By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
It’s been that kind of year.
Just when Baylor football thought it had a chance at securing a Senior Day win, West Virginia sucked the life out of McLane Stadium. After being held to 74 yards on 18 plays in the second half, the Mountaineers hurried 80 yards down the field in six plays to defeat the Bears 34-31 Saturday night at McLane Stadium.
West Virginia (8-4, 6-3 Big 12) scored the go-ahead TD with 23 seconds left in the game to stun Baylor (3-9, 2-7 Big 12) and hand it its fifth-straight loss. WVU junior quarterback Garrett Greene found freshman running back Jahiem White wide-open on a wheel route down the left side to score the 29-yard game-winning TD.
Seventh-year senior safety Bryson Jackson — who played in his final game at Baylor — said the Mountaineers’ final drive was “unfortunate” and that it’s going to sit with this team for a while.
“It leaves a distaste in your mouth, but I think that everybody in that locker room learned from it, and it’s something that we struggled with all season, just with finishing in those critical moments,” Jackson said.
West Virginia won its second game ever in Waco, matching its victory in 2017. Head coach Neal Brown, who’s in his fifth year at WVU, had to stop and comprehend the importance of his first personal win at McLane Stadium.
The home team won had won the last five games of the series prior to Saturday’s contest.
“This is the third time I’ve been in this press area, and this is by far the best feeling I’ve had,” Brown said. “I thought we had a chance here four years ago (a 17-14 loss) and got worn out pretty good in 2021 (45-20).”
Baylor missed a pair of field goals, including one from 32 yards out that would have given it a seven-point lead with 1:14 left.
The Bears have now lost nine straight home games to FBS opponents, as their last win came when they defeated Kansas 35-23 on Oct. 22, 2022, on homecoming. Baylor finished the year 1-7 at home, the most home losses in program history and the most in the country. The Bears led the nation with eight home games this season.
Head coach Dave Aranda said there’s “a lot to improve on” moving forward and that he takes full responsibility for the disappointing season.
“This year is not acceptable, and that starts with me,” Aranda said. “And so, [there’s] a lot of work to be done.”
The Mountaineers outgained the Bears 365 yards to 86 in the first half en route to a 27-14 lead. Baylor’s only points came from sophomore running back Richard Reese, who scored back-to-back kickoff return touchdowns of 96 and 93 yards, respectively, in the second quarter.
If my math is correct, Baylor's special teams unit is outscoring its offense in the first half against FBS foes this season.
With 14 points so far, the Bears special teams crew has scored 54 points in the first half this season. The offense, meanwhile, has scored 42 points.
— Michael Haag (@MichaelHaag_) November 26, 2023
Reese became the first person in program history to record back-to-back kickoff return touchdowns in a game, and he was the first since Trestan Ebner (Kansas, 2020) to have more than one in a single game.
Reese said it was awesome to hit pay dirt on back-to-back kickoff returns and that his success is a product of taking practice seriously.
“I mean, practice makes perfect,” Reese said. “So we give it our all in practice and we practice it every day and we apply it to the field.”
Baylor took its first lead of the game after it outscored West Virginia 14-0 in the third quarter. Filling in for injured starting redshirt junior quarterback Blake Shapen (concussion), redshirt sophomore quarterback Sawyer Robertson connected with junior wide receiver Ketron Jackson Jr. for a 38-yard TD on the first drive of the quarter. The strike marked Jackson’s first receiving TD as a Bear, and he joined junior wideout Monaray Baldwin as the only wide receivers on the roster with receiving touchdowns this season.
Robertson finished 17 of 19 passing for 215 yards and a TD, adding 15 rushes for 33 yards. Jackson caught three passes for 88 yards and a receiving TD.
The Bears’ defense then forced a three-and-out before the offense marched on another scoring drive. A separate 38-yard connection between Robertson and Jackson put Baylor in the red zone, and junior running back Dominic Richardson scored his first rushing TD as a Bear — this one from two yards out — to give them a 28-27 lead with 5:45 left in the third.
“I thought in the third quarter and second half we were able to settle down,” Aranda said. “It was good to see defensively guys have fun and get on the hunt there for a little bit … but it was disappointing at the end of it.”
Redshirt sophomore kicker Isaiah Hankins booted a 39-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to extend Baylor’s lead to 31-27, and the Bears’ defense came up with a fourth-down stop near midfield much later in the quarter. With an opportunity to run out the clock, Baylor couldn’t convert on its second and last trip to the red zone, as Hankins’ chip-shot field goal sailed wide right.
Despite being contained for most of the second half, the Mountaineers rushed 80 yards down the field to score that go-ahead TD in just 51 seconds. West Virginia didn’t even have a timeout for that game-winning drive.
Greene was responsible for 372 of WVU’s 519 total yards of offense, including 103 rushing yards on 17 attempts. White led the Mountaineers on the ground with 133 rushing yards on 17 carries.
West Virginia became the sixth team in Big 12 play this season to have an individual rush for 100-or-more yards on the Bears. The Mountaineers join Cincinnati as the only team to have two players rush for 100-or-more yards on Baylor this year.
The Bears now enter an offseason in which they have a lot to figure out moving forward. Head coach Dave Aranda’s future could be in question as the college football coaching carousel continues to take form. Aranda is 23-25 in four years at the helm, and the Bears have lost 13 of the last 16 overall contests.
#Baylor HC Dave Aranda said he and AD Mack Rhoades have had many talks and that those will continue. Aranda said he wants to do well and that there's support at Baylor to do so.
"I feel like this is a great fit for me … (and) this is something I care deeply about."
— Michael Haag (@MichaelHaag_) November 26, 2023
