Sawyer Robertson Reflects on Baylor Legacy, NFL Dreams and Finding Purpose Beyond Football
Baylor hadn’t beaten TCU at home in a decade — not since 2014. That was the message all week heading into the 2024 edition of “The Revivalry,” Texas' most-played rivalry matchup. Yet with just under two minutes left in the fourth quarter and the game tied 34-34, the Bears found themselves in a perfect position to get the monkey off their back, or so it appeared.
Baylor’s offense was driving down the field to take the lead, but the possession stalled around midfield, leaving head coach Dave Aranda with a daunting fourth-and-nine decision. If Baylor converted, it would keep its hopes of winning in regulation alive. If not, TCU could steal the game with a last-second field goal.
Aranda didn’t hesitate, and Baylor’s offense trotted back onto the McLane Stadium turf after both teams took timeouts. Before the snap, quarterback Sawyer Robertson’s eyes got wide. He had favorable numbers to his left and considered a pass to wide receiver Hal Presley. In a split second, TCU’s nickelback bumped out to cover Presley’s in-breaking route, forcing Robertson to look elsewhere. He worked through his progressions and saw that the middle of the field might come open.
Meanwhile, tight end Michael Trigg, lined up in the slot on the right side of the formation, gave his defender a shimmy and swam inside. Robertson delivered a strike right on the numbers. Trigg hauled in the pass for a first down, and after a 13-yard run to set up a chip shot, kicker Isaiah Hankins drilled the 33-yard walk-off field goal, giving Baylor its first win in Waco over its archrival since the all-time classic 61-58 game in 2014.
Prior to the kick, Robertson knelt on the sideline, eyes off the play, praying. He couldn’t bear to watch. Before he knew it, he heard the crowd roar, turned and saw his ecstatic teammates rushing onto the field and fans pouring out of the stands. What happened next was kind of a blur.
“We're all jumping around celebrating with the students on the field, and then I just felt something under me, and somebody said, 'You're going up.’ Before I knew it, there were two guys, one with this leg and the other with this leg, and I was sitting on top of them,” Robertson recounted in an interview with SicEm365. “I didn't really know what to do, so I was just giving the sic'em the whole time.”
He continued, “That's where that picture was taken with the scoreboard in the background and everything — really cool picture. It was an awesome moment seeing everybody because I had a good view because I was on top. I got to see everything. I have a tier-list with some of my favorite games, and that was definitely one of them.”
Although Robertson was born and raised in West Texas, he was all too familiar with the bad blood between the two programs and grew up watching the high-scoring Big 12 battles between Art Briles’ Baylor and Gary Patterson’s TCU. While in Waco, he relished being a small part of that century-plus-old rivalry and, interestingly enough, chose the Bears over the Horned Frogs out of the transfer portal in 2022, shortly after Mike Leach's untimely passing at Mississippi State.
“Baylor and TCU are always so similar,” Robertson said. “Both private schools. About an hour and a half apart. Always fighting for Texas recruits. The roster makeup, the coaching, everything is just so similar between the two schools, and so that feeds into the rivalry. Then obviously, with how historic of a rivalry it's been and how even it's been, that feeds into it, too.”
Unfortunately for Robertson and the rest of the Bears, he didn’t get an encore in his follow-up trip to Fort Worth in 2025, as Baylor trailed by as many as three touchdowns in the fourth quarter before a late comeback bid ultimately fell short, 42-36.
The Bears entered the contest 4-2 and were still riding momentum from the six-game winning streak that closed the 2024 regular season, but after the loss to the Horned Frogs in mid-October of last season, the wheels fell off for Baylor, as it lost four of its next five games and missed a bowl game after being labeled as a Big 12 contender going into the fall.
“We were 10-3 in that 13-game span going into that one,” Robertson said. “We started poorly in '24, and we ended poorly in '25. It's unfortunate how that played out, but that's how it goes sometimes. You look at the course of a season, you're going to deal with injuries, you're going to deal with adjustments, you're going to deal with just moving parts all over the place. But it happens, and it eats at me for sure because I'm a competitor.”
Even though Robertson finished his final season ranked seventh nationally in passing yards (3,681) and fifth in touchdowns (31), he still has regrets. After taking over as Baylor's starting quarterback in 2024, Robertson became a fan favorite, helped engineer the program's most memorable two-month stretch in years, and played a significant role in saving Aranda's job. He even generated Heisman Trophy buzz following a heroic 440-yard, four-touchdown performance in a double-overtime win over No. 17 SMU. But after the Bears stumbled down the stretch in 2025, Robertson was left wondering what his legacy in Waco would ultimately be.
“There's always that feeling that I could have done more,” Robertson said. “I wish I had done more and cemented and left more of a legacy that had to do with being that quarterback that won a lot of games. As far as leadership and off-the-field stuff, I feel like I did leave a pretty good legacy. But on the field, I will always wish we had won more games.”
Further complicating matters was an injury Robertson had largely kept under wraps. Robertson was rushing toward the goal line against TCU in 2024 and got folded like a lawn chair. Adrenaline let him finish the game, but soon after, he discovered he had a Lisfranc injury.
Robertson’s rushing production dropped after that TCU game. He had totaled 45 carries for 252 yards and three touchdowns over his previous six games, but logged just 43 rushing attempts across his next 16 starts. Robertson, however, stopped short of blaming the injury for that decline.
“It was taking forever to heal,” Robertson said. “And they told me, like, ‘It's gonna take a while. Foot injuries are the worst because they linger.’ You're reminded of it constantly because it hurts with every step you take. If I hurt my shoulder and I'm in a sling, I don't think about it constantly. With a foot, you're thinking about it constantly."
