[BAYLOR FOOTBALL] Baylor Football Hosts No. 3/6 Texas in Final Matchup as League Foes

Tue Sep 19 09:28:25 CDT 2023

BAYLOR ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS – Sept. 19, 2023

Baylor Football Hosts No. 3/6 Texas in Final Matchup as League Foes
Bears Welcome Horns for 6:30 p.m. Showdown 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> or Colin Pirtle; 940-564-0351, colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu<mailto:colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas -- Baylor football will welcome No. 3/6 Texas for a final matchup in the series as league foes, with kickoff slated for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at McLane Stadium.

The game will be televised live on ABC, with Dave Pasch (play-by-play), Dustin Dvoracek (analyst) and Tom Luginbill (sideline) on the call. The game will also be broadcast live on the Baylor Sports Network, with the Voice of the Bears, John Morris (play-by-play), J.J. Joe (analyst) and Ricky Thompson (sideline) voicing the action.

SCOUTING THE HORNS

• Texas, the preseason pick to win the Big 12 Conference, is off to a 3-0 start to the 2023 season and rides a wave of positive momentum into the league schedule. The Horns picked up a 37-10 win over Rice in week one, with the Owls then besting Houston the following week, before earning a 34-24 win over No. 3/3 Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 9. UT picked up a win over Wyoming in its non-conference finale on Saturday in Austin.

• The Horns are averaging 34 points per game, with 409.3 yards of total offense, including 260 through the air and 149.3 on the ground. Opponents are averaging 276.3 yards of total offense, with 96.3 on the ground and 180 in the air.

• QB Quinn Ewers has thrown for 246.7 yards per game, with eight TDs without an interception. Jonathon Brooks has rushed for 273 yards and a score, while Xavier Worthy has 16 grabs for 221 yards. Adonai Mitchell has nine catches for 134 yards and three TDs. Defensively, David Gbenda has 18 tackles, with Jaylan Ford chipping in 17. Jerrin Thompson has two interceptions.

• Texas is coached by third-year head coach Steve Sarkisian, who took over after serving two years as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, following two years in the same role for the Atlanta Falcons. He was the head coach at USC from 2014-15 and Washington from 2009-13.

• Sarkisian is assisted by assistant head coach Jeff Banks, who also serves as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. Banks spent three seasons on the staff at Alabama, after spending five years at Texas A&M, nine years at UTEP, four years at Idaho State and three years under Mike Price at Washington State, where he was an all-conference punter. Jeff Choate is the co-defensive coordinator, who came over after four seasons as the head coach at Montana State, with stops at Washington and Boise State. Choate is joined with the defensive coordinator role with Pete Kwiatkowski, who spent the last seven seasons at Washington and Boise State. Veteran offensive line coach Kyle Flood is the offensive coordinator, who came to Texas after two seasons as the offensive line coach at Alabama. He was the head coach at Rutgers from 2012-15, going 27-24, also working seven years on the RU staff as the offensive line coach.

BAYLOR VS. TOP-25 FOES

• Baylor will be facing No. 3/6 Texas in its second matchup against a ranked foe in 2023. It will mark the 262nd all-time game for the Bears against a ranked foe.

• BU is 59-195-6 against ranked foes all-time and fell vs. No. 12/12 Utah on Sept. 9. In 2021, Baylor went 5-1 against ranked teams, including wins in four-straight chances, and three straight against top-eight foes.

• By comparison, former coach Art Briles lost 14 straight games against ranked foes to open his career, going 11-22 against ranked opponents in his career. Jim Grobe went 0-2 in his season in Waco, and Matt Rhule went 0-11 against ranked opponents at Baylor.

SERIES HISTORY

• Texas leads the all-time series with Baylor, 80-28-4. UT leads the series, 31-18-2 in games played in Waco.

• The Bears are in search of a second consecutive win over Texas in Waco.

• The Bears have won two of the last four meetings in the series, including a 24-10 win in Waco in 2019 and a 31-24 win in 2021 in Waco.

THE 2022 MEETING

• No. 23 Texas used a strong finish to outlast the Bears in the meeting in Austin last year, 38-27.

• The Bears jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first eight minutes and gained an early lead in the fourth quarter following a scoop and score from Gabe Hall but the Horns rode the back of Bijan Robinson to 14 unanswered points to complete the comeback.

• After the sack fumble and return from Hall gave BU a 27-24 lead, UT did not put the ball in the air the remainder of the game, running it 22 consecutive times over its final three possessions to secure the win.

