Vanderbilt and Baylor clash in Houston for this year’s Texas Bowl.
A battle of two 6-6 teams will take place on Thursday when the Vanderbilt Commodores meet the Baylor Bears in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl. Both teams needed wins in their regular season finales to clinch bowl berths. While these are .500 teams, both have talent.
Matt Rhule took over Baylor after a devastating scandal resulted in losses of scholarships, current players and the coach who had lifted the Bears to prominence in the Big 12. Last year Baylor won just one game against cellar dweller Kansas, but this year things turned around in a major way.
The team won three of their first five games, already eclipsing their mark last season. However, a back-loaded conference schedule resulted in four more losses heading into the finale against Texas Tech. The Bears took advantage of the Red Raider’s bounty of injuries and won 35-24 to become bowl eligible.
Last year was only the beginning for quarterback Charlie Brewer, who won the starting job towards the end of last season. Throwing for 2,635 yards, 17 touchdowns and just eight interceptions, Brewer has proven his worth this year and appears to be Rhule’s starter moving forward.
Unfortunately, Brewer will start his first bowl game without his best weapon. Receiver Jalen Hurd, who transferred from Tennessee, is out after having knee surgery. With Hurd out, Denzel Mims will be Brewer’s go-to receiver in this one. The junior leads the team in receiving touchdowns with eight and has caught 49 passes for 699 yards.
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Going into 2018, head coach Derek Mason knew he had to get Vanderbilt back into the bowl season. Since taking over in 2014, the Commodores have only reached a bowl game twice, including this year, and have been one of the worst teams in the SEC year in and year out. This year, things took a turn for the better.
After losing to No. 14 Kentucky, Vanderbilