Baylor’s season has been messy in all the ways a football season can be messy, but Saturday’s 41-9 win over UCF at least looked like the version of this team people expected to see more often.
The Bears are 5-3, which is not where they were supposed to be, though that depends on who you ask. So does the question of whether Dave Aranda was supposed to be on the sideline for all of it. Either way, this hasn’t been a normal year in Waco, and with four games left - including three against what could be Baylor’s toughest opponents - the road ahead still looks steep.
Even so, the win over UCF left the door open. Baylor can still put together a strong finish, and the Big 12 Championship is not completely off the table.
Joe Klanderman said during his Media Availabilty that he wasn't auditioning for the Baylor head coaching job this week against UCF. But if the game was treated like an interview, it was hard to ignore the résumé he put on the field. He handled the head coaching duties, kept calling the defense as he said he would, and the Bears’ defense responded with a dominant showing against the Knights.
The offense had its own bright spots, and DJ Lagway was at the center of them. He finished 16-for-25 for 319 yards and four touchdowns, a line that echoed the kind of outing that once earned him Big 12 player of the week honors. Whether that happens again this week doesn’t really change the bigger point: Lagway was the better quarterback in the win over UCF.
He showed the traits Baylor fans have been waiting for - crisp speed, tight spirals, smart decisions for most of the night, and a willingness to tuck the ball and run. After the ankle injury that kept him out for much of the season, he no longer looked limited. The bigger question now is the one that will linger when the season ends: what if Lagway had been healthy all year?
There was still plenty to clean up. Baylor was flagged 12 times for 85 yards, with most of the damage coming from pre-snap mistakes and holding calls by the offensive line. That kind of sloppiness has followed the Bears all season, and it remains one of the most frustrating parts of their profile.
A couple of times, those penalties wiped points off the board. On one sequence, it appeared Lagway would be credited with a touchdown run, only for a holding penalty on Sieracki to turn a big play into a step backward for the offense. It’s the kind of drive-killing mistake that stings because it didn’t need to happen.
Klanderman also laid out his view of complementary football during his Monday Media Availability, and he pushed back on the usual easy definition.
"I think the definition of complementary football around here has been misinterpreted in my mind. We kind of always define complementary football as the defense is going to play really good, and the offense is going to play really good, and we're going to kick the ball really good.
It doesn't work like that. Sometimes one of those phases is struggling, and complementary football is how can the other phases pick that phase up.
"And the measure of a great team is that it's not the absence of pressure. It's that no one person or one unit or one anything has to bear that pressure alone. It's how can we balance that out through everybody and throughout the organization, and how can I take on as much of that through myself so that the players can go out there and play free, and that's my goal."
In Other News...
Baylor Just Delivered The Kind Of Win Fans Have Been Waiting For
Baylor finally got the kind of response game its fans have been waiting for, and it came with a jolt of urgency. Playing under interim coach Joe Klanderman after the firing of Dave Aranda, the Bears rolled past UCF 41-9 and never let the Knights settle in after their emotional double-overtime win against BYU the week before.
UCF spent the afternoon fighting uphill on both sides of the ball, and the offense never found a rhythm. Quarterback Keyone Jenkins left with an ankle injury, the Knights were sacked a season-high seven times, and Baylor kept control from start to finish in a result that gave this team a much-needed lift as the season moves on. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Just Got A Reason To Play With A Chip On Its Shoulder
Baylor opened the preseason with a reminder that the numbers in the Big 12 media poll do not always tell the whole story. Picked seventh in a 16-team league that is expected to be as rugged as ever, the Bears have already shown they can hang with elite competition, turning in strong exhibition showings against Florida and Illinois, both highly ranked teams.
The ranking gives Scott Drews group a clear edge to lean into as the season begins, especially in a conference where every night can reshape the standings. Baylor has enough talent to push for an NCAA tournament return, and being overlooked in October can be a useful motivator if the Bears keep carrying that edge into league play. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Showed Fans Exactly Why This Team Feels Different
Dave Arandas first game as Baylors head coach offered an immediate glimpse of what this team could become, and the 41-9 win over UCF gave fans plenty to latch onto. DJ Lagway was sharp from the start, hitting 16 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns without an interception, while the ground game and defense both looked more complete than they had in recent memory.
The win also felt broader than one standout performance, because different position groups kept showing up in ways Baylor has been waiting to see. The defensive line piled up seven sacks, special teams held up its end, and the overall effort had the kind of balance that can make a team feel different even before the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]