Brewer, Baylor bowl-bound after dashing Tech’s hopes
ARLINGTON — Charlie Brewer was going to play more games for Baylor no matter what happened Saturday. Now the sophomore quarterback gets to go to a bowl with the seniors who stuck around through some tough times.
Brewer passed for 308 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a score as the Bears beat Texas Tech 35-24 in the regularseason finale to get bowl eligible just a year after winning only one game.
“Excited to have more time with those seniors,” Brewer said. “I have the utmost respect for those guys who have stuck around here through tougher times than I could ever imagine.”
The Red Raiders (5-7, 3-6 Big 12) ended their third consecutive losing season with lingering questions about the future of coach Kliff Kingsbury, their former quarterback who is 35-40 overall in six seasons as head coach and 19-35 in Big 12 games. They lost their last five games.
Kingsbury, who has two years left on his contract, expects to sit down soon with athletic director Kirby Hocutt.
Baylor (6-6, 4-5) has 10 fifthyear seniors who remained through a sexual-assault scandal that rocked the school more than two years ago.
They arrived on the Waco campus when the Bears were in the middle of consecutive Big 12 titles under former coach Art Briles. They are on their third coach and went through that 1-11 season a year ago in Matt Rhule’s debut.
Brewer, who was 22-of-30 passing, put Baylor ahead to stay with a 1-yard keeper less than two minutes into the second half.
After the Red Raiders had three consecutive incompletions on its first possession after halftime, the Bears drove for John Lovett’s 3-yard TD run that made it 28-17. Lovett ran 28 times for 125 yards.
Still-gimpy McLane Carter, making his first start at quarterback for Texas Tech since an ankle injury in the first half of the season opener, was 21-of-37 passing for 247 yards with two touchdowns, but he had two interceptions in the fourth quarter.
TCU 31, OKLAHOMA ST. 24
Jawuan Johnson scooped up a fumble and returned it 15 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the second half, and Jalen Reagor ran 83 yards for a score on the Horned Frogs’ first offensive snap after halftime as TCU became bowl eligible with a victory over the Cowboys at Fort Worth.
Reagor also had a 6-yard TD catch for the injury-plagued Horned Frogs (6-6, 4-5 Big 12), who will go to a bowl for the 16th time in Gary Patterson's 18 seasons as head coach after winning three of their last four games.
Oklahoma State (6-6, 3-6) had only 58 total yards after Johnson's defensive score set up on a pass behind the line that went off the hands of freshman running back Chuba Hubbard. Reagor's TD run made it 21-3 only 73 seconds into the second half.
IOWA ST. 42, KANSAS ST. 38
David Montgomery ran for three touchdowns, including the winner with 4:34 to go, as the 25th-ranked Cyclones rallied from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to win at Ames, Iowa, and snap a 10-game skid against the Wildcats.
Montgomery had 149 yards rushing for Iowa State (7-4, 6-3 Big 12), which clinched its best finish in the conference.