No. 9 Baylor scored 27 second-half points and broke open a 3-3 halftime tie to beat No. 25 Texas, 30-10, and claim the school’s first-ever Big 12 championship, first-ever 11-win season and first-ever BCS bowl berth.
As he has all year, Bryce Petty led the way for the 11-1 Bears, throwing for 287 yards and two key third quarter touchdowns on a cold day in Waco that saw temperatures plunge below 30 degrees.
“I’m trying to hold back a lot of tears right now,” Petty said afterward. “I’m just so happy, man. I really am.”
A first half that saw both teams playing tight in the frigid weather loosened up a bit in the third quarter as Baylor piled up 161 yards of offense and 17 points to jump out to a 20-3 lead. The way the Texas offense was playing, that was going to be enough.
Nonetheless, the Longhorns kept fighting. Jaxon Shipley returned a punt 50 yards to set up Texas at the Baylor 11-yard line to start the fourth quarter. Malcom Brown, who rushed for a game-high 131 yards on 25 carries, caught a two-yard touchdown pass from Case McCoy, who did his best Johnny Manziel impression by throwing back across the defense after rolling left. That made the score, 20-10, with 12:38 left to play.
But Lache Seastrunk ripped off a 22-yard run on Baylor’s next play to key a 55-yard drive that ended in an Aaron Jones 28-yard field goal that made it a two-score game once again.
Texas just couldn’t get anything going after that. With less than five minutes to play, K.J. Morton intercepted a McCoy pass and returned it 57 yards, setting up Glascoe Martin’s 18-yard scamper to make it 30-10 and the the Baylor crowd started its party.
Big credit to Bears coach Art Briles, who has done some amazing things in building this program.
“Coach Briles started it all,” said Petty. “He means everything to this program. We love that guy.”
The big question for Texas now is whether it loves its guy. Will Mack Brown return? His team falls to 8-4 and is just 30-20 over the last four years. We’re sure to hear lots of speculation on this matter in the next couple weeks.
As for Baylor, Petty returns next year and the Bears will be in a brand new stadium, with Briles the owner of a brand new contract that will keep him in Waco for the next decade. With the new college football playoff approaching, it’s going to be fun to see if the Bears can take that next step under Briles .
At this rate, we might yet see a national title come to Waco.