STORY LINES
• Baylor takes on Texas Southern for its home opener in the first series meeting between the schools.
• BU is coming off a 29-20 win at Texas State, its 12th win in 13 season openers since 2009.
• Baylor looks to start 2-0 for the 10th time in 12 seasons since 2010 (all except 2017 & 2020).
• Baylor's defense picked off 3 passes at TXST, its 6th-straight game with an INT (2.0 INTs/gm during streak). The Bears have averaged 1.5 INTs/gm in 10 games under head coach
Dave Aranda.
• BU had a pair of 100-yard rushers in Saturday's win at TXST (
Trestan Ebner-120,
Abram Smith-118), marking the first time achieving that feat since the 2018 season opener vs. Abilene Christian.
• Ebner leads all active FBS running backs with 1,225 receiving yards. He is the first player in program history with both 1,000 career rushing yards (1,011) and 1,000 career receiving yards (1,225).
• Baylor ranked 16th nationally in turnover margin (0.89) last season. The Bears have 20 takeaways in 10 games under Aranda (15 INTs, 5 FRs) and have committed only 10 turnovers (8 INT, 2 FUM).
• Baylor returned 17 of 22 starters and 54 of 68 letterman from last season's team.
• The Bears' defense returned 10 starters from a unit which allowed only 203.0 passing yards per game last season, second-best in the Big 12. BU allowed 156 passing yards Saturday at TXST.
• The Bears' five starting defensive backs have a combined 182 career games played and 82 career starts. CB
Raleigh Texada leads all BU returners with 30 career starts (24-consecutive).
• The Bears added a pair of experienced O-Line transfers with
Jacob Gall (13 starts at Buffalo) and
Grant Miller (16 starts at Vanderbilt). Four members of the O-Line have a combined 79 career starts.
• Fourth-year junior QB
Gerry Bohanon, a 2020 graduate, was 1 of 5 Bears to make a career-first start Saturday at TXST, joining TE
Jackson Shupp, OL
Gavin Byers, LB
Matt Jones and DL
Brayden Utley.
• Baylor has 79 wins since 2011, 3rd-most in the state of Texas behind only A&M (85) and TCU (81).
• Baylor ranks 2nd in the FBS with 28 college graduates on its 2021 preseason roster (Illinois-29).
• The Bears welcomed four new assistant coaches for 2021 –
Jeff Grimes (Offensive Coordinator/TEs),
Eric Mateos (Offensive Line),
Chansi Stuckey (Wide Receivers) and
Kevin Curtis (Cornerbacks).
ADDITIONAL STORYLINES
• Baylor is playing its first non-conference home game in 735 days – last on Sept. 7, 2019 vs. UTSA.
• BU returned 7 starters on offense, led by OL
Connor Galvin and Xavier-Newman Johnson with 24 starts apiece.
• Offensive coordinator
Jeff Grimes has brought RVO to Waco - "Reliable Violent Offense" - an attacking, multiple formation offense that runs a few plays a lot of ways with as much misdirection as any team in the country.
• Baylor's 386 yards of offense in Grimes' first game were its 2nd-most in 10 games during the Aranda era.
• Grimes' 2020 BYU offense finished 3rd nationally in scoring (43.5 ppg) and 7th in total offense (522.2 ypg).
• Joining Grimes in making the move from Provo to Waco is offensive line coach
Eric Mateos, who spent the past two seasons at BYU. Mateos' offensive line ranked 8th nationally in 2020 with 1.0 sacks allowed per game.
• BU is playing its 120th season of football and holds a 610-584-44 (.511) all-time record. Baylor has scored in a school-record 175 straight games - the previous record was 89 games from Dec. 31, 1979 - Oct. 23, 1987.
• Baylor is 26-15 all-time at McLane Stadium (est. 2014), including 9-3 in non-conference and 6-1 in home openers.
TEXAS SOUTHERN SERIES HISTORY
• Baylor and Texas Southern are meeting for the first time. This is also the first game Baylor has played against a current Southwestern Athletic Conference member.
LOOKING TO START 2-0 FOR 10TH TIME IN LAST 12 SEASONS
• Baylor looks to start 2-0 for the 10th time in 12 seasons since 2010. The Bears have been 2-0 through their first two games in every season since 2010 except 2017 and 2020 (both first seasons under new head coaches).'
• This is the first time since 2015 the Bears opened the season away from home (2015 win at SMU).
• With the win at Texas State, Baylor improved to 80-36-4 all-time in season openers, including 12-1 since 2009.
TWO-FOR-ONE IN TURNOVER BATTLE
• Baylor has forced twice as many turnovers as it has allowed in 10 games under head coach
Dave Aranda.
• The Bears have 20 takeaways (15 INTs, 5 FR) and only 10 giveaways (8 INTs, 2 FL) in 10 games under Aranda.
• BU has an interception in 6 straight games (12 INTs during streak) and in 8 of 10 games since 2020 (1.5/game).
TRIO OF DBs PICK OFF PASSES IN OPENER
• Three different Baylor defensive backs picked off passes in the Sept. 4 season-opening win at Texas State.
•
JT Woods scored the Bears' first points when he had a 20-yard Pick-6 in the 1st quarter, his 4th INT in 9 games.
•
Jalen Pitre picked off a pass in the 4th quarter and returned it 20 yards, his 3rd career INT (all in last 6 games).
•
Jairon McVea also had a 4th-quarter INT, which was the 2nd of his career and first since Oct. 6, 2018 at K-State.
BOHANON SOLID IN CAREER-FIRST START
• Baylor fourth-year junior QB
Gerry Bohanon became Baylor's 21st different QB to start a game since 2000.
• Bohanon joined Bryce Petty (2013) as the only Baylor QBs in the last 20 years to make their career-first starts and lead the Bears to a win in a season opener.
MILESTONES TO WATCH
•
Trestan Ebner needs 36 all-purpose yards to become the 12th player in BU history with 3000+ all-purpose yards.
• RJ Sneed needs 7 receptions to become the 21st player in program history with 100+ career receptions.
•
Tyquan Thornton needs 160 receiving yards to become 19th player in BU history with 1500+ receiving yards.
•
Terrel Bernard needs 1 sack to become the 13th player in program history with 11.0+ career sacks.
COMPLETE NOTES
