With Baylor’s win over Iowa State, the mood around the Bears has shifted in a hurry. The confidence meter is back up, and after taking a closer look at the next three opponents in Week 10, there’s reason to feel better about interim head coach Joe Klanderman’s team than there was a week ago.
That doesn’t mean the road ahead is easy. Baylor still has to navigate a three-game stretch against opponents all sitting in the top 20, with Big 12 Championship and CFP hopes of their own. But the way BYU, Texas Tech, and Houston have looked lately makes the gauntlet feel a little less intimidating than it did before.
BYU, for one, has not been playing like a team that should scare anybody right now. Yes, the Cougars’ loss to one of the only remaining undefeated teams in the country isn’t exactly a disaster.
But the overall picture has gotten murkier over the last few weeks. The offense has struggled not just in the loss to Utah, but also in the defeat to UCF and even in the win over Notre Dame.
Bear Bachmeier’s recent stretch tells the story. He went from being an early-season Davey O’Brien favorite to a quarterback dealing with accuracy problems and not getting much help around him.
Over the last three weeks, Bachmeier has thrown 4 TDs to 6 INTs, and BYU has gone 1-2 in that span. Now the Cougars have to face a Baylor defense in Provo that has spent the season disrupting quarterbacks in the backfield.
Texas Tech brings firepower, but Saturday night showed there are cracks there too. West Virginia entered that game last in the Big 12 in passing defense, so the expectation was that the Red Raiders would light up the scoreboard. They did score plenty, but the Mountaineers also exposed Texas Tech’s secondary in a 53-48 game.
The Red Raiders are 1-2 in their last three games, and while the offense still looks dangerous, they haven’t exactly looked dominant. That opens the door for Baylor’s passing game, which could find room against that defense.
On the other side, Texas Tech QB Castellanos may not get much comfort in the pocket if Baylor’s pass rush keeps doing what it has done all season. The Bears have been a problem for opposing backfields, piling up SKs and TFLs while staying ready to grab another INT.
Houston has its own issues, even if the recent record looks respectable on the surface. The Cougars are 2-1 over their last three, but they’ve allowed over 29 points in each of those games on average. That matters against a Baylor offense that has shown it can score in a hurry.
The Bears have run about 20 fewer plays than each of their last three opponents, yet they’ve still outscored them 108-65, even with the loss to Kansas in the mix. Houston had chances to put away Cincinnati on Nov. 7 and couldn’t finish the job, and that kind of missed opportunity leaves the door open for Baylor if the Bears come in with the same pace and punch they’ve shown recently.
In Other News...
Joe Klanderman Just Raised The Stakes For Baylors Finish
Joe Klanderman has given Baylor a jolt at exactly the right moment, steering the program to back-to-back wins since taking over as interim head coach after Dave Arandas firing. The Bears are 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big 12 play, and while the coaching change was abrupt, the on-field response has kept Baylor in the conversation for the conference title race.
The finish, though, is where things get interesting. Baylor still has three tough games left, and those results will shape not only the Bears postseason path but also the conversation around Klandermans future. What started as a temporary assignment is now drawing real attention, with the interim coachs candidacy for the permanent job beginning to surface as the stakes keep rising. [Read more 🡒]
Baylors Offense Looked Dangerous But One Concern Still Lingers
Baylors Homecoming win over Iowa State had plenty to like on the offensive side, with DJ Lagway making his mark as both a passer and runner in a 42-31 victory that showed how many different ways the Bears can move the ball. Production came from several position groups, and the overall balance gave the offense a more dangerous look than it has shown at times this season.
Still, the game also left one familiar concern hanging around. Baylors defense got to the quarterback with three sacks and finished with nine tackles for loss, but Iowa State was still able to lean on its rushing attack and stay in the game longer than the Bears would have preferred. Special teams did its part with clean extra points and solid punting, yet the defensive run-stopping issue remains the piece that could matter most as the schedule moves on. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Just Got The Interim-Coach Boost Fans Were Hoping For
Baylors season took another step forward Saturday with a 42-31 win over Iowa State, a result that pushed the Bears to 6-3 and made them bowl-eligible. It also gave Joe Klanderman his first home victory as Baylors interim head coach, a useful marker for a program trying to steady itself while still keeping its focus on the field.
The Bears did it with offense, scoring 42 points and holding the lead after halftime even as Iowa State found room on the ground through Aiden Flora. For Baylor, the bigger takeaway was the combination of progress and urgency that comes with this stretch of the season, when every win can change the tone around a team and every performance starts to matter a little more. [Read more 🡒]