Bryce Petty’s breakout seasons in 2013 and 2014. But against the Bulldogs, Robertson didn’t look like himself.
Routine passes flew over heads on every drive, as his once explosive ground game was non-existent. Baylor’s star was still under center in the fourth quarter of a blowout.
Robertson threw his first two interceptions of the season against the worst team he’s faced this year and completed 23-of-37 passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns. The 37 attempts were more than any game during the Bears’ six-game win streak in 2024, and he did so against a non-Power Four school.
“I think he was feeling the pressure of stuff not working,” Aranda said. “He was feeling the fog of not everyone focused in and not everybody giving the type of effort that’s demanded. And I think he’s trying to make plays. He’s trying to make something out of nothing at times.”
No, it’s not time to panic, but in the midst of a push to win the Big 12, Saturday was a great opportunity for one half of highlights and another of rest. Robertson didn’t look like himself and there was no benefit to leaving him on the field to potentially take big hits.
Nothing new – let alone good – came from a scoreless third quarter with the starter on the field.
“I wouldn’t say I’m concerned, but we for sure have to get better with just doing everything offensively overall,” redshirt sophomore running back Bryson Washington said.
Throughout the offseason and the weeks leading up to Baylor’s game against Samford, head coach Dave Aranda remained non-committal about who the backup quarterback would be. Redshirt freshmen Nate Bennett and Walker White, an Auburn transfer, and freshman Edward Griffin shared the role on Baylor’s depth chart.
In the end, it wasn’t a focus, as the Bears finally moved on to Bennett with 10:18 to play in the fourth quarter and a 35-point cushion.
“We’re thinking of going in order of how long the guys have been here,” Aranda said when asked if Bennett was the backup quarterback moving forward. “Everyone’s going to get played differently in terms of where their talent lies and how to best kind of move the ball based upon their skill.”
Bennett completed 5-of-7 passes for 34 yards during Baylor’s final two possessions.
“It was fun to see — I mean, Nate took some hits and stepped into some throws and made some reads, so that’s way cool to see,” Aranda said. “He’s been through quite a bit to be able to have that opportunity and make the most of it. [I’m] proud of him.”
Moving to QB2 has always been something of an oddity under Aranda. Against Tarleton State in 2024 and Long Island in 2023, the Bears didn’t put in their backup until the fourth quarter. In 2022, then-backup Kyron Drones entered Baylor’s season opener against Albany and turned heads with 100 yards passing and a rushing touchdown. Later that year, he opted for the transfer portal and found a starting job at Virginia Tech.
Barring injuries, that was the lone game Aranda had inserted as his backup quarterback to relieve the starter in a game before the fourth quarter.
“If the game was going where it looked like we’re going to win the game and there was a healthy lead, we want to try to [keep Robertson in until] halftime,” Aranda said. “By the time that we get to that phase of it, all of a sudden we’re going backwards and we didn’t want to leave until we gave him one more drive.”
No matter the reason, one more drive turned into four and Baylor played with fire. Even with a win, the Bears aren’t out of the woods on feeling the burn if the problems continue into Week 4.
“The film is never as good as you think, and it’s never as bad as you think,” senior wide receiver Kobe Prentice said. “I’m sure there’s a lot that we can grow from for this game. It wasn’t pretty, but we got the dub, and it’s not easy to win at the college level.”
The Bears (2-1) will open conference play against Arizona State (1-1) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium.
