JJ Joe: Breaking Down Baylor's Season Turnaround, Big Win over Kansas

What a way to end the regular season. What did you think of Baylor’s performance against Kansas? Overall, did you expect the Bears to turn their season around after starting 2-4?

JJ Joe:

What a wrap to what ultimately has been a very satisfying 2024 regular season. To be honest, I really thought head coach Dave Aranda was done after dropping the Iowa State game and going 2-4 in the first half of the season. I remember talking to Ricky Thompson on the plane to the game, and I remember saying, "This is Coach Aranda's season, right here." Baylor was 2-3 after five games and dropped two very winnable games to Colorado and BYU in successive weeks. I really thought the team didn't have much belief and want-to unless they could go to Ames and knock off a top 20 Cyclone team. Well, we all know what happened, and on the way home, I had a sinking feeling that this team would 'wilt' during the week off, go to Lubbock, and lose to a streaking Red Raider team. That would have us sitting at 2-5 with a home game against Oklahoma State in front of what would be a very thin McLane crowd. Thank God, I was so wrong!

Saturday was the culmination of a brilliant coaching job by Coach Aranda and his staff, and it was a testament to the resiliency of the leaders on this team. The Kansas game was another one of those 'unexpected' results that happened during this season. I wrote last week that it would take 35 to 38 points to win this game as I believed both teams would move the ball easily, which both did. However, I didn't expect Devyn Bobby (Jr.), not known for his hands, to grab two interceptions. Those two picks built on his diving interception that he made last week in Houston. Kansas came into the game as a scoring machine over the last few weeks. They scored 42 against a tough Houston defense, 45 against the Iowa State Cyclones in a win and 37 against Colorado in a win that saw the Jayhawks defeat three consecutive ranked opponents. Well, they moved the ball easily against Coach Aranda's scheme, and I believe we all expected that. However, Coach Aranda's defense did what you have to do; they kept Kansas from scoring touchdowns. A little help was needed from the Jayhawks, but the Baylor defense made the plays when they were presented. This Jayhawk team was a front-runner, and if you let them get out front, their defense can pin their ears back and rush the quarterback, which they did respectably all season. On third and five from the Baylor 20-yard line, Jalon Daniels (RJr.) throws an incomplete pass, and the Baylor defense allowed the Jayhawk offense to move the ball 49 yards in five plays, headlined by a 33-yard completion to Quentin Skinner (Sr.) to the Baylor 25-yard line. Then, the Baylor video board squad gets the assist from Jerry World as they show a video of the glare from AT&T Stadium, and a pretty consistent kicker misses the 38-yard field goal to keep the game scoreless.

The win was not necessarily in the missed field goal; it was in making a play on third down to force the field goal attempt. Kansas eventually scored first anyway, but once Baylor showed that it'd be able to run the ball, I felt it was just a matter of time before Baylor would find a way to exploit the Jayhawk pass defense. I still figured that the Jayhawks would find a way to score 28 to 35 points, but every time they had an opportunity to make a play, they either missed the throw or made the key error and gave the Baylor offense another opportunity.

We still have a game to play, so I won't get too poetic here. However, as I wrote last week, this season was the culmination of a 'beautiful struggle. ' However, the most appropriate analogy for this team is 'the metamorphosis.' Coach Aranda's caterpillar was quite 'unattractive' early in the season. We saw glimpses of the butterfly it would become, as they had a voracious appetite and learned a lot early but simply weren't ready for transformation quite yet. The fans sat through several ugly losses early, highlighted by the most gut-wrenching loss imaginable in Boulder. However, we saw a glimpse at McLane against the 22nd-ranked BYU Cougars. Our Bears started out ugly, falling behind by three touchdowns, but Sawyer Robertson (RJr.) and the band made a run to pull within one score with 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Surprisingly, the Baylor defense, which had struggled, forced a three-and-out and gave the ball back to the Baylor offense with 8:45 left in the game. The way Robertson was playing and the offense was moving the ball, we, or at least 'I,' just knew we'd pull ahead. Well, we punted, and believe it or not, Coach Aranda's defense forced an interception, and the Baylor offense had another shot, but they weren't ready then, and we weren't ready the following week in Ames. Now, we saw flashes in Ames as Baylor moved the ball with ease early, went up 14-3, and from then on, things began to roll downhill. Coach Aranda's caterpillar was about to transform, but we didn't see it.

Well, the metamorphosis of the 2024 football team was complete following the first bye week, heading to Lubbock against a streaking Tech team that was 5-1 and 3-0 in Big 12 play. Nothing looked different about this team as they exited the locker room to play the Red Raiders. They were still 2-4 with a coach on the hot seat. The players were the same; the uniforms weren't anything new, but lo and behold, the 'beautiful struggle,' 'the metamorphosis' spawned this wonderful butterfly, and with nine minutes left in the game, Baylor was dominating a 'hot' Texas Tech team, 52-21, late into the fourth quarter. Coach Aranda's only beef was that his defense allowed two late touchdowns that didn't really show how 'dominant' their second-half performance really was. The dominance was so complete that our friend Joey McGuire complained to the conference that our staff hacked their 'un-encrypted' helmet communication system and must've listened to their offensive play calls.

I guess a dominant regular-season finale win against a hot, desperate, bowl-seeking Jayhawk team is apropos for Coach Aranda's 2024 Bears. I really hope Coach Aranda and the players leading this team 'finish' this season. I know in the new era of college football, players make business decisions, and bowl games are not valued as much as they once were. However, this season deserves a beautiful capstone, and a 9-4 capstone is infinitely more attractive than an 8-5 one. #SicEm