Jack Kizer (play-by-play) and Mark Helfrich (analyst) will have the game on FOX. The game on the Baylor Sports Media Network will be broadcast live by the Voice of the Bears, John Morris (play-by-play), and BU greats Geff Gandy (analyst) and Bryson Jackson (sideline).
Baylor (6-3, 4-2 Big 12 Conference) sits in a tie with BYU (7-2, 4-2 Big 12) in the race to Arlington and sits behind No. 2 Utah (9-0, 6-0 Big 21) and Texas Tech (8-1, 5-1 Big 12). The Bears, largely, hold their Big 12 Championship fate in their hands, facing BYU, Texas Tech and Houston (7-2, 4-2 Big 12).
SCOUTING THE COUGARS
• No. 8 BYU is off to another strong start to the season, which started with six straight wins, before a double-overtime loss at UCF on Oct. 24. The Cougars are coming off a rivalry clash at No. 3 Utah on Saturday that saw the Utes post a 28-20 win and drop BYU to 7-2 and 4-2 in league play.
• BYU has wins over Arizona State (27-20), No. 2 Notre Dame (28-24), Iowa State (24-10), TCU (17-10), Colorado State (41-23), Arizona (28-17) and Utah Tech (63-7). The Cougars are eyeing a trip to the College Football Playoff and following the BU game, have clashes at Kansas, vs. Cincinnati.
• Kilani Sitake is in his 11th year leading BYU as one of the most respected coaches in the collegiate game. Sitake has led BYU to four seasons with 10+ wins, including consecutive seasons in 2024 and 2025. BYU went 12-2 in 2025, and 11-2 in 2024, sitting in a tie atop the Big 12 standings and finishing the year ranked as high as No. 13 and No. 11 in the AP top-25. A 2000 BYU graduate and a member of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, Sitake was named Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2025. He has made career stops at Eastern Arizona, Southern Utah and Utah in his career, serving as the DC at Utah from 2009-14, before a season as the DC at Oregon State (2015).
• Slone Po’uha is the associate head coach and defensive line coach, Aaron Roderick is the offensive coordinator and QB coach and Kelly Poppinga is the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach. Roderick has been the OC since 2021, as a former BYU player, turned graduate assistant, turned assistant coach. Poppinga is in his first year as the DC after serving as the special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach from 2022-25, which followed a season at Boise State. He was the co-DC at Virginia from 2018-21, special teams coordinator at UVA from 2016-17 and worked with linebackers from 2016-21. He opened his career at BYU from 2009-15, serving in a variety of roles, including special teams coordinator from 2013-15.
• BYU is averaging 31 points, 397.1 yards, 228 passing and 169.1 rushing yards per game, while allowing just 19.8 points, 302 yards, including 199.6 passing and 102.4 rushing per game. BYU owns a sparkling 51 percent conversion rate on third downs and boast one of the nation’s best special teams units, with a 30.9 yard kickoff return average and a 9-of-10 mark in field goal attempts.
• QB Bear Bachmeier leads the offense, passing the team in rushing yards (395) – with seven TDs – and passing, throwing for 2,022 yards with 13 TDs and eight interceptions on 62.7 percent passing. RB LJ Martin has 51 carries for 363 yards with four TDs. Legend Glaser, Kyler Kasper and Walker Lyons leads the receivers, with Glaser owning a team-best 39 catches for 703 yards and five TDs. Kasper has five TDs among his 33 catches for 473 yards. Lyons adds 31 catches for 352 yards. Cade Uluave leads the team with 59 tackles, 5.5 for a loss, 2.5 sacks and an interception. Tausili Akana has a team-best 3.5 sacks.
HOMECOMING RALLY LED BY GROUND GAME
• threw for a pair of scores, rushed for another, and ran for 119 yards, helping fuel a furious rushing attack in a 42-31 win over Iowa State, during Homecoming at McLane Stadium on Saturday.
• Baylor won its sixth game in the last eight tries and reached bowl eligibility for the 13th time in the last 17 seasons. The Bears rallied from down 17-7 late in the second half to score 28 unanswered and break the game open with a 35-17 lead in the middle of the third quarter. BU fought off a pair of ISU touchdowns in the fourth quarter, sandwiched around a 54-yard Baylor scoring drive, to finish off the Cyclones, 42-31.
• Baylor got another sterling performance from Lagway, the junior out of Willis, Texas, who threw for 229 yards on 16-of-28 passing, with two TDs, while setting career highs with 13 rushes for 119 yards, adding a score. He also nearly scored a second TD in the second quarter while reaching for the goal line but the ball popped out and was recovered by center Koltin Sieracki. Lagway found Tony Livingston and Taz Williams Jr. for TDs, with Livingston now owning four TDs on the year, ranking sixth in BU single-season history among tight ends and eighth in career annals. Williams hauled in his first career TD, a 62-yard catch and run.
• The Bears again got a strong outing from fifth-year WR Gavin Freemanwho had a team-high six catches for 60 yards, marking his ninth straight game leading BU in catches. Livingston, who had a highlight reel 24-yard TD, finished with three grabs for 49 yards. Louis Brown IV added a pair of catches for 17 yards and Dre’lon Miller had a 32-yard reception. On the ground, the Bears rolled to a 194 yards rushing, led by Lagway, Baylor’s first 100+ yard rusher in 2026. Freshman Ryelan Morris had a pair of TDs, his first multi-score game, carrying it nine times for 50 yards. Caden Knighten had seven totes for 26 yards.
