Baylor’s offense is looking for a spark, and Jake Spavital thinks he may have found one in Louis Brown IV.
The Bears are coming off a rough 2025, one that left Dave Aranda and his staff under plenty of pressure heading into this fall. Sawyer Robinson, who is now with the Las Vegas Raiders, still put up big numbers through the air with 309.6 passing yards per game, but Baylor’s five-win season never turned into a bowl trip because the defense gave up too much. The 48-45 comeback win over Kansas State stood out as the signature moment, and the roster churn followed hard afterward, with 30 different players leaving the program this offseason.
Brown was one of the players brought in to help reshape things. The San Diego State transfer arrived on campus in 2025 with a chance to help turn the page, though his first year in Waco was mostly lost to an injury he suffered last spring. That makes this season a fresh start, and Spavital sounded encouraged after watching him in fall camp on Friday.
“He was making some great contested plays today, and he’s a guy who has the ability. When he’s on, and that ball’s in the vicinity of him, he can take a game over.”
Brown’s path to Baylor has been a winding one. The Los Angeles native started at Colorado State in 2022, then moved to San Diego State in 2024, where he put together his best college season with 620 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 38 catches.
Now he gets another shot, and this one comes with a new quarterback. Florida transfer DJ Lagway is set to direct the passing game after throwing for 2,264 yards, 16 touchdowns and 14 interceptions last season for the Gators. If that pairing clicks, Brown has a chance to leave a real mark on his final college season and give himself a better launch point toward the NFL Draft.
In Other News...
DJ Lagway Faces Early Pressure Baylor Fans Cant Ignore
DJ Lagways name landing on the Maxwell Award watch list only adds to the early buzz around a quarterback Baylor is going to have to be ready for right away. The former five-star recruit has the talent profile to draw attention, and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital has made it clear he believes Lagway can handle the job as the Bears start piecing together an offense around him and a new group of pass catchers.
What makes this stretch interesting for Baylor is that the talent discussion is only part of the equation. Lagway is still working through the usual quarterback growing pains of learning timing, building trust and getting comfortable in real game situations, and the opener against Auburn will be an immediate test of how far that process has come. For a player with this much expectation attached, the next few weeks will say plenty about how quickly Baylor can turn promise into production. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor's New-Look Offense Puts Jake Spavital In The Spotlight
Baylors offense is spending this stretch of the offseason figuring out how to replace the production and roles left behind by Josh Cameron and Michael Trigg, and the early answer has been to lean into versatility. With transfer addition Gavin Freeman among the new faces in the receiving room, offensive coordinator Jake Spavital has been talking through a group that can be moved around and deployed in different ways, giving the Bears more options as they reshape the passing game.
Spavitals task is less about forcing the new pieces into old spots and more about building packages that make the most of what this roster can actually do. That matters even more with a mobile quarterback like DJ Lagway in the mix, because the more the Bears can threaten defenses with motion, alignment changes and quarterback movement, the harder it becomes to settle in on one answer. For a Baylor offense looking to be less predictable this season, the creativity may start with how these receivers are used. [Read more 🡒]