No. 9 Football Powers Past Kansas, 61-6

Saturday, November 30

Lawrence, Kan.

2:30 PM CT

Baylor

11-1 , 8-1

Kansas

3-9 , 1-8

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Baylor

Kansas

No. 9 Football Powers Past Kansas, 61-6

11/30/2019 7:13:00 PM | Football

Box Score Game Book BU Postgame Notes

JaMycal Hasty had 94 yards and a career-best three touchdowns on 14 carries.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Returning to the stadium where they got their one and only victory in 2017, the No. 9 Baylor Bears put an exclamation point on their 1-11 to 11-1 turnaround with a 61-6 drubbing of Kansas in Saturday's regular-season finale at Memorial Stadium.

Two years ago, in his first start, a freshman quarterback named Charlie Brewer engineered a 38-9 road win that was the "ultimate relief" for a 1-11 team that was "being laughed at" on social media and most media circles.

No one's laughing anymore.

Not now that the Bears (11-1, 8-1) are headed to their first-ever Big 12 Championship game and a rematch against seventh-ranked Oklahoma (11-1, 8-1) at 11 a.m. next Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

In one of its most dominant conference wins in program history, Baylor churned out 264 yards on the ground, scored on five of its first six possessions, got six takeaways and didn't allow a score by the home-standing Jayhawks (3-9, 1-8) until the waning moments of the third quarter.

"As I told them, they've certainly come a long way in two years," said Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, whose team tied the school record for wins in a season (2013, 2014) and finished 5-0 on the road for just the second time in program history (1980). "Two years ago, we came here and we grinded out a win. Today, we looked like a big-time team for most of the game.

"I'm really proud of them, not just for today, but for the last two years, the process they've had, the toughness, the grind, the ability to overcome adversity, the ability to shut out distractions. To go 11-1 in major college football is really, really hard to do."

In the process, the Bears became the first Power 5 team in college football history to go from 1-11 to 11-1 in two years.

"God is good, man. That's a blessing," said junior safety Grayland Arnold, who had his sixth interception of the season and one of four by the Baylor defense on Saturday. "There was just so much hurt and downfall with that 1-11 year. There was so much going on mentally, but it was tough. To just now say we're 1-11, that's beautiful."

Now a seasoned veteran with 33 games under his belt, Brewer returned to the site of his first collegiate start and was 13-of-25 for 182 yards, connecting with Tyquan Thornton for a 51-yard TD strike in a 21-point first-quarter outburst.

"We started off really fast the first quarter," said Brewer, who got the rest of the day off with Baylor up 34-0 at the halftime break. "I think we're starting to (get off to better starts), and I think playing a little bit better at the beginning of the games is important."

The game could not have started out much better for the Bears, who took advantage of a strong wind at their backs to take control in the first 15 minutes.

Kansas threatened on its opening series, driving from its own 25 down to the Baylor 23, but quarterback Carter Stanley was sacked by Bravvion Roy and then couldn't connect with receiver Stephon Robinson as the Jayhawks turned the ball over.

Baylor's defense was so dominant that KU got just one more first down in the first half and didn't come that close again until the end of the third quarter.

It took the Bears just four plays to travel 73 yards for their first points of the day. After a John Lovett 30-yard run, Brewer threw passes of 12 yards to Josh Fleeks and 25 to a wide-open Denzel Mims and then redshirt freshman QB Gerry Bohanon scored on a six-yard keeper.

"We had a plan all week to really play Gerry a lot, and then he got hurt," Rhule said of Bohanon, who rushed for 42 yards on seven carries and completed 2-of-4 passes for 20 yards. "Charlie's ankle was bothering him, so we really didn't want to run him. And we knew to attack this defense, we wanted a running quarterback, so we thought, 'Hey, we'll play two quarterbacks.' But, while we had the wind at our backs, we took advantage of some opportunities and guys made plays."

That's what Brewer and Thornton did on Baylor's second series, hooking up on a post route for 51 yards and a 14-0 lead after a short punt by the Jayhawks.

"I didn't think the wind was too much of a factor," Brewer said. "I thought it was a little windier but nothing extreme. I just kind of threw it like I do normally."

JaMycal Hasty led Baylor's potent rushing attack, picking up 94 yards on 14 carries and scoring a career-high three touchdowns. He capped off a nine-play, 75-yard drive with a 13-yard TD run to make it 21-0 with 1:08 left in the first quarter.

"It was great, just physical, dominant," Rhule said. "(Hasty) stepped up, (Trestan) Ebner stepped up. Lovett went down early. To have those guys step up, and then we knew we had Qualan (Jones) waiting in the wings and Abram Smith has been winning in the wings. He's been playing linebacker and went over and played tailback. I'm always happy when those guys that grind have a chance."

Capitalizing on two fumbled punt returns by the Jayhawks, the Bears added a 14-yard TD run by Ebner and a pair of 23-yard field goals by John Mayers to take a 34-0 lead into the halftime intermission.

While Brewer's day was done, along with several of the key defensive starters, the Bears were far from done. Taking the reins in the second half, Bohanon came back from his first-half injury to engineer a pair of third-quarter scoring drives that extended the lead to 48-0 with TD runs of 19 and eight yards by Hasty.

Senior quarterback Manny Miles, the son of first-year Kansas head coach Les Miles, led the Jayhawks to their only score of the day and threw an 11-yard TD pass to Andrew Parchment.

"The defensive guys were wanting to fight me on the sidelines. They wanted to go back in there because they wanted to have a shutout," Rhule said. "Which is great, but at the same time we have a game next week, too. It was great to get a great, dominant win like this. And it was great to get a lot of guys a chance to play. A lot of those kids that were playing at the end are on the scout team for us."

Pooka Williams topped the 1,000-yard mark for the season and finished with 116 yards on 22 carries, but most of those yards came in the last 21 minutes against Baylor's defensive backups.

Seeing his first game action, Baylor true freshman Jacob Zeno was 3-of-3 for 41 yards passing, led a 14-play, 75-yard drive and then finished the scoring with a one-yard keeper after a Zeke Brown interception.

Despite the pain of that 1-11 season two years ago, Rhule said, "we wouldn't be here if we hadn't been there."

"It's definitely been a wild ride from my first year until now," Brewer said. "I wouldn't trade it for anything. We've learned important lessons to lead us to this point in our season. To finish off the regular season 11-1, the previous two years were pretty pivotal in getting here."

In next week's Big 12 Championship game, the Bears will get a chance to avenge a 34-31 loss to Oklahoma, when the Sooners rallied from a 31-10 halftime deficit. OU finished off its regular season with a 34-16 win over Oklahoma State later Saturday in the Bedlam Rivalry game in Stillwater.

"It will be a great opportunity. We've earned our way into it," Rhule said. "It will be a great week, but right now I told them, let's enjoy getting 11 wins. That's hard to do. I've never done it before."