Presser: Baylor’s Josh Cameron & Kyler Jordan Talk Spring Football
Two of the Baylor Bears’ team leaders met with the media after the final practice of the spring to take questions about their team.
BOULDER, Colo. – Dave Aranda was an 18-year-old senior at Redlands (California) High School when Colorado quarterback Kordell Stewart threw a 64-yard Hail Mary pass to Michael Westbrook in a 27-26 “Miracle at Michigan” victory in 1994.
But the fifth-year Baylor head coach had never “been a part of something like that.”
Until Saturday night.
With the Bears in firm grasp of what would have been a huge road victory in the Big 12 opener, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders connected with LaJohntay Wester with a 43-yard Hail Mary on the last play of regulation as the Buffaloes (3-1, 1-0) pulled out a 38-31 overtime victory before a homecoming crowd of 52,794 at Folsom Field.
“Really tough and just a heart-wrenching loss,” said Aranda, whose team fell to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12. “Haven’t really been a part of something like that, especially down to the last play of overtime or last play of overtime, how that went. Very hard to take. Team is very gutted right now and so frustrated. We’re probably going to be hurting all the way back to Waco.”
Baylor had a chance to answer after freshman running back Micah Welch scored from a yard out in the first overtime to give Colorado its first lead since the opening quarter. But Baylor running back Dominic Richardson fumbled the ball into the end zone on a hit by cornerback Travis Hunter at the 1-yard line, setting off a crowd-storming celebration that was put on hold until the call on the field was reviewed and upheld.
Game over.
“Just so hard, man,” linebacker Kyler Jordan said. “You put so much into it, and to have it in your hands and throw it away, it just hurts. The pain in the locker room, it’s terrible. You want to remember the good, but it’s hard to remember the good when it turns out the way it did.”
That’s the thing, there were about 59 minutes and 58 seconds of good that were wiped away in a couple painfully bad moments.
“A lot of hurt,” said wide receiver/punt returner Josh Cameron, who had 91 yards on three punt returns, including a 54-yarder to set up the Bears’ first score. “Only one way to go now, and that’s up. (Coach Aranda) was talking about the errors that we made and can’t be made if we want to beat good teams like that.”
Cameron actually gave the Bears a chance to put it away with a 20-yard punt return to the Buffs’ 26 after the defense recorded back-to-back sacks that had Colorado’s punter kicking from near the back of the end zone.
That followed Sawyer Robertson’s 24-yard TD pass to Hal Presley that put Baylor back on top, 31-24. Making his second-straight start and sixth over the last two seasons, Robertson was 11-of-21 for 148 yards and two touchdowns and also scored on a 45-yard TD run.
But with a chance to ice it with a couple first downs or a score, the Bears went backwards on three plays before Isaiah Hankins missed wide right on a 45-yard field goal attempt that would have made it a two-digit lead with just over two minutes to play.
Even on Colorado’s last series of regulation, Sanders was sacked twice by a Baylor defense that pressured him all night. But he overcame a second-and-24 from his own 31 with a 17-yard scramble, a six-yard pass to Wester and a one-yard keeper on fourth-and-one.
After Will Sheppard dropped a pass at around the 5-yard line that would have likely ended the game – Colorado had no timeouts left – Sanders pulled off the miracle. Rolling to his left, and under pressure, he heaved a throw into the end zone that Wester caught between two Baylor defensive backs for the gut-punch touchdown that tied it up.
