Nate Bennett Shines as Baylor Survives Sloppy Showing Against Louisiana Tech

WACO, Texas – In the backup quarterback battle between the Bears and Bulldogs on Saturday at McLane Stadium, Baylor's Nate Bennett had the upper hand in the 36-19 win over Louisiana Tech.

Making his second consecutive start in place of an injured DJ Lagway, Bennett looked much more comfortable in the pocket this go-around, throwing for 253 yards and three touchdowns on an incredibly efficient 21-of-24 clip; he also added a 25-yard rushing touchdown.

“Obviously, as a competitor, a perfectionist and a quarterback, your job is to get the playmakers the ball,” Bennett told the media after the victory. “There were times I didn't do that last week. You could say first start or whatever, but I expect to go in there and play big-time football.”

Bennett later added, “At the end of the day, I’m just thankful. I’m blessed. God’s good, and when God speaks, you listen. It’s pretty fun to see it all come full circle. There’s 11 guys on offense and 11 guys on defense, and I have to do my one-eleventh, and that’s all.”

There’s beauty in Bennett’s story: both of his parents went to Baylor, and he’s bled Green and Gold his whole life. Instead of jumping ship at the first crack at playing time elsewhere, he stayed the course, waited his turn and is now seeing success on the field in his third year in the program — a testament to patience and loyalty in the modern era of college athletics when both can be increasingly difficult to find.

“When I think about Baylor, yes, football's important,” Bennett said. “Is Baylor the best place I can develop? 100%. That's why I stayed. Coach Spav, Coach Rhett, Coach Aranda, people believe in me here. But at the end of the day, the faith community here, my roommates, the people that I've met, the people that I've built lifelong relationships with, people that'll be at my wedding one day, the family connections — that stuff gets lost with all this ‘I need to play now,' whatever, yada yada. Which is valid. I understand it, but it's like I just released the rope and just gave it to God and put it in God's hands."

He continued, “So again, just being ready. It's difficult when you're not playing, just trying to be in the mindset of, ‘Okay, prepare like you're the starter this week. Prepare like you're going to play.’ But I think I've done a good job of that, and I think that I felt that today. I felt like I went in there, and even last week, again, there’s stuff you want back, but I felt fully prepared to go out there and help us win a game. It's difficult, but Baylor makes it easy because of the people around me, the people who believe in me, and ultimately, believing in myself. I know I can do it, right? Whenever that moment comes, I'm taking advantage of it. I take it day by day. So I'm glad I'm here.”

Bennett knows that even with Lagway likely coming back next week, nothing will change about his preparation or the positivity he wants to bring to the team, despite sliding back to the No. 2 role on the depth chart.

“Our quarterback room, including DJ, we're all best friends,” Bennett said. “We are so supportive of each other. DJ is my biggest fan. Every time I've scored a touchdown, he's the first dude to come up to me and dap me up. I'll be the same way with him.”

Speaking of Lagway, head coach Dave Aranda provided an update on Baylor’s star signal-caller, saying his ankle was at 60-70% during Tuesday’s practice and that the best plan was not to take any chances and get him closer to 100% heading into conference play next weekend.

“He very much wanted to play, and so that was probably one of the harder conversations that I've had with him,” Aranda said. “But having Nate, you feel good about where Nate can take us, and then to have DJ as close to 100% as possible, I think is best for the Bears heading into Colorado.”

With Lagway sidelined, Bennett’s performance was undoubtedly the brightest spot in an otherwise uneven afternoon for the Bears. Sloppy play, repeated miscues and lackadaisical effort at points throughout the second half overshadowed what could have been a dominant win. Baylor totaled 10 penalties for 90 yards in the victory, a week after racking up nine penalties for 85 yards against Prairie View A&M.

“I was really hoping for a much cleaner game, and we’ve been coaching to achieve that,” Aranda told the media after the game. “I really wanted to leave the errors, the mental mistakes and the Baylor-beating-Baylor stuff behind us as we moved into Big 12 play, but unfortunately, we're still carrying it with us. There's a lot to improve on in that area.”

Given how hot it was on the McLane Stadium turf on Saturday, it would be easy to chalk the mistakes up to the brutal heat and give the Bears the benefit of the doubt. The problem, however, is that these ugly performances have been common under Aranda since 2022. The seventh-year head coach has repeatedly talked about wanting the team’s identity to be tough, smart and dependable, but Saturday raised major warning flags that these issues could linger into a do-or-die conference slate.

“The toughness part, I feel like we're on the right track,” Aranda said. “The smart part, I feel like we're not there yet. There's a lot of work to be done there. We want to be hard to kill, and right now we're struggling to do that. The dependable part, I feel, is what we have. I think we can depend on guys to make plays when we need plays to be made.”

Even then, the Bears had plenty of opportunities to put Louisiana Tech away and simply couldn’t, especially in the third quarter. After Bennett connected with fifth-year senior wide receiver Jayden McGowan for a 43-yard touchdown on the first possession of the second half to extend Baylor’s lead to 26-7, the Bears stalled on four straight drives, mostly due to self-inflicted wounds, including penalties and a fumble by senior tight end Tony Livingston.

Baylor’s rushing attack never really got going Saturday, totaling just 27 yards on eight carries in the third quarter and finishing with 165 yards on the ground for an average of 3.8 yards per carry. The Bulldogs have a stout front seven and limited LSU to 3.4 yards per attempt last Saturday. Even so, the fact that the Bears have yet to impose their will in the ground game going into Big 12 play is concerning.

“Ideally, with the build of this team, we'd like to build it to hit body blows and keep cracking at the ribs and keep hitting the body,” Aranda said. “That would play out as longer drives. That would play out as time off the clock. That would play out as we're grinding them out and all that.”

Aranda added, “We either went backward and were three-and-out, or we scored, and it was so fast the defense was on the field. By the end of the third quarter, we were worn out. We have to play better complementary football there, and the third quarter on offense is something that we have to improve on.”

Defensively, the Bears didn’t play poorly, per se, but had their most inconsistent showing under first-year defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, allowing 19 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter. Louisiana Tech also had some success on third down, finishing 7-of-16, and won the time-of-possession battle, 32:18 to 27:42.

Baylor’s defense totaled five tackles for loss and forced two turnovers but struggled to contain Louisiana Tech’s senior quarterback Trey Kukuk, who rushed for 75 yards on 11 carries. He also added 223 yards through the air, plus a touchdown and an interception on 25-of-44 passing.

“We could have done a little better job of getting after the quarterback or finishing whenever we get there,” fifth-year senior defensive end Kyler Jordan said postgame. “We’ve got to be better at closing the deal. He did a great job of moving around the pocket and feeling the pressure. Honestly, it was hard to corral him, but we’re going to play a lot of that this fall, and it’s something we need to improve on.”

A four-quarter rout of Louisiana Tech would have been a welcome confidence boost for Aranda and the Bears. Instead, Baylor enters Big 12 play with several key questions still lingering. At times through three games, the Bears have looked capable of winning eight-plus games. The team that showed up in the second half against Louisiana Tech, however, looked much more like the version that has plagued Aranda in recent years: sloppy, inconsistent and unable to put an inferior opponent away. Which version shows up next Saturday against Colorado remains to be seen.