Baylor out to secure bowl bid
The Baylor Bears don’t want to put things off any more. The time for them to get bowl-eligible is Saturday morning when Baylor hosts TCU at 11 a.m. CT at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
Following a 1-11 season in 2017, the fact that Baylor is a win away from going bowling is a credit to second-year Bears coach Matt Rhule. Many who followed the program through its Title IX scandal and then coaching change that brought Rhule to town targeted 2019 as the year when Baylor had a good chance to get back to a bowl game.
But when Bears quarterback Charlie Brewer tossed a six-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Mims to beat Oklahoma State a little more than a week ago in Waco, expectations changed a little bit. The victory over the Cowboys boosted Baylor (5-5, 3-4 Big 12) to the brink of bowl eligibility this season.
The Bears couldn’t slow down Iowa State’s charge on Saturday as the Cyclones claimed a 28-14 victory in Ames. Baylor finishes the season in two weeks against Texas Tech’s high-octane offense, the likes of which the Bears have struggled to hold back this season.
That leaves this week when TCU (4-6, 2-5) comes to town.
Rhule deflected the emphasis of getting bowl-eligible during his Monday press conference. The bigger priority, he said, is to win the final home game of the season for the program’s seniors.
“I’m only worried about the seniors going out on senior day the right way,” Rhule said. “That’s always been a really big deal to me, that they walk off the field as winners. I want to make sure these guys who have really stood for Baylor, and they’ve also stood for me personally, I want them to walk off the field as winners. And the benefit of that is we would get a chance to play another game.”
The Horned Frogs have lost four of the last five. TCU defeated Kansas State in Fort Worth a couple weeks ago, but the Horned Frogs showed weakness in a one-point loss to Big 12 cellar-dweller Kansas and a 37-point defeat on Saturday at West Virginia.
Baylor received some good news on Sunday when the Big 12 didn’t suspend Brewer, who was ejected from the Iowa State game. Brewer received an initial unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty along with the entire Baylor team, then notched a second one and the ejection in the fourth quarter for arguing with officials.
Brewer, a sophomore, has given the Bears a spark in Big 12 games when he’s been available. It might be up to him to outduel TCU QB Mike Collins and thus lift the Bears to bowl-eligibility.