He added, “They told me, ‘Surgery would do nothing for you. The structure is fine. Got to be patient, and it'll heal.’ And it did. It just took a long time, and I'm not saying it bled into last season. By the time of the Auburn game, I didn't really feel it as much. Football isn’t a game of if I get injured; it's a matter of when.”
The disappointment of Baylor’s finish carried into April, when Robertson wasn’t selected in the NFL Draft. He was expected to be a late-round pick, but teams took six quarterbacks in rounds four through seven, including Texas Tech’s Behren Morton, whom the Red Raiders recruited over Robertson. When the two met in 2024, Robertson outdueled Morton, throwing for 274 yards and five touchdowns to lead Baylor to a 59-35 win in his hometown of Lubbock.
“It was super disappointing because I feel like I've dreamed that my whole life,” Robertson said of going undrafted. “It was like this buildup, and obviously, when I was at Baylor, I wasn't really thinking about it because I was like, ‘How do I win games? How do I be a leader? How do I steward this gift God gave me as the Baylor quarterback?’ Then before the draft, it's like, ‘Okay, it's here. And not only is it here, but I'm close.’ Go to the Combine, do the Gruden thing, Senior Bowl, all the stuff. And so, for it not to happen, it was super devastating.”
Although he went undrafted, Robertson bounced around three NFL minicamps in Las Vegas, New York and Denver, but never stuck or signed to a practice squad or 53-man roster. After years of working toward an NFL opportunity, Robertson suddenly faced an increasingly uncertain future. The disappointment forced him to lean on something that had always been central to his life: his faith.
“Obviously, I didn't go to seminary, but these are just my thoughts on my life experiences,” Robertson said. “When things are going well, when we beat TCU, and I'm getting lifted up by the fans, and we're all celebrating and times are good, it's really easy to trust in God in those situations, but it's hard to rely on God, right? Because you're like, ‘God, yeah, keep blessing me. I trust you. You're doing great.’ But it's not like this daily, ‘Die to yourself, pick up your cross daily and follow me,' because you think you're rolling. When things are hard, it's way easier to rely on God, and harder to trust in God. That’s how I felt after a couple of days and weeks of this was, ‘Alright, Lord. Where are you sending me now?’”
Amidst the various setbacks this spring, Robertson remained steadfast in his faith. To him, this was just another part of God’s plan; even though he couldn’t see what was happening at the time, he likened it to a blacksmith molding a new creation and having to trust in what the final product would become.
“Although it didn't meet my goal or what I had planned for my life, I've learned through my past that my plans are not good,” Robertson said. “My plans would probably lead me to more destruction than what I think they would. No matter how disappointed I was, or still am, I'm thankful for where I'm at now, and for what God's doing in my life now.”
Robertson isn’t planning on hanging up the cleats for good, however. He’s still pursuing playing opportunities in the UFL, a professional football league in the U.S. that plays in the spring, and recently performed at a showcase in front of scouts and league personnel.
Since 2020, more than 70 players from the UFL and its predecessor leagues have appeared on NFL rosters, and 22 are currently on practice squads. Some of those success stories include wide receiver KaVontae Turpin (Dallas Cowboys), kicker Brandon Aubrey (Dallas Cowboys), and defensive tackle LaCale London (Atlanta Falcons). A handful of Baylor players have also played significant snaps in the UFL, including Abram Smith, Denzel Mims, Steve Linton and TJ Franklin.
“It was good to throw the football again in kind of a competitive setting,” Robertson said. “But it was still like, you're trying out for it. I don't know how it's gonna go, and I feel like my trust has been shattered so much with all the NFL stuff that I'm sitting here like, ‘Yeah. It sounds great. I'd love to play more football,’ but I'm not gonna sit here and be like, ‘Oh yeah, I'm a shoo-in,' because of how everything just went. I'd be dumb to be that naive again. But the tryout went well. It was fun. I had a great time, and I'm hoping and praying everything works out and I can get back to playing.”
As Robertson waits to see what happens with the UFL, whose season starts on March 26, he’s interning at First Baptist Academy in Dallas, where he gets a behind-the-scenes look at fundraising and athletic department duties during the day. In the evenings, he helps coach the Saints’ varsity team, currently the No. 1-ranked private school team in Texas. The Saints have won three consecutive state championships under head coach Jason Lovvorn, Robertson’s quarterback trainer and a former Baylor quarterback (2004-06). Toward the end of practice, Robertson gets his conditioning in with the team, then finishes with more football and drill work on his own.
“I get to witness how they all operate, and so it's really cool,” Robertson said of interning at First Baptist Academy. “Now, I want to use it because I want to work and be around sports when I’m done playing football. So one day, if I do want to become an athletic director at a college or anything like that, I think what I'm doing right now is super beneficial for me.”
With his next steps uncertain, Robertson has spent the past several months learning to embrace the unknown and reflecting on what his life might look like with or without football. He knows his playing career won’t last forever, but he takes solace in using football as his ministry, believing the impact he makes on others can carry eternal significance.
“All the trophies, all the accolades, all the praise, criticism, all of that stuff gets forgotten,” Robertson noted. “This might not be very Baylor superfan of me, but 50 years ago was 1976. Do you know who Baylor's starting quarterback was that year? I don't either, and I probably should know. So you have to use the platform that you’ve been given.”
He continued, “The coolest thing that we did at Baylor was not beat TCU. I think the coolest thing we did was start that Bible study, and I watched many of my teammates give their lives to Jesus. And then hopefully, when they have kids one day, their kids give their lives to Jesus because they see how their dad acts, and hopefully their grandkids give their lives to Jesus. Now, the odds of me meeting one of my teammates' grandkids are probably really low. In fact, if we were sitting together on an airplane, we probably would never put it together. But that ripple effect and that impact that I was talking about — that stuff matters. Whereas the All-Big 12s, the records, all that stuff gets forgotten and fades away.”
