Football Rolls to 66-7 Win Over Texas Southern

Saturday, September 11

Waco, TX

6 PM

Baylor

2-0 , 0-0

Texas Southern

0-2 , 0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Texas Southern

Baylor

Football Rolls to 66-7 Win Over Texas Southern

9/11/2021 10:44:00 PM | Football

Box Score Game Book Postgame Notes

Gerry Bohanon passed for 247 yards and three touchdowns

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            If Baylor head coach Dave Aranda started Saturday's game against Texas Southern with a to-do list, I'm guessing he checked off a lot of them by the time the final seconds ticked off the clock in a 66-7 blowout victory at McLane Stadium.
            Not only did the Bears (2-0) pile up their most yards rushing in six years (419), they hit three passes of 40 yards or longer, scored on the longest fumble return in school history and cleaned up the penalty issue that plagued them last week.
            "I knew we were moving the ball really good, but I didn't know we had 700-something yards," quarterback Gerry Bohanon said of the 714-yard performance, the most in almost six years. "That's something Coach challenged us with this week. Everybody was literally one play at a time and making plays tonight. Everybody was happy and energized by the crowd and happy to be playing."
            Making his first start at McLane Stadium, Bohanon threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns and added two more scores on the ground. He engineered seven-consecutive touchdown-scoring drives before taking the rest of the night off.
            Baylor's balanced offensive attack also produced a trio of 100-yard rushers for the first time since Sept. 12, 2015. Abram Smith led the way with 126 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries; Trestan Ebner had 125 yards rushing and also scored on a 12-yard catch and run; and Taye McWilliams came in late to pick up 102 yards and one TD on just six carries.
            "As the offense gets rolled out, people will spin the rolodex and see what number to call," Aranda said, "and we have to keep making the right calls on our end."
            Converting twice on fourth down, the Bears opened with a 12-play, 86-yard drive and capped it with a 20-yard TD run by Smith, who has four in the first two games. Baylor was 3-for-3 on fourth down and scored on every series until the last, when fourth-string QB Brandon Bass kneeled twice to run out the clock.
            "We want to be aggressive in that area," Aranda said of going for it on fourth down. "We want to be able to use our offense's strengths, which I think is going to be the offensive line and the running game and play-action pass game. . . . The ability to go for it on fourth down is something that tilts it in our favor."
            The defense was dominant, particularly in the first half, holding the visiting Tigers to just 52 yards. Texas Southern lost eight yards on its first two plays and had two three-and-outs in its first four series.
            After forcing a quick three-and-out, Baylor wasted no time, with Bohanon connecting with Tyquan Thornton for a 48-yard TD pass.
            "The coaches challenged me and Tyquan and some of the other receivers on the deep ball in this game, just knowing that we didn't connect well in the last game," said Bohanon, who missed on his few deep passes in last week's 29-20 win over Texas State. "That was the big emphasis this week and we got the job done."
            Bohanon finished off the next two drives himself with TD runs of seven and 10 yards and then hooked up with a wide-open Thornton on an 18-yard touchdown pass. By halftime, the Bears had already rolled up 458 yards in taking a commanding 42-0 lead.
            Midway through the third quarter, Bohanon's night ended when he dumped off a short pass to Ebner that he turned into a 12-yard touchdown, jumping over linebacker Julian Marcantel to get into the end zone. Ebner extended his school record with his 10^th receiving touchdown as a running back and also moved up to 11^th on the all-time list with 3,173 all-purpose yards.
            "It's crazy, Eb said he was going to do that this week. He said he was going to jump over somebody," Bohanon said. "I said, 'I don't know about that, but go for it,' and he went for it and got it."
            The Bears weren't done, though. Freshman Isaiah Hankins connected on a 37-yard field goal, then safety JT Woods scooped up a fumble forced by Jalen Pitre and returned it a school-record 97 yards for a defensive touchdown in his second-straight game.
            "I picked it up and just turned on the jets," said Woods, who scored on an interception return in the season opener. "The whole time I was running, I was looking up at the Jumbotron to see if anybody was behind me. I just saw Christian (Morgan) behind me, so I said, 'OK, I'm good.' I knew he was going to let me get in the end zone."
            After coming up empty on an 11-play drive down to the 4-yard line, Texas Southern finally got on the board with 8:00 left. Kevin Harris' one-yard plunge capped a 10-play, 75-yard drive.
            McWilliams picked up all but seven yards on the Bears' four-play, 75-yard scoring drive, breaking one for 44 yards on his first carry of the night and then finishing it with a 14-yard TD run that made it 66-7.
            While Baylor had its most yards total offense (714) since the 756-yard performance versus North Carolina in the 2015 Russell Athletic Bowl, Texas Southern (0-2) gained 161 of its 281 total yards in the fourth quarter.
            Going back on the road for the second time in three weeks, Baylor opens Big 12 play against Kansas (1-1) at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday, Sept. 18, in Lawrence, Kan. The Jayhawks lost at 17^th-ranked Coastal Carolina, 49-22, on Friday after opening with a 17-14 win over South Dakota.