• Blake Shapen threw for 179 yards on 18 of 36 passing with two TDs and one interceptions, finding Ben Sims and Jaylen Ellis on TD strikes. Richard Reese carried it 15 times for 54 yards and Josh Cameron had four catches for 48 yards. Robinson rushed 29 times for 179 yards and two TDs, with Roschon Johnson toting it 13 times for 77 yards and two TDs.

LAST MEETING IN WACO

• In the meeting last year in Waco, the No. 16 Bears posted a 31-24 win over Texas, bouncing back from a 24-14 loss at Oklahoma State. BU moved to 7-1 with the win over Texas, using 21 unanswered points after falling behind by double digits in the second half. It marked the third-straight double-digit lead blown by the Horns, who lost their third-consecutive game after falling vs. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State before an idle week that led to the Bears game.

• Trailing 21-10 midway through the third quarter, the Bears went on three-straight TD drives, including a six-yard rush from Gerry Bohanon, a one-yard run from Ben Sims for a score and an Abram Smith 32-yard scamper for a TD to take a 31-21 lead with 7:59 left. Texas kicker Cameron Dicker cut the lead to 31-24 with a field goal after a 66-yard drive and the Horns got the ball back at their own 32 with 2:07 left on the clock, trailing by seven. The BU defense forced four-consecutive incompletions from Casey Thompson to regain the ball and end the game with the win.

• Bohanon threw for 190 yards and rushed for 27, while Abram Smith outgained the Big 12 rushing leader, Bijan Robinson, who averaged 2.5 yards per carry with 43 yards over 17 totes. Smith had 145 yards on 21 carries, while Trestan Ebner had 12 carries for 66 yards. R.J. Sneed had eight catches for 94 yards and a score for BU, while Texas was led in the air by Xavier Worthy’s four grabs for 115 yards. Thompson threw for 280 yards with two scores and a pick for the Horns.

CONFERENCE LID-LIFTER

• Baylor will be seeking its sixth straight win in a Big 12 Conference opener, with its last loss to open conference play coming in 2017.

• The Bears have wins over Kansas (2018), Iowa State (2019), Kansas (2020), Kansas (2021) and Iowa State (2022) in league openers during the stretch of five straight wins.

• Baylor has opened conference play on the road in two of the last three years.

FRESHMEN, NEWCOMERS MAKE IMPACT EARLY

• The Bears have relied heavily on first-time starters and newcomers early in the 2023 season.

• A total of 19 of Baylor’s starters in the first three games have been first-time starters. Eight of those first-time starters have started both of the first two games, which makes that 25 of Baylor’s 44 starts (57%) in the first two games coming from players who had not started a game prior to 2023.

• The total of 19 first-time starters through the first three games of the year marks a stark contrast to the last two seasons, when Baylor had six combined first-time starters in 2021 and nine combined first-time starters in 2022.

• Baylor has also played 20 freshmen in 2023.

ARANDA THROUGH 39 GAMES IN BAYLOR HISTORY

• Dave Aranda is 21-18 in his first 39 games as the Baylor head coach, which is the most since Chuck Reedy went 22-17 from 1993-95. Only George Sauer (1950-52), Morley Jenkins (1926-28), Frank Bridges (1920-22) and Charles P. Mosely (1914-16) has more wins through the first 39 games of their BU head coaching career.

THIRD-MOST WINS IN TEXAS IN LAST 10+ YEARS

• Through the opening of the 2023 season, Baylor has won 97 games since 2011, third-most among the state of Texas’ 12 FBS teams during that time.

• BU’s 97 wins in the last 10+ years are shy of Houston (98), Texas A&M (98) and TCU (98), and ahead of Texas (86), SMU (72), UTSA (70), Texas Tech (70), North Texas (66), Rice (56), UTEP (44) and Texas State (41).

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 the end of the 2022-23 athletics season, 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 58 more wins than the next closest school, Notre Dame. The next Big 12 Conference team on the list is BYU at No. 13, Texas at No. 22 and West Virginia at No. 25.

UP NEXT

• Baylor will hit the road for the first time in 2023, traveling to face UCF in Orlando on Sept. 30, with kickoff slated for 2:30 p.m. CT and the game to be broadcast on FS1 or FS2. The game has been sold out since the summer and will mark UCF’s first Big 12 Conference game.

- BaylorBears.com -

--
Brent Ingram | Assistant AD for Communications
Men’s Tennis Sport Program Administrator
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 210-845-8651

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