Baylor Offense Will be Just Fine in Hands of Jarrett Stidham

There was plenty of concern about the state of the No. 6 Baylor Bears after their starting quarterback, Seth Russell, was lost for the year with a neck injury in their win against the Iowa State Cyclones two weeks ago. In his place stepped true freshman Jarrett Stidham with a ton of pressure to maintain the prolific pace of the Baylor attack heading into the toughest stretch of the season. After Thursday night’s 31-24 win over the Kansas State Wildcats in Manhattan, though, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to worry about Stidham.

In his first collegiate start in a hostile and windy environment, Stidham was sensational. He finished the night completing 23 of 33 passes for 419 yards with three touchdown tosses to go along with a rushing touchdown as well. His arm strength and athleticism were on full display as he got the football into the hands of Baylor’s playmakers, like Corey Coleman who racked up 216 yards receiving on 11 receptions with a pair of touchdowns. Most importantly, Stidham showed tremendous poise playing in an environment that Baylor has traditionally struggled when things started to go against the Bears.

From the get-go, K-State was giving Baylor all they could handle by deploying a time-consuming ball-control offense that kept Baylor’s offense on the sideline. The Wildcats’ opening drive took more than nine minutes off the clock and resulted in a touchdown. Kansas State would end up leading the time of possession battle 38 minutes to 22, effectively keeping the Baylor offense on the sideline for excruciatingly long stretches. While this strategy could force some young quarterbacks to panic and press, Stidham stayed cool and collected and didn’t turn the ball over a single time.

Coming out of this game, quarterback play may be the least of Baylor’s worries down the stretch. The defense struggled to get off the field all night long and surrendered 258 yards rushing to Kansas State. That will need to be fixed in a hurry as Baylor prepares for the Oklahoma Sooners next week as no Power 5 offense has rushed for more yards in the last three weeks than the Sooners led by the dynamic duo of Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon.

Offensively, Baylor came into the game with the No. 3 rushing attack in the nation, averaging 338.3 yards per game led by Shock Linwood‘s 974 yards and nine touchdowns on the season. But against K-State, the Bears managed just 103 yards rushing and Linwood was limited to just 72 yards on 13 carries and failed to find the endzone for only the second time this season. That lack of balance put even greater pressure on Stidham and the passing game and the young signal caller stepped up and delivered.

There will undoubtedly be more hurdles for Jarrett Stidham and the Baylor offense to clear moving forward with greater challenges lurking on the Bears’ November schedule. But with the poise he displayed in his debut, there’s no reason to worry about Stidham leading this offense going forward.

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