By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor

Coming off a bye week two games below .500 at the halfway point in the season, Baylor football has a strong sense of urgency. Head coach Dave Aranda and the Bears caught their breath and rolled out a new game plan as the team prepares to clash with Texas Tech at 3 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock.

Despite the early season struggles that have put the Bears (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) second to last in the new-look Big 12, Aranda feels he has all the players, pieces and parts to pull his team back into the hunt for a bowl game.

“The positive is that we’ve got potential to be a really good team,” Aranda said. “We have talent. I think we’ve got playmakers on offense. I think there needs to be consistency, particularly in the run game, and I think those playmakers come to life even more. Our quarterback play has been positive. Our receiver play has been more consistent than it has probably ever been… All of those things are going to be severely tested here on Saturday.”

Baylor hit the bye week after a 43-21 loss to then-No. 16 Iowa State, where the Bears allowed 265 rushing yards and a 40-7 Cyclones run to close the game. With extra time to dissect the film and make changes, the green and gold tried to focus on the positives and configure an approach to fix the miscues.

“The bye is always hard after a really tough loss because you’re just kind of sitting in it. But I think if you use that feeling to really try to get honest with what needs to improve and how you need to improve it …you have a chance to get better,” Aranda said.

The Bears’ “get right” game comes against a familiar foe, as former Baylor assistant turned third-year Texas Tech (5-1, 3-0 Big 12) head coach Joey McGuire poses the next threat. The Red Raiders sit third in the Big 12 and boast a top-25 offense in the nation, averaging 460.5 yards per game with 6.31 yards per play. Under McGuire, Texas Tech leads the conference in points per game (39.3) and has the league’s leading rusher, super-senior running back Tahj Brooks, who is averaging 135.8 rush yards per game.

Sophomore outside linebacker and Lubbock native Kyler Jordan sees an opportunity for Baylor to march into enemy ground and replicate Baylor’s blowout win from 2022. While the Texas Tech offense has shown signs of excellence, they have also been forced into the most third down plays of any school in the Big 12 (92) and have converted on 44 of those chances. However, the Red Raiders have the worst fourth down conversion rate of any team in the conference (30%), meaning stops early in drives could force miscues.

“The season’s not over. We’ve got six more games to make a bowl game and make something of this team,” Jordan said. “A couple of those games bounce a little bit differently, we’d be sitting here feeling a little bit better about ourselves. We’ve got a big one on Saturday. Half the battle in football is believing you can do it. I think going in with confidence gives you a better chance to win a football game. I really think that we can do it. I think the guys here think we can do it.”

As the green and gold hit the home stretch, consistency will be key, with the team aiming to close tight games. Baylor has dropped two one-score games, and the four losses have come against teams with a combined record of 20-4, including two undefeated squads, No. 9 Iowa State and No. 13 BYU.

“Looking back at our season, we’ve had a lot of close games. We probably haven’t capitalized on that,” senior offensive lineman Campbell Barrington said. “We’ve just had that mentality that we come out swinging. We’re doing all the stuff, we’re moving the ball just fine. We just have to keep staying consistent throughout the whole game and know that these moments will come when it’s tight ball.”

Aranda and the Bears focused on improving the run game after failing to record more than 80 yards on the ground in the past two games. Texas Tech has recorded the second-fewest sacks in the Big 12 (6) and allowed an average of 148.2 rushing yards per game. Barrington and the offensive line practiced winning one-on-one assignments in space and allowing the running backs to beat both zone and man coverage.

But opening the game on the right foot and staying strong was seen as the key to rebounding.

“To start fast really means that we’re not going to wait and see what new plays they’ve got. We’re not going to wait and see what adjustments we have to make. We’re not going to wait and see how different this is from what we practice. It means we’re going to run through the smoke,” Aranda said. “This is the big leagues, and so the scheme and the mismatches and all of it is happening fast, and we’ve got to be able to respond fast. If all that happens for four quarters, I think we’ll be in a position to close it out.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Jones AT&T Stadium, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2. This marks the Bears’ sixth consecutive game aired on national TV. In 2023, Baylor only had five games on a national network, with the other seven being broadcast exclusively on ESPN+.