[BAYLOR FOOTBALL] Baylor Football Heads to Lubbock to Face Texas Tech

Mon Oct 24 11:08:03 CDT 2022

BAYLOR ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS – Oct. 24, 2022

Baylor Heads to Lubbock to Face Texas Tech
Bears to face Red Raiders at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday

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 – The Baylor Bears will open a two-game road swing, traveling to face Texas Tech on Saturday in Lubbock in a game that will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2 at Jones AT&T Stadium.

The game will be called by Clay Matvik (play-by-play), Rocky Boiman (analyst) and Dawn Davenport (sideline) on ESPN2. The Baylor Sports Network from Learfield will also broadcast the game, with the Voice of the Bears, John Morris on play-by-play, along with J.J. Joe (analyst) and Ricky Thompson (sideline).

Baylor (4-3, 2-2 Big 12 Conference) will face Texas Tech (4-3, 2-2 Big 12) in the third consecutive game to be played at a home venue, after the two teams played 10 straight in Dallas or Arlington. The Bears will be searching for their first win in Lubbock since 1990 and to snap a 10-game losing streak at Texas Tech.

The Bears are coming off a 35-23 win over Kansas on Saturday that saw Baylor sport a 28-3 halftime lead and finish with 273 yards rushing. BU saw freshman running back Richard Reese – who ranks second among all NCAA freshman in rushing TDs and yards – roll to career highs in carries (31) and yards (186) on a windy afternoon at McLane Stadium, which limited throwing game opportunities. QB Blake Shapen has upped his season total in passing yards to 1,608 yards after throwing for 164 yards and a score and ranks among the BU single-season record holders in passing efficiency (155.7) and completion percentage (68.1).

The Baylor defense totaled its fifth game in seven tries holding an opponent under 100 yards rushing, limiting Kansas to 56 yards on the ground. It marks the second consecutive season BU has held at least five opponents to under 100 yards rushing in a game and is tied for the third-most in Baylor single-season history. BU surrendered just 11 first down to Kansas and held the football for over 40 minutes, its largest time of possession in a game since 1995.

SERIES HISTORY

• Baylor leads the all-time series with Texas Tech, 40-39-1 but Tech leads the series in games played in Lubbock, 24-14-1. The Bears have won three of the last four meetings with Texas Tech and eight of the last 11 clashes.

• The Red Raiders and the Bears have resumed a home-and-home series after playing 10 consecutive meetings in Arlington or Dallas, with the Bears owning a 7-3 record in those meetings.

• Baylor will be in search of its first win in Lubbock since 1990, a stretch of 10 consecutive meetings. Baylor’s last win in Lubbock was a 21-15 win in 1990.

CONNECTING THE TEAMS

• Texas Tech and Baylor have several connections, most notably that Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire spent the last five seasons on the Baylor coaching staff (2017-21). His tenure spanned two head coaches, including Matt Rhule and Dave Aranda, and saw him serve the Bears in a variety of roles, including as associate head coach/ outside linebackers coach under Aranda, as the defensive ends and associate head coach in 2019 and as the tight ends coach in 2017-18.

• Texas Tech Inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder served as the quality control coach for the Bears for the last three seasons also served as a student assistant from 2007-08 before joining the Red Raiders. He is the grandson of legendary Baylor head coach Grant Teaff.

• Tech tight ends coach Josh Cochran served as the quality control coach at Baylor in 2019 after two seasons as the offensive line graduate assistant (2017-18).

• Texas Tech’s head strength coach Lance Barilow served as the senior associate director of athletics performance at Baylor in 2021.

• Quintin Jordan, the director of football operations at Texas Tech, spent the last four years at Baylor, including time as the associate director of student-athlete development in 2018, director of football administration in 2019, and as director of football operations under Aranda in 2020.

• Director of Player Personnel at Texas Tech, James Blanchard, served as the director of recruiting at Baylor in 2019 and 2020 and as the assistant athletics director for scouting in 2021.

• Texas Tech’s director of scouting, Brian Nance, spent three years on the Baylor staff as assistant director of football operations in 2019 and the previous two seasons as associate director of player personnel. He played at Baylor from 2014-17, where he saw action in 38 games with 10 starts on the defensive line, totaling 33 tackles, 8.5 TFL and 2.5 sacks in 2017.

• Baylor Assistant AD for Football Scouting, Aaron Hunt, was an All-American and All-Big 12 defensive lineman at Texas Tech (1999-2002). Hunt set the Texas Tech and Big 12 record with 34 career sacks. He joined the Baylor staff in January 2021 as a recruiting and personnel assistant.

LAST MEETING

• The Bears posted a thrilling 27-24 win over Texas Tech last year at McLane Stadium, clinching a berth in the Big 12 Championship Game and a perfect 7-0 season at home on the year.

• Baylor saw Texas Tech miss a 53-yard field goal against the wind that would’ve pushed the game to overtime, the first missed field goal of the year for Tech’s Jonathan Garibay, who two weeks earlier had drilled a 62-yarder on the final play of the game to beat Iowa State.