• Defensively, the Bears, a top-three team in the nation in sacks and tackles for a loss, had three sacks and nine TFLs. It brings the Bears to 37 sacks on the year, the fourth-most in single-season history and nine shy of the program mark. Baylor finished with 423 yards of total offense, with 194 on the ground and 229 passing, committing just one penalty for 15 yards. Iowa State accounted for 472 yards, including 256 passing and 216 rushing.
BEARS TURN TO KLANDERMAN IN INTERIM ROLE
• Baylor has turned to first-year defensive coordinator and safeties coach Joe Klanderman in an interim role following the Kansas loss in Lawrence.
• BU Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Doug McNamee made the decision to relieve seventh-year head coach Dave Aranda of his duties following consecutive losses to TCU and Kansas.
• “Anyone who knows Dave Aranda understands what a genuine and honorable person he is and how much he deeply cares for his players, staff and this University,” McNamee said. “He is a gifted coach and a brilliant football mind whose leadership brought some of our best Baylor football memories. While this is a difficult moment, we believe a change in leadership is necessary at this time for our program. We will forever be thankful to Dave and his family for their time here at Baylor, and we wish them well.”
• Klanderman came over to the Bears following seven years leading the defense at Kansas State. He has paced one of the nation’s top defensive units in 2026 in his first year in Waco and brings a championship pedigree as a four-time national champion at North Dakota State.
SERIES HISTORY
• The series with BYU and Baylor has been played five times, with BYU owning a 3-2 lead in the series, including a 1-1 tie in games played in Provo.
• Baylor two of the first four meetings, which started in 1983 with a 40-36 win by the Bears, resumed in 1984 with a 47-13 win by BYU in Provo, Utah, and in 2022 picked back up with a 38-24 win for BU in Waco. The 2023 meeting was in an electric atmosphere in Provo and saw the game go to double overtime, before BYU held off the Bears, then ranked No. 9 and BYU ranked No. 21, earning a field-storming win.
LAST MEETING IN PROVO
• Baylor hit the road for its first test away from McLane Stadium in 2022 and fell in a two-overtime thriller at No. 21/25 BYU, in front of 63,470 at a rocking LaVell Edwards Stadium.
• The Bears battled the Cougars in a matchup of two future Big 12 Conference foes in an electric atmosphere in Provo. BU took its first lead on a Qualan Jones TD rush – his first of two on the night – but after a missed PAT, the Cougars used an eight-play, 75-yard drive to conclude the half with a 10-6 lead. BU answered with a second-half opening drive of 77 yards for a 13-10 lead, and the teams traded TDs in the third and fourth quarters to take a 20-20 game into the final seconds, where BYU kicker Jakye Oldroyd missed a potential game-winning field goal.
• Both teams missed field goals – including the potential walk-off winner from Oldroyd – in the first OT period and BYU punched it in to open the second OT but missed the two-point conversion try. Baylor then used 11 plays in its game-tying or game-winning bid on its possession, with Blake Shapen’s fourth-down throw sailing high to allow the Cougars to escape with the win.
• BYU threw for 283 yards and rushed for 83, while Baylor rushed for 152 yards and threw for 137 in the loss but were handcuffed by 14 penalties for 117 yards. Craig Williams totaled 68 yards rushing on 17 carries, Jones had 67 yards on 16 carries and Shapen threw for 137 yards and a score to Ben Sims.
LAST MEETING IN SERIES
• Baylor suffered a 34-28 loss vs. No. 22/22 BYU at McLane Stadium in a game that saw the Cougs go up 21-0 and 28-7 in the first half, scoring on each of their first four possession. Baylor fought back to cut the lead to 34-28 and had the ball with just under 90 seconds remaining but a game-clinching interception allowed the Cougs to escape with the win.
• The Bears got career-highs from Sawyer Robertson in completions (27), attempts (48), TDs (three) and yards (324), with the QB finding WR Josh Cameron for a career high 125 yards and two TDs on seven catches. Hal Presley chipped in eight catches for 82 yards. The Bears saw Bryson Washington rush 13 times for 31 yards.
• BYU QB Jake Retzlaff threw for 216 yards and two scores and Darius Lassiter had eight catches for 120 yards. Defensively, Keaton Thomas and seven stops and Treven Ma’ae had a career-high six tackles.
O-LINE REVOLVING DOOR
• Baylor has had five different starting offensive line combinations through the first nine games, which ranks as the third-most in college football, behind only Arizona State and Hawaii (seven), and Oregon and Fresno State (six).
SACKED LUNCH
• Baylor sits just nine sacks shy of equaling the program standard for sacks in a season. The Bears rank second in the nation in sacks and tackles for a loss entering the clash with BYU
BAYLOR VS. TOP-25 FOES
• Over the last seven years, Baylor is 6-16 vs. top-25 ranked foes, and went 1-2 in 2025. The Bears posted a 48-45 win in double OT at No. 17/16 SMU on Sept. 4, 2025, before falling at No. 21/21 Cincinnati on Oct. 25 and fallings vs. No. 15/15 Utah 55-28.
• BU is 60-201-6 against ranked foes all-time. In 2021, Baylor went 5-1 against ranked teams, including wins in four-straight chances, and three straight against top-eight foes.
• By comparison, former coach Art Briles lost 14 straight games against ranked foes to open his career, going 11-22 against ranked opponents in his career. Jim Grobe went 0-2 in his season in Waco, and Matt Rhule went 0-11 against ranked opponents at Baylor.
NEXT UP
• Baylor returns home to host No. 13/13/15 Texas Tech at McLane Stadium on Nov. 21.
Source: baylorbears.com
