This is the first in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, which will be posted every week at BaylorBears.com.
 
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
In the current landscape of college athletics, with the transfer portal and NIL, there's little to no chance that a quarterback of Bryce Petty's stature would sit around and wait for three years.
 
"Naturally, when money's around, when opportunity is around, it's really hard to sit there and go, 'Would I rather sit here or go play?''' said Petty, part of the 2025 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class that will be inducted Nov. 14. "I really don't know if I would have been a Baylor Bear for my whole tenure."
 
Stuck behind 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III and Nick Florence, Petty redshirted in 2010 and played a combined 11 games the next two years as the backup quarterback for the Bears.
 
"To have those intangibles, those characteristics that have propelled you to get to that place in college," Petty said, "and then to be held back . . . a lot of that is the pride of, 'Hey, you're just not good enough right now.'''
 
But he was definitely "good enough" by 2013 and '14, when he put together the best back-to-back seasons in program history. While putting up ridiculous stats – 8,055 yards and 61 touchdown passes with only 10 interceptions – Petty was 21-4 as a starter and led the Bears to their first two Big 12 championships and historic 11-win seasons.
 
"All that to say, I would not have it any other way," said Petty, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year as a redshirt junior in 2013. "The time that I waited, what I believe it taught me as a man . . . made me appreciate the times that I did play and that I did lead and was part of a culture that was a wining culture. It was a culture that people were excited about being a fan of Baylor football. And I couldn't imagine it any other way.
 
"It's such a blessing to be a part of those teams, to win back-to-back Big 12 championships, that's something they can never take away from you. Those are ours, and it's great to say that I was part of those teams."
 
That's what made last year's Hall of Fame weekend so special. Those 2013 and '14 teams were the Honor Teams at the banquet, recognized on the field during the Baylor-TCU football game and reunited with former head coach Art Briles.
 
"That was a yearbook of memories, all in person, with conversations, hugging one another, seeing guys be dads, be husbands," Petty said. "To be able to celebrate the time we spent together . . . but having Coach Briles there wasn't just the cherry on the top. It was the banana, it was the ice cream, it was the whole thing. Being around him kind of put a bow on it."
 
In the span of a few months during his senior season, Bryce went through the highest of highs and lowest of lows.
 
Facing TCU in a top-10 matchup in McLane Stadium's debut season, the Bears fell behind 58-37 in the fourth quarter when the Horned Frogs' Marcus Mallet returned a Petty interception 49 yards for a touchdown.
 
Orchestrating the biggest comeback in school history, Petty threw TD passes of 28 yards to Antwan Goodley and 25 yards to Corey Coleman and set up Chris Callahan for a walk-off 28-yard field goal as time expired in the Bears' dramatic 61-58 victory.
 
"I just knew, looking at guys' faces, that we were going to come back in that game," Petty said after the game. "With our offense and the way that we play defense, 21 points isn't a big deal for us."
 
Flipping the script, No. 8 Michigan State scored three unanswered touchdowns in the fourth quarter to beat No. 5 Baylor, 42-41, in the Cotton Bowl. Petty threw for 550 yards and three touchdowns, including an 18-yarder to 380-pound tight end LaQuan McGowan, and also scored on a one-yard TD run.
 
"There's one play that sticks out in my mind," Petty said. "You hit Corey (Coleman) on a slant and get an offensive facemask penalty, which you normally never see. The guy was such a phenomenal football player, aggressive on the outside. You love receivers that are aggressive. But then to penalize him for that? Come on, man, it's a stiff-arm. And then you get the blocked field goal and the interception return that gets called back. It was just weird how it happened.
 
"It was certainly one that took me a while to get over, especially when you talk about the Fiesta Bowl, too, and the way it went down. Those were two great seasons, regular seasons, and you want to cap that off with the cherry on top. I don't like that you bring that up."
 
Drafted in the fourth round by the New York Jets, Petty made seven starts in three seasons with the New York Jets and signed with the Miami Dolphins before leaving the game. Transitioning to the business world, he tried his hand at real estate, private equity and venture financing and is now the Director of Capital Markets at Texas Capital Bank in Dallas.
 
"It's cool to see the entrepreneurial effort and, ultimately, what makes a bankable deal," Petty said. "It's kind of rounded out my financial astuteness, very elementary. I'm still in coloring books, but it's been fun."
 
Bryce and his wife, Jordan, have two daughters, Rivi (5) and Sayre (3); and one son, Bodie, who turns 2 next month.
 
"It's a beautiful chaos right now," he said. "We've got three beautiful kids. I'm very lucky, very blessed."
 
Joining Petty in the 2025 Baylor Hall of Fame class are fellow football players Cyril Richardson and Derek Turner, equestrian All-American Samantha Schaefer, women's golfer Hannah Burke, baseball's Chris Durbin, LaceDarius Dunn from men's basketball and Taylor Ormond from women's tennis.
 
The 2025 Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Hurd Welcome Center Grand Ballroom on the Baylor University campus. Registration is available here.