Baylor Routs NSU
This day couldn’t come soon enough.
Looking a lot like the same Baylor football team that’s made a habit of rolling up yards and points in bunches, the 23rd-ranked Bears put up 48 points in the first half and coasted to a 55-7 season-opening victory over Northwestern State Friday night in Jim Grobe’s debut as the acting head coach.
“It felt like Baylor,” said senior quarterback Seth Russell, who threw for 163 yards and four touchdowns before taking a seat late in the second quarter. “We’re going to play Baylor football. We have all the same coaches, minus one. And we had a great one to replace him. I’m really excited about it, and we’re going to continue to play Baylor football.”
Grobe, the former Wake Forest and Ohio University head coach, took over for Art Briles as acting head coach at the end of May and was back in the game for the first time since the 2013 season.
“Honestly, it was great,” said Grobe, who had never scored more than 54 points in his 227 career games as a Division I head coach. “For me, it’s fun being back on the sidelines again. It’s fun working with the players and coaches. But more than anything else, I could just tell that our guys were having fun. And it was just exciting to watch.”
The night began with Russell and fellow seniors Ryan Reid, Orion Stewart and Lynx Hawthorne leading
the Baylor Line freshman group on the field at McLane Stadium in front of a crowd of 44,849.
“I think it’s just unity with Baylor Nation, with the students, to know that we’re all in this together,” Russell said. “It’s not just us against the world, it’s all Baylor against the world. They’re in the fight with us, and they’ve done a great job supporting us.”
While Baylor’s final offensive numbers (498 yards) don’t exactly stack up with the high-octane stats that became the standard in Briles’ eight seasons, the Bears already had 393 yards by intermission and scored their last points with 11:13 left in the third quarter.
True freshman Zach Smith replaced Russell late in the second quarter and led the Bears to touchdowns on his only two series, completing 5-of-7 passes for 60 yards and one TD. But the offense hit a wall with freshman walk-on quarterbacks Zack Bennema and Preston Heard, picking up just one first down in the last six series.
“I really felt good about our players, and I felt good about our coaching staff,” Grobe said. “But I wanted to see us put it together. And I wanted to see how we reacted as a team. There’s certainly a lot of things that we can work on and improve on, but I just liked the cohesiveness of our team and how hard we played. I’ve just got a good feeling about these guys.”
Baylor scored on each of its first nine possessions, going up 55-0 on Smith’s 12-yard TD pass to redshirt freshman Blake Lynch on the opening drive of the third quarter.
Russell, who was coming back from neck surgery after missing the last six games of the 2015 season, was an efficient 14-of-20 for 163 yards and four touchdowns with no picks in his first game action since last October.
“It was exciting to get back out there with the guys,” said Russell, who improved to 9-0 as a starter and moved up to No. 3 on Baylor’s all-time list with 42 career TD passes. “I felt better than ever. Of course, there’s always those first-game jitters. But after that first snap – and we were moving the football – it was back to football. Back to business.”
After a quick three-and-out by the defense, which held the Demons to minus-4 yards until the last minute of the second quarter, the offense looked business-like on its opening drive.
Shock Linwood, who finished with 97 yards on just nine totes, broke off a 42-yard run on third-and-11 from the Bears’ own 40. And then sophomore Terence Williams capped it off with a 13-yard run, the first of his two touchdowns on the night.
Chris Callahan tacked on a 23-yard field goal after a holding penalty stalled the second drive. But Russell made up for it by converting on a fourth-and-goal on the next series, hitting redshirt freshman tight end Sam Tecklenburg for a four-yard TD pass.
Before taking the rest of the night off, Russell hooked up with KD Cannon for a six-yard touchdown, tight end Jordan Feuerbacher for five yards and redshirt freshman receiver Pooh Stricklin for 10 yards.
“We’re the same,” senior center Kyle Fuller said. “We’re back to how we are. And that’s the big thing right now. Going through camp and going through what we have gone through the past couple months has really brought us closer together. So, it’s been fun. It was really exciting to get out there.”
The offense didn’t miss a beat with Smith at the controls, scoring on a one-yard TD run by Williams and the 12-yard pass to Lynch. Baylor has now topped the 400-yard mark in total offense in 62 of its last 66 games, dating back to 2011.
On the other side, the defense looked better than ever despite having to replace four starters up front and playing without nickel back Travon Blanchard (injured) and safety Chance Waz (suspended).
Northwestern State finished with just 78 yards total offense – 47 rushing and 31 passing – the fewest the Bears have given up since holding SMU to just 67 yards in a 45-0 victory in the 2014 season opener.
The Demons didn’t even pick up a first down until 43 seconds left in the first quarter, when Brooks Haack hit Bobby Chan-Chan for 20 yards.
“The thing that expanded my comfort zone was (defensive coordinator) Phil Bennett,” Grobe said. “Phil felt really good about our defensive front. I know we lost some good players and some bigger guys, but Phil felt good about it. (Defensive line coach) Chris Achuff felt really good about it. . . . I think one of the keys for us tonight was our defensive line. We feel like those guys up front played pretty good.”
Linebacker Aiavion Edwards said sophomore nose tackle Ira Lewis, who had three tackles for loss and a QB hurry, “couldn’t be stopped, it felt like.”
“I was having a hard time chasing plays, because everything was in the backfield,” Edwards said. “Those guys did great tonight, and that’s exactly what we expected from them.”
Baylor’s shutout bid ended late in the third quarter, when Haack scored on a three-yard run to cap a drive that was aided by a pass-interference penalty.
“We wanted to keep it a shutout, but things happen,” Edwards said. “We had a lot of young guys out there. But the standard doesn’t drop. It’s something we can learn from, and they’ll be able to correct the next time they’re out there.”
