Browsing: Dave Aranda

December is here, which means one big thing for college football: Bowl season is near. Before the matchup is set in stone, the Baylor Lariat Sports Desk predicts which bowl the Bears will play in and who will stand on the opposing sideline.

While school was out of session for students to enjoy Thanksgiving with their families, Baylor Athletics continued trucking as it feasted. Across four different sports, the Bears combined to go 8-1 during the weeklong vacation. Here’s everything you may have missed in Baylor Athletics over Thanksgiving break.

Since hiring Spavital this offseason (and moving redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson into the starting lineup), Baylor’s offense has sped light years ahead of where it was a year ago. Jeff Grimes’ wide zone offense finished No. 101 nationally at 23.1 points per game. In less than a full season on the job, Spavital has the Bears up to No. 23 nationally and second in the Big 12 at 35.1 points per game.

Baylor football head coach Dave Aranda is one win away from bouncing back from a 3-9 season in 2023 and securing bowl eligibility in 2024. The Bears (5-4, 3-3 Big 12) are on a three-game winning streak and will look to win their first game on the road against West Virginia in program history at 3 p.m. Saturday at Milan-Puskar Stadium in Morgantown.

Ten years from kicker Chris Callahan’s historic last-second game-winning field goal to knock off TCU 61-58, redshirt junior kicker Isaiah Hankins replicated the magic with a 33-yard field goal as time expired to help Baylor football knock off their in-state rival, 37-34, on Saturday night at McLane Stadium.

Looking to claim a three-game winning streak for the first time since 2022, Baylor football will host its first “blackout” since 2016 while celebrating the 2013 and 2014 Big 12 Championship before a rivalry game against TCU at 7 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium.

From watching Baylor football win a Big 12 Championship on the sidelines to starting in the Bears’ highest-scoring game against a Big 12 opponent under Aranda, Lengyel’s journey has been far from easy. But with a smile on his face, he rode the lows of struggling to find a place on the team to becoming one of the most exciting offensive linemen in the Big 12.

Although the Bears (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) snapped a nine-game losing streak against Big 12 schools with their 59-35 win over Texas Tech out of the bye week, against the Cowboys (3-4, 0-4 Big 12) the green and gold will have another gnarly losing streak to snap. Since the 2021 Big 12 Championship season, Baylor has only won one game against an in-conference foe at home – a 35-23 homecoming win over Kansas on Oct. 22, 2022.

The stakes, scraping the tile for the better part of two seasons, have been cranked back up to 10. Every game matters, and on Saturday, the Bears played like it. The vibes were high; the intensity was even higher. If they keep it up, the Bears should finish with a winning record — and on a high note — for the first time since 2021.

Coming off a bye week two games below .500 at the halfway point in the season, Baylor football has a strong sense of urgency. Head coach Dave Aranda and the Bears caught their breath and rolled out a new game plan as the team prepares to clash with Texas Tech at 3 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock.

Silenced by 24 unanswered points to close the game, Baylor football dropped its eighth consecutive game against Big 12 programs dating back to 2023 as No. 16 Iowa State slammed the door with a 43-21 victory Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

From blowing a two-score lead against Colorado to a failed comeback against No. 22 BYU, Baylor football has been only a few plays away from sitting atop the Big 12. But after failing to find one more first down in Boulder and falling into a 21-0 deficit against the Cougars, the green and gold are still hanging on to the idea of proving themselves.