Football Drops Season Finale to Oklahoma State

Saturday, December 12

Waco, Texas

2:30 PM CT

Baylor

2-7 , 2-7

Oklahoma State

7-3 , 6-3

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Oklahoma State	14	14	7	7	42
Baylor	0	0	0	3	3

Football Drops Season Finale to Oklahoma State

12/12/2020 6:33:00 PM | Football

Box Score Game Book BU FB 2020 Postgame Notes OSU

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            This is not the way Dave Aranda will remember his debut season as a head coach.
            In a year filled with difficult challenges on and off the field, Baylor (2-7) had four of its five offensive coaches out due to positive COVID-19 tests and went into Saturday's regular-season finale against Oklahoma State missing 47 players, coaches or support staff for various reasons.
            Shorthanded on the field and upstairs in the coaches' booth, the Bears simply had no answer for a Spencer Sanders-led offense or a stingy OSU defense, falling to the Cowboys, 42-3, Saturday at McLane Stadium.
            "The complications of the season can bring out the best in people, and I've seen it," Aranda said. "You feel inspired, you feel this is where you're supposed to be and this is what you're supposed to be doing. This is bigger than football when you're around that type of inspiration, when there's tough stuff and guys are going above and beyond. That's what I'm going to remember. Not today. I just feel this is uncharacteristic of us, and I take full responsibility for that."
            Through the first eight games of the season, Baylor's largest margin of deficit was 13 points in last week's 27-14 loss at then-No. 13 Oklahoma.
            Oklahoma State (7-3) took the lead just 18 seconds into the game when Sanders found Dillon Stoner for a 75-yard touchdown pass. Stoner also scored on TD catches of 15 and 40 yards and finished with the third-highest single-game total in program history with 247 yards on eight catches.
            Sanders had his second 300-yard passing day of the season, completing 20 of 30 passes for 347 yards and the three touchdowns. With Chuba Hubbard opting out and LD Brown sidelined by an injury, fourth-string running back Dominic Richardson rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries.
            "Whenever a big play happens, it's usually assignment football," linebacker Dillon Doyle said of the defense giving up five plays of 40 yards or longer, including a 53-yard run by Richardson. "I'm not going to point fingers at anybody. When the opponent puts up 42 points, there's plenty of errors to go around, me included. I'm definitely disappointed in the result, but we're looking forward to the offseason and we'll definitely look to improve on a lot of things."
            Oklahoma State finished with 608 yards – 347 passing, 261 rushing – on a Baylor defense that held Oklahoma to just 269 yards total last week and hadn't allowed more than 429 yards in a game this season.
            "It's heartbreaking, of course," said junior linebacker Abram Smith, who recorded his fourth-straight double-digit tackle game with a career-high-tying 13 stops, including nine solos. "It's the last game for the seniors, so that's one thing we always think about. I was thinking about it when I was out there, trying to finish the game for them, being strong for them. I know how badly they wanted it. just to not quit, despite the scoreboard."
            Leading 28-0 at the half, OSU had a chance to extend that lead after Richardson's 53-yard run down to the Baylor 19. But three plays later, fifth-year senior cornerback Zeke Brown played a jump-ball pass perfectly and picked off a Sanders pass in the end zone intended for Washington State transfer Tay Martin.
            "Zeke is such a cool story," Aranda said of Brown, a former walk-on who made his first career start with cornerbacks Kalon Barnes, Mark Milton and Byron Hanspard II all out. "For him to fight through some adversity today and come up with a play that is pretty cool, because he's still fighting. That was good to see."
            Making his 39^th career start, Baylor senior quarterback Charlie Brewer completed 13-of-26 passes for 68 yards before leaving late in the third quarter with an apparent shoulder injury and the Bears trailing 35-0 after another Richardson TD run. The school career record-holder for completions and attempts, Brewer passed for 1,958 yards this season and ranks second all-time with 9,700 career yards passing.
            Redshirt freshman Jacob Zeno, seeing his first game action of the 2020 season, led the Bears on a 14-play, 57-yard fourth-quarter drive as John Mayers' 40-yard field goal ended the Cowboys' shutout bid with 7:55 left in the game.
            "He probably felt like, 'Holy smokes, I'm in!''' Aranda said of Zeno, who completed 5-of-8 passes for 18 yards and added 13 yards rushing on four carries, getting sacked once.
            "There was some energy with him, for sure. And then, there's some good confidence with him. When he got set in the pocket, he knew where the ball was going and got the ball out. And the times that stuff was covered up, he scrambled and was smart with the ball. So, I thought there were a lot of positive things. Proud of how he handled it."
            Freshman running backs Taye McWilliams and Qualan Jones combined for 55 yards rushing on 12 carries, with Jones adding a career-best and team-high eight catches for 37 yards. With Tyquan Thornton, Josh Fleeks and Jared Atkinson all out, R.J. Sneed led a depleted receiving corps with three catches for 21 yards.
            Running backs coach Justin Johnson, the only offensive assistant coach who was available, called plays from the press box for the first time in his career.
            "I think early in the game, there were some pauses," Aranda said of Johnson. "By the second and third quarter, he was spitting stuff out, kind of anticipating things, and we were trying to get it right. I feel really good about his effort tonight. I feel even better about just the type of person he is."
            In addition to Brown's second career interception, safety Christian Morgan picked off a pass for the third-straight game and finished one shy of his career high with 11 tackles. Jalen Pitre, who was third in the Big 12 in tackles for loss coming into the game, had a career-best 1.5 sacks and finished the year with a team-high 13.0 tackles for loss.
            "We have this taste in our mouth, a bad taste," Smith said. "Going into the offseason, we're going to attack everything. I feel like it's just going to motivate us to get better every day."
            After finishing its first season under Aranda, Baylor will begin the offseason with National Signing Day on Wednesday.