Nov. 8, 2003
Final Stats
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Sports Writer
WACO, Texas (AP) - B.J. Symons threw for 428 yards and seven touchdowns in just 2? quarters Saturday in Texas Tech's 62-14 victory over Baylor.
The seven touchdowns were one short of Symons' Big 12 record set this season against Texas A&M and came a week after he threw five interceptions against Colorado. It was his fifth game this season with at least five TDs, pushing his NCAA-leading season total to 44.
Symons completed 32 of 47 passes, throwing his last two TD passes in a 74-second span of the third quarter after returning to the game limping noticeably on a sore left knee. With the Red Raiders (7-3, 4-2 Big 12) ahead 49-14, Symons didn't play again.
Baylor (3-7, 1-5), which led just two plays into the game, tied it at 14 on Robert Quiroga's 100-yard kickoff return with 6:27 left in the first quarter. Texas Tech scored the last 48 points.
Backup quarterback Sonny Cumbie threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Carlos Francis on the first play of the fourth quarter. That was the second TD catch for the tight end, who became the school's career leader with 22.
Francis had seven catches for 112 yards, one of three 100-yard receivers. Mickey Peters had nine catches for 130 yards and Nehemiah Glover had six catches for 132 yards, and both had TDs.
Symons had five touchdowns by halftime, then on the opening series of the second half stayed down on the ground after getting hit by linebacker John Garrett on an incomplete pass. Symons put no pressure on his left leg while being helped off the field.
But Symons was back on the next series, which ended with a perfectly thrown 32-yard TD over a defender to Mickey Peters.
The Red Raiders got the ball back when the squibbed kickoff ricocheted off one of Baylor's front-line players and back to kicker Keith Togaed. Four plays later, Symons threw a 4-yard TD pass to Wes Welker and was done for the day with 7:23 left in the third quarter.
Symons extended his NCAA record with his ninth straight game with at least 400 yards of total offense, and has 4,741 passing yards. The old record was Ty Detmer's five in a row in 1990.
Welker also set the NCAA career record for punt return yardage on his 22-yard return in the second quarter. That was the second of his five returns Saturday for 67 yards.
Welker has 1,746 career return yards, breaking the 54-year-old record of Lee Nalley, who had 1,695 yards at Vanderbilt from 1947-49. A week earlier, Welker set another NCAA record with his eighth career punt return for a touchdown.
Baylor started the game with its quickest touchdown since 1995, when Rashad Armstrong broke lose for a 54-yard run on the second play of the game. It was the only offensive touchdown in three games for the Bears, who have lost five straight by an average margin of 40 points.
After Quiroga returned a kickoff for a touchdown for the second straight week, Texas Tech didn't score, stopped on fourth down at the Baylor 15.
But the Bears then went three-and-out and Symons threw a 59-yard TD to Glover. Symons followed with scoring passes to Francis (3 yards) and Taurean Henderson (13 yards), who also caught the first TD, on the next two possessions for a 35-14 halftime lead.
