[BAYLOR FOOTBALL] No. 22 Baylor Football Ventures to Morgantown to Face West Virginia on Thursday

Fri Oct 7 15:34:46 CDT 2022

BAYLOR ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS – Oct. 7

Baylor FB Ventures to Morgantown to face West Virginia on Thursday
Bears to face WVU on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT

For more information contact: Brent Ingram; 210-845-8651, brent_ingram at baylor.edu<mailto:brent_ingram at baylor.edu> or Max Calderone; 254-265-1639, max_calderone at baylor.edu<mailto:max_calderone at baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas -- No. 22 Baylor football will hit the road for a league matchup, traveling to face West Virginia on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT at Milan Puskar Stadium.

The game will be televised live on FS1, with Noah Eagle (play-by-play) and Mark Helfrich (analyst) calling the action. The contest will also be broadcast on the Baylor Sports Network, with the Voice of the Bears, John Morris (play-by-play, J.J. Joe (analyst) and Ricky Thompson (sideline) on the call.

The Bears will head to Morgantown coming off a loss vs. No. 9/7 Oklahoma State on Oct. 1 and fresh off an idle week. BU will be searching for its first win in five meetings in Morgantown.

SERIES HISTORY

• West Virginia leads the all-time series with Baylor, 6-4, including a 5-0 mark in games played in Morgantown. The Bears have won two of the last three meetings, which snapped a three-game win streak for WVU in the series.

• The Bears have won the last two meetings in the series in Waco. WVU extended its streak to five straight wins over BU in Morgantown with a double-overtime win over the Bears in 2020, 27-21.

18-STRAIGHT GAMES HOLDING OPPONENT UNDER 30

• Over the course of the 2021 through the start of 2022, Baylor’s defense put up a historic run, the likes of which haven’t been seen in 36 years.

• It was the longest such Baylor streak in the modern-era of college football and the longest since 1984-86. Only three times since 1964 has Baylor had a streak of 18 or more games holding an opponent to 30 or fewer points, also doing it in 1979-81, a 25-game stretch.

• The Bears were one of only three teams to hold each opponent of 2021 under 30 points, joining Clemson and Cincinnati. Last year, Baylor on average held opponents to 10.6 points per game below their averages in other games.

CHASING RUSH DEFENSE HISTORY

• The Bears opened the 2022 season holding each of their first four opponents to under 100 rushing yards. It marked the longest streak of consecutive games holding foes to under 100 yards on the ground since 1953, when the Bears held opponents in games 2-6 (Miami, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, TCU) to under 100 yards rushing.

• The season program standard for holding an opponent to 100 yards or fewer on the ground came in 1986, when the Bears held Wyoming, LA Tech, USC, Houston, Texas A&M, Rice and Texas to under 100 yards rushing. BU held six opponents to 100 yards or fewer on the ground during the historic 2021 season.

• A total of 10 opponents in the last two years haven’t reached 100 yards rushing, the best two-season total in program annals.

BAYLOR LEADS NATION IN FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL WINS

• Baylor athletics is in the midst of a historic run of success, including recent national titles in men’s and women’s basketball, and football coming off a Big 12 Conference Championship in 2021 and the 2022 Sugar Bowl.

• Since 2011, and as of Sept. 28, 2022, no other school can compete with Baylor’s run, as the Bears lead the nation in wins combined among football, and men’s and women’s basketball. Baylor has 56 more wins than the next closest school, Notre Dame. The next Big 12 Conference team on the list is West Virginia at No. 22 and Texas at No. 25.

LAST MEETING

• Baylor routed West Virginia in the last meeting, a 45-20 win in Waco at McLane Stadium that improved the Bears to 6-1 and dropped WVU to 0-4 in the Big 12. The Bears opened up the game with a 28-10 lead at halftime, including a 21-point first quarter, to cruise to the win.

• BU QB Gerry Bohanon threw for a career-high 336 yards and four TDs, while also rushing for a score. Abram Smith rushed 11 times for 87 yards and a score, with Trestan Ebner toting it eight times for 53 yards. Tyquan Thornton had a monster game with eight grabs for 187 yards and two TDs, while Drew Estrada grabbed four balls for 90 yards and Ben Sims hauled in a pair of touchdowns. Defensively, Terrel Bernard had nine tackles, including a sack, while Brayden Utley chipped in six tackles and a stop for a loss. Jalen Pitre had an interception to go with five tackles.

SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS

• West Virginia, coached by former Kentucky wide receiver Neal Brown, comes into the game also spending Saturday off with an idle week after falling on Oct. 1 at Texas, 38-20. It dropped WVU to 0-2 in Big 12 Conference play, also falling vs. Kansas 55-42. The Mountaineers have a win over Townson and at Virginia Tech.

• Brown is assisted by assistant head coach Matt Moore, who has been with Brown since his days coaching Troy, offensive coordinator Graham Harrell and defensive coordinators Jordan Lesley and Shadon Brown.

• WVU is averaging 38.2 points per game, allowing 29.6, with 454.8 yards of total offense a game, including 268.6 through the air and 186.2 on the ground. Opponents are going for just 331.4 yards per game, with 230.8 through the air and 100.6 on the ground.

• Former Georgia QB J.T. Daniels has thrown for 1,209 yards - 241.8 yards per game - with eight TDs and two interceptions. Tony Mathis has rushed 70 times for 296 yards and three TDs, while CJ Donaldson has toted it 56 times for 389 yards and six TDs. Bryce Ford-Wheaton has four TD grabs over his 35 catches, going for 412 yards.

• Kicker Casey Legg has yet to miss an attempt in 2022, nailing all eight of his field goals and 19 PATs.

• Defensively, WVU is led by Lee Kpogba, who has 31 tackles, two for a loss and one sack. Dante Stills has a team-high 2.5 sacks, while Jacolby Spells owns the lone interception for the Mountaineers.

NO. 9/7 OKLAHOMA STATE RIDES HOT START TO 36-25 WIN

• No. 16/14 Baylor fell behind 23-3 early in the third quarter to No. 9/7 Oklahoma State but couldn’t overcome the hole during a furious rally that saw BU cut the lead to a one-score game later in the quarter, falling 36-25 to the Cowboys in a rematch of the 2021 Big 12 Conference Championship Game.

• Baylor found itself down 23-3 after allowing a kickoff returned for a touchdown early in the third quarter but responded with 14 straight points to cut the lead to 23-17. OSU answered with a 50 yard kickoff return on the ensuing possession and took two plays to regain a 30-17 lead. The lead grew to 33-17 before Baylor got a 70-yard TD strike from Blake Shapen to Monaray Baldwin - their second TD connection of the game - with a two-point conversion cutting it to an eight-point game with 2:14 left in the third quarter.

• Baylor threw an interception on its own 33-yard line with 8:52 in the quarter and OSU finished an eight-play drive with a field goal for an 11-point lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

• Shapen threw for a career-high 345 yards, with the two scores to Baldwin, who had a career-high seven catches for 174 yards. Richard Reese rushed 17 times for 85 yards and his NCAA-freshmen leading seventh TD of the year. Linebacker Dylan Doyle had a team-leading 10 tackles.

• Spencer Sanders threw for 181 yards for the Cowboys, also rushing 14 times for 75 yards. Dominic Richardson had 24 carries for 73 yards and a score. Jaden Nixon had the big blow of the game, a 98-yard kickoff return for a TD in the third quarter.

BEARS IN NATIONAL STAT RANKINGS

• Baylor ranks among the nation’s top 30 leaders in eight categories, including checking in No. 20 in rushing defense and No. 27 in scoring offense.

• Individually, Richard Reese ranks 10th in rushing TDs and 45th in rushing yards.

PERSON > PLAYER

• A hallmark of Coach Dave Aranda’s philosophy in building a program is placing an importance on understanding that the person is more important than the player. This mantra is executed in everything the program touches on a daily basis. Throughout the football building, signage adorns the walls that emphasize, “better people make better players” and that Baylor will “win with character”.

• Aranda preaches that players focus on today and be authentically themselves in an effort to be comfortable and confident in their roles.

REESE EMERGES

• Baylor freshman running back Richard Reese is off to a hot start to his collegiate career, leading the Bears in rushing through his first five NCAA games.

• Reese has 400 yards rushing over 72 carries with seven TDs through five games, averaging 5.6 yards per carry and 80 yards per game.

• A native of Bellville, Texas, Reese had 156 yards on the ground in a rout of Texas State and scored three TDs. Among NCAA freshmen, Reese ranks tied for first in rushing TDs and fourth in rushing yards.

- BaylorBears.com -

--
Brent Ingram | Assistant AD for Communications
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 210-845-8651

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