{"id":24138,"date":"2015-11-06T09:05:04","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/no-2-baylor-holds-off-pesky-k-state-to-stay-perfect\/"},"modified":"2015-11-06T09:05:04","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:05:04","slug":"no-2-baylor-holds-off-pesky-k-state-to-stay-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/no-2-baylor-holds-off-pesky-k-state-to-stay-perfect\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 2 Baylor holds off pesky K-State to stay perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANHATTAN, Kan.<\/strong> \u2014 Jarrett Stidham knew his lack of experience was probably a big reason Baylor was only ranked sixth in the initial College Football Playoff poll this week.<\/p>\n

In his first start, the freshman showed he can keep the high-powered Bears humming.<\/p>\n

Stidham threw for 419 yards and three scores in place of the injured Seth Russell, Corey Coleman caught two touchdown passes and No. 2 Baylor held on for a 31-24 victory over pesky Kansas State on Thursday night to prove it isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that motivated the whole team, but especially Jarrett,\u201d Baylor running back Devin Chafin said about the rankings. \u201cWe definitely came out here with a chip on our shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell broke a bone in his neck two weeks ago against Iowa State and had surgery last Friday, and many wondered how the Bears would handle his loss. And while the Wildcats made sure Stidham\u2019s debut wasn\u2019t easy, the reigning Big 12 co-champions kept their playoff hopes alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like our team is a team of survivors,\u201d Baylor coach Art Briles said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of guys who have been through a lot. A lot of coaches who have been through a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

They went through a lot Thursday night, too.<\/p>\n

Kansas State closed to 31-24 on Joe Hubener\u2019s touchdown pass to Deante Burton with 4:07 left, and Chris Callahan\u2019s missed field goal with 51 seconds remaining gave the Wildcats a chance.<\/p>\n

But on their next play, Hubener threw a lateral to wide receiver Cody Cook, who then threw down the sideline. The sometimes-quarterback\u2019s pass was picked off by Terrell Burt, who managed to get his right foot down inbounds, and the interception stood after an official\u2019s review.<\/p>\n

Baylor (8-0, 5-0) ran out the clock to drop Kansas State (3-5) to 0-5 in conference play for the first time since 1989, the first season for coach Bill Snyder on the sideline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do something about being a good football team. The capabilities are there,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that, but you have to do something with it. That means you have to develop it. That falls into my lap. I have to help those young guys understand what it takes in order to get off the matt and win a ballgame. I haven\u2019t done that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hubener ran for 153 yards and two touchdowns, but he was just 12 of 21 for 151 yards with an interception. Charles Jones added 76 yards rushing for Kansas State.<\/p>\n

Coleman finished with 11 catches for 216 yards, and has a nation-leading 20 TD catches this season, making life a little easier on his 19-year-old quarterback from Stephenville, Texas.<\/p>\n

Stidham completed his first three passes to lead Baylor on an 81-yard scoring drive to open the game. And after the Wildcats answered with a methodical, 88-yard march that took 10 minutes, Stidham hit KD Cannon with another 55-yard touchdown strike.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the beat-up Wildcats kept making too many mistakes.<\/p>\n

Hubener fumbled the ball away deep in Baylor territory early in the second quarter, then threw an interception into double coverage on the next possession. Penalties, blown blocking assignments and dropped passes kept scuttling otherwise promising drives.<\/p>\n

The Bears seemed to put the game out of reach when Stidham threw a short TD pass to Coleman in the third quarter, and Callahan hit a 39-yard field goal in the fourth. But Kansas State kept right on fighting, getting a 34-yard TD run from Hubener before his touchdown toss to Burton.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until one last mistake on a trick play that the Wildcats\u2019 fate was sealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing to into this game, my mindset and the whole team\u2019s mindset was, \u2018Hey, we got a chance,\u2019\u201d Kansas State linebacker Elijah Lee said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have nothing to lose, and we want to show that we can compete whether our record is bad or good.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the victory lacked the pizazz of the Bears\u2019 nearly 60-point shellacking of Kansas, or similar blowouts of Texas Tech and West Virginia, it was a solid start to Stidham\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Baylor was ranked sixth in this week\u2019s initial playoff ranking, due partly to a soft early scheduled but also the uncertainty at quarterback. And while Stidham was far from perfect \u2014 he did have a delay of game penalty \u2014 he proved to be capably in control most of the game.<\/p>\n

That bodes well for a season-defining stretch beginning Nov. 14 against 14th-ranked Oklahoma, and continuing with back-to-back games at No. 12 Oklahoma State and No. 5 TCU.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople,\u201d Stidham said, \u201cdon\u2019t need to be counting us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANHATTAN, Kan. \u2014 Jarrett Stidham knew his lack of experience was probably a big reason Baylor was only ranked sixth in the initial College Football Playoff poll this week. In his first start, the freshman showed he can keep the high-powered Bears humming. Stidham threw for 419 yards and three scores in place of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24138"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}