STILLWATER, Okla. – For the first time in over 20 years, Mike Gundy wasn’t patrolling the narrow sidelines of Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday. Instead, interim head coach Doug Meacham stood in his place, as it was announced on Tuesday that Gundy had been fired following an embarrassing 19-12 home loss to Tulsa, which dropped the Cowboys to 4-11 across their last 15 games.
The Pokes, desperate to infuse some energy into a program on the brink, entered the matchup against Baylor as three-touchdown underdogs, and planned all week to pull out all the necessary stops to try to accomplish an improbable upset.
While Baylor was able to leave Stillwater with a 45-27 win, it wasn’t the prettiest performance, and it teetered toward ugly most of the time, leaving people to question why it’s so difficult for Dave Aranda’s team to put it all together on both sides of the ball for four quarters.
Defensively, in particular, the Bears struggled to stop Oklahoma State’s seemingly endless bag of tricks, which included a heavy mix of double passes, jet sweeps and other gadget-type plays.
Oklahoma State entered Saturday’s contest with one of the worst offenses in the nation amongst Power Four teams, but the Pokes managed to exceed their season averages in points (14) and yards (324) in the first half alone, hanging 20 points on the scoreboard and totaling 349 yards.
In the second half, the Bears cranked up the pressure and started to go after freshman quarterback Zane Flores more, and it showed, as Baylor’s defense held the Cowboys to seven points and less than 100 yards across the final two quarters.
“There’s definitely a lot to learn from,” redshirt junior outside linebacker Kyler Jordan said after the victory. “Going into this game, it was kind of hard to know what we were going to get. Obviously, we got a few things that we didn’t really practice. In the second half, we did a good job adjusting, but there’s definitely going to be some stuff we put on tape that we’re going to have to learn from.”
After the game, Aranda admitted that Saturday was a unique situation, considering the circumstances. The sixth-year head coach noted that with Gundy, Oklahoma State “kept it simple” and that the offense was extremely conservative, running the same play somewhere between five and nine times per game.
With Meacham, who happened to be TCU’s offensive coordinator in the Horned Frogs’ 2021 upset of Baylor, at the helm, the Pokes had nothing to lose and ran trick play after trick play after trick play in all sorts of wacky formations to confuse the defense.
“This one was a little bit different with all of the gadget plays and trick plays,” Aranda said. “I think on that first drive alone, there were two double-passes. We had an idea that was coming, and we repped it. We looked at the TCU film and ‘Hey. This is how it looked. This is how we’re going to rep it.’ But of course it’s not going to look that way. We’re going to have to get better at those things.”
Offensively, things came much easier as the Bears got whatever they wanted on the ground and rushed for 219 yards and 5.6 yards per carry. Star redshirt sophomore running back Bryson Washington got banged up in the second half but still totaled 77 yards and a score on 10 carries.
True freshmen Michael Turner and Caden Knighten both toted the rock quite a bit, combining for 128 rushing yards on 18 attempts.
“I thought they were able to move people,” Aranda said of the offensive line. “I thought there were times when you saw the line of scrimmage pushed and the running backs churned for two to three yards. That’s the identity of Baylor football. That was really cool to see. We saw glimpses of that last week, but we saw much more of that this week. We want to be able to build off that.”
Through the air, Sawyer Robertson had another spectacular day, throwing for 393 yards and four touchdowns on 24-of-35 passing. The redshirt senior has appeared tentative to run after suffering a lower-leg injury toward the end of last season, but used his legs a bit more on Saturday, including for a two-yard designed touchdown run.
“On the sideline, Spav is yelling for Sawyer to run; I’m yelling for Sawyer to run,” Aranda said. “There's an opportunity to just take off. We saw a lot of two-man [coverage] today. When they're rushing four guys, playing man under with coverage and there are two high safeties on top, there's no one really for Sawyer. His ability to run greatly maximizes our ability to score, so that was good to see.”
Robertson is now first in the nation in both passing yards (1,713) and passing touchdowns (17); the Lubbock native is quickly shooting up leaderboards and setting records, as he became the first Big 12 quarterback since Kyler Murray (2018) to throw for three touchdowns in five straight games.
“I’m living in answered prayer right now,” Robertson said. “Every single Saturday, I get to go out and play a game that I’ve played growing up, literally from eight years old to 22. I’ve prayed to be in this position, and now I’m in it.”
He continued, “Having that perspective, like the one where it’s ‘Hey, I’ve gotta achieve these things or I’m a failure,’ and the one where it’s like, ‘Thank you, God, for allowing me to do what I can do.’ It takes so much of the pressure off, and that’s why I’m able to play the way that I can play.”
Redshirt senior wide receiver Josh Cameron also had a bounce-back afternoon, following his two-fumble forgettable performance against Arizona State. Cameron hauled in six passes for a team-high 98 receiving yards, while Kole Wilson (6 rec, 76 yards, TD), Michael Trigg (3 rec, 62 yards, TD) and Kobe Prentice (rec, 73 yards, TD) all chipped in with solid showings.
“This was a personal game for him,” Aranda said of Cameron. “Last game really stung, so this was a game where he was going to show out regardless of who we were playing.”
The only thing missing for Baylor’s offense on Saturday was a killer instinct and an ability to bury their opponent. The Bears could have easily scored a couple more touchdowns, but continued to shoot themselves in the foot, with either costly penalties or a fumble from Knighten.
“Sometimes, it doesn’t fit together for four quarters, and we’re still looking to do that,” Robertson said.
With Washington and a litany of other Bears banged up across the last week, a ton of underclassmen saw the field on Saturday. Turner and Knighten played extended snaps in the backfield. Redshirt freshman Koltin Sieracki entered in place of an injured Omar Aigbedion at right guard. Redshirt sophomore Sean Thompkins saw some run at left tackle. Defensively, true freshman linebacker Kaleb Burns played exceptionally well with three tackles and a tackle for loss.
“We’ve got a bunch of young guys that are playing,” Aranda said. “I think our depth is being tested at a bunch of positions, whether that be O-Line or linebacker. The one spot that it’s not is at receiver. In other spots, we’re being tested, and the young guys are learning on the run. You take all that learning, if the lessons are applied. We were able to see some of that today, which was cool.”
As for Burns, Aranda added, “Kaleb is very talented. He’s very smart. He has a mind for football. Football comes easy to him. It’s a language that he eats up — his appetite is strong.”
The Bears (3-2, 1-1) will return to Waco to face Kansas State (2-3, 1-1) at 11 a.m. next Saturday, Oct. 4, at McLane Stadium. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
