Baylor’s backfield has become one of the most interesting parts of the offense through five weeks, and the question underneath all the production is simple: who is really the lead runner?
Dawson Pendergrass has carried the ball more than any other Baylor back, piling up 81 rushing attempts. Caden Knighten is next with 49, followed by Michael Turner at 28 and Ryelan Morris at 22.
On paper, that makes Pendergrass the top option. In practice, Baylor has leaned so hard into rotations that the answer feels more complicated than a single depth chart line.
That balance shows up everywhere in the offense. Through the first five games, Baylor has basically split its play-calling right down the middle, with 201 rushing plays and 203 passing attempts. It’s the kind of distribution that keeps defenses guessing and keeps the Bears from leaning too heavily on any one back.
The biggest burst of the season in Tempe came from Morris, whose 63-yard touchdown run put Baylor in front and changed the feel of the game. The true freshman looked exactly like the kind of runner who can flip a game in one snap - explosive, elusive, patient, and still just scratching the surface of what he can become. With the way Baylor rotates backs, Morris may not rack up huge carry totals, but the threat is obvious every time he touches it.
Knighten delivered the other backfield knockout blow late against ASU. Baylor was trying to bleed clock on its third drive of the second half with a 38-16 lead, but Knighten turned a routine stretch play into a 75-yard touchdown and slammed the door on any comeback talk. The score pushed the Bears ahead 45-16 and emptied the stands in a hurry.
Pendergrass and Turner may not have the same highlight-reel runs, but they matter just as much to how this thing works. Pendergrass brings the kind of physical, feet-churning style that creates the space for someone else to explode later in the play. Turner, meanwhile, has yet to score this season, but that has more to do with Baylor’s constant rotation than any concern about his ability as a runner.
Nate Bennett adds another layer to the mix. He’s not the straight-line burner Knighten is, and he doesn’t pound through contact the way Pendergrass does, but he has shown he can punish open grass. Against LA Tech, he used space to break off a 25-yard touchdown run, and he also has passing stats to go with it.
DJ Lagway joined the list of Baylor players who can hurt a defense on the ground, even if it has not been a major part of his season. A right ankle sprain has limited his legs for much of the year, but he finished the night against ASU with an 11-yard touchdown run.
Taken together, it’s a backfield built on variety and freshness. Baylor may not have one runner soaking up 30 carries every week, but that is not really how the sport works anymore. What the Bears do have is a stable full of backs who can hurt a defense in different ways, and that kind of depth can pay off later in the season when the hits start adding up.
In Other News...
TCU Enters Baylor Week With One Rivalry Pressure Point Looming
TCU heads into its bye week carrying a 2-3 record and an 0-2 start in Big 12 play, a disappointing position for a team that still has time to reset before the stretch run. The defense has held up well at times, but the offense has been hard to trust against Power Four competition, and the disconnect has fueled plenty of conversation about what might change when the Horned Frogs return to work.
A lot of that scrutiny will only grow once Baylor week arrives, because the next game looms as a rivalry test that can sharpen every question around the program. The coaching staff has options to consider on how it wants to handle the offense after the off week, and with pressure rising, how TCU answers on that side of the ball could shape the tone well beyond mid-October. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor's Strong Start Is Revealing One Big Team Strength
Five games into Baylors season, the clearest shift has been up front on defense, where the Bears are getting more consistent pressure and forcing offenses to deal with a front that looks far different than it did in August. An evaluation of the teams eight position groups shows how much has changed since preseason expectations, with the defensive line rising to the top while the wideouts and quarterbacks have also helped steady the offense through the early part of the year.
Elsewhere, the picture is more mixed. Baylor has seen encouraging signs from parts of the linebacking corps and its passing game, while the running backs and offensive line have dealt with their own growing pains and the ripple effects of injuries. For a team trying to sort out where it can lean week to week, the bigger takeaway is that the Bears may already have found one unit that can set the tone when the rest of the roster is still settling in. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Volleyball Is Getting A National Spotlight Fans Can Feel
Ksenia Rakhmanchiks strong season is drawing attention well beyond Waco, with Baylor volleyballs top offensive threat landing on the AVCA Division I Womens Volleyball Player of the Year Watch List. The recognition puts her in a small national pool of players being considered for one of the sports biggest individual honors, a sign that her production has been hard to ignore as the season has unfolded.
Rakhmanchik has been among the Big 12s most productive attackers and sits among the nations most efficient scorers in several offensive areas during the 2026 season. For Baylor, the watch-list nod is another marker of how far the programs profile can rise when one player is forcing opponents to game-plan around her every night. [Read more 🡒]