• The win clinched a 7-0 record at McLane for the Bears, their first unbeaten season at home since 2013, at Floyd Casey Stadium, and pushed Baylor into its second Big 12 Championship game in the last three years, a title BU would claim over Oklahoma State the following weekend.

• Baylor raced out to a 17-3 lead and a 17-10 lead at halftime, getting a 61-yard TD from Blake Shapen to Trestan Ebner and a four-yard TD run from Abram Smith. Shapen found Ben Sims from nine-yards out for a 27-17 lead with seven minutes left in the game but Tech narrowed the margin and set up the late dramatics with a 75-yard TD strike with 6:40 left.

• Shapen threw for 254 yards on 20 of 34 passes, while Smith rushed 30 times for 117 yards and a score. Ebner caught four balls for 118 yards. Tech’s Donovan Smith threw for 262 yards and two TDs, Tahj Brooks rushed 14 times for 40 yards and a TD and Travis Koontz caught five balls for 117 yards and a score. Terrel Bernard had eight tackles, including two for a loss, to lead the BU defense.

SCOUTING THE RED RAIDERS

• Texas Tech is under the direction of long-time Baylor assistant coach Joey McGuire, who is in his first year leading the Red Raiders. Tech has won four of its first seven games, including wins over Houston and Texas, both in overtime, and most recently a rout of West Virginia on Saturday, 48-10.

• The Red Raiders snapped a two-game losing streak with the beatdown of WVU on Saturday, getting two TD passes from Behren Morton and two TD rushes from Tahj Brooks. The game was never in doubt as Tech held a 31-10 lead after three quarters and scored 17 in the fourth.

• Kenny Perry serves as the associate head coach/special teams coordinator/running  backs coach for McGuire, with Tim Deruyter functioning as the defensive coordinator and Zach Kittley as the offensive coordinator and QB coach. Deruyter comes to Texas Tech after a long stint on the west coast, serving as the Fresno State head coach from 2012-16, the defensive coordinator at Cal from 2017-20 and as the Oregon DC a year ago. Kittley has coordinated some of the top offensive attacks in college football over the last two years, at Houston Baptist and Western Kentucky, and returns to Lubbock after previously working under Kliff Kingsbury from 2013-17.

• TTU has seen Donovan Smith and Morton split time under center, with Smith throwing for 1,505 yards and 12 TDs - to seven interceptions - and Morton owning five TDs and 886 yards in six games. SaRodorick Thompson leads the team with 369 yards rushing and six TDs, while Brooks owns six TDs and 322 yards on the ground. Xavier White has 31 grabs for 409 yards and three TDs, Myles Price has 31 catches for 309 yards and two TDs, and Jerand Bradley owns 27 grabs for 359 yards and three scores. Defensively, Krishon Meriweather has a team-high 55 tackles, Tyree Wilson owns 41 tackles, 9.5 for a loss and 6.5 sacks. Reggie Pearson owns two interceptions and Malik Dunlap has a team-leading eight pass break-ups.

BEARS RUN PAST KANSAS IN HOMECOMING SHOWDOWN

• Baylor used a powerful running game to post a homecoming win over upstart Kansas, stretching BU’s win streak to 13 straight against the Jayhawks. The Bears owned a 28-3 lead at halftime behind TDs from Monaray Baldwin, Richard Reese, Kyron Drones and Jordan Nabors.

• Making his first-career start, Reese rolled to career highs in rushes (31) and yards (186), while finding paydirt twice. He capped a seven-play, 69-yard drive with a two-yard tote to push Baylor’s lead to 12 points with 2:37 left in the fourth quarter, solidifying the win after Kansas had scored 20 unanswered to open the second half.

• Shapen threw for 164 yards and a score on a windy day that made passing a challenge. BU also got 71 yards rushing on nine carries from Qualan Jones.

FOURTH-DOWN AGGRESSIVENESS

• Baylor under Coach Dave Aranda is one of the most aggressive teams in college football on fourth down. The Bears rank second nationally in fourth-down attempts (16), trailing only Texas Tech (20 attempts).

• The Bears have converted 69.6 percent of their fourth-down attempts, which ranks ninth among teams that have attempted double-digit fourth-down tries.

BEARS IN NATIONAL STAT RANKINGS

• Baylor ranks among the nation’s top 30 leaders in 16 categories, including checking in No. 16 in rushing defense, No. 18 in scoring offense and passing efficiency and No. 28 in total offense.

• Individually, Richard Reese ranks 14th in rushing TDs and 32nd in rushing yards. Blake Shapen ranks 28th in passing efficiency and 25th in completion percentage.

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 seven NCAA games.

• Reese has 660 yards rushing over 116 carries with nine TDs, averaging 5.5 yards per carry and 91.9 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 first in rushing TDs and second in rushing yards.

CHASING RUSH DEFENSE HISTORY

• The Bears opened the 2022 season holding each of their first four opponents, and five of their first seven, 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 11 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.

- BaylorBears.com -

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

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