By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
Josh Cameron. Jacob Redding. Ryan Lengyel.
Three stars for the Bears this season. Three players who came to play for head coach Dave Aranda’s program for nothing more than chasing a dream.
“I think that walk-ons just give such a heart and soul to a team,” Aranda said.
The Bears have been fueled this fall by three walk-ons who have gone from their scholarship-less freshman status to household names among Baylor fans.
Redshirt senior wide receiver Cameron is leading the team in yards receiving for the second year in a row, with 542 yards through seven games. Coming off a breakout year last season, Cameron is familiar with shining under bright lights.
“Confidence is the number one thing I can build on,” Cameron said. “Whenever you can get confidence and then put it with all the other things, I mean, it becomes just, ‘Watch out.’”
Cameron is no stranger to finding confidence in his work. The Cedar Park native had zero stars out of high school and only two offers — a preferred walk-on spot at both Baylor and Texas State.
“The love I got from Baylor was just different than anywhere I’ve ever been,” Cameron said. “I immediately felt like I could do something big here.”
Cameron is doing big things on the Brazos. The wide receiver has found himself in his final year with the Bears, gaining national attention, including being named to the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the best wide receiver in the country each season.
Redshirt sophomore safety Redding came into the limelight for the Bears a little more recently.
Redding, a New Braunfels native, was a unanimous First Team All-District selection in his senior year of high school and he also thrived on the track, qualifying for state in the 4×100 and 4x200 meter relays.
The safety grew up watching the Bears, hoping to one day don the green and gold himself.
“This is something that I never really thought I would be at,” Redding said. “I never really thought I would be doing this, so for this to even be a possibility, God had to open up my life and put me here in this position. I just thank the Lord.”
Redding found his way into a starting position after senior safety Devin Turner suffered a season-ending knee injury in spring camp.
Since making his way to the top of the depth chart, Redding hasn’t looked back. Halfway through the season, the former walk-on has been responsible for arguably the two most impactful plays of Baylor’s season: a fourth-quarter interception in the Bears’ 48-45 victory over SMU in Week 2 and a game-saving, 58-yard pick-six against Kansas State in Week 6. Redding also recovered an onside kick against TCU in Week 8.
“In that moment, I mean, that was surreal,” Redding said after the SMU game. “That was something I’ve dreamed of doing since I was at Baylor games when I was 12 years old … I’ve come to really believe in myself this last year and a half.”
Redding, after his electric pick-six, was named the national Burlsworth Trophy walk-on player of the week last week.
Redshirt senior offensive lineman Lengyel had higher expectations out of high school than Cameron and Redding, but took time to grow into his own for Aranda’s program.
The former three-star held a handful of Division I offers out of high school. Most of them, including Baylor, were preferred walk-on spots that encouraged a redshirt year.
Lengyel came to the Bears for the 2021 season, where he got to spend his redshirt season learning behind an offensive line that paved the way for a Big 12 championship.
The 6-foot-6 lineman expected to get playing time immediately after his redshirt season, but found himself making rare appearances on the field as a reserve. He finally got an opportunity to show what he could do in 2024, when he started all 13 games for the Bears.
“The beginning of last season, I kind of used to figure out what kind of player I wanted to be,” Lengyel said. “I had to kind of figure out how to play against our opponents because I’d just been going against our own defense the past three years.”
Lengyel, now a tenured starter for the Bears, is using his path to playing time as motivation for younger guys in the same position.
“I’ve been telling some of them that we should pull up some of my freshman year fall camp tape,” Lengyel said. “I’ve been trying to show them how much better they’re doing than I was, because I was pretty freaking bad.”
Three stars, once walk-ons, have been stellar for the Bears this season. As the team looks toward the looming second half, there is no intent to slow down.
Baylor’s next game will be a visit to No. 21 Cincinnati at 3 p.m. Saturday at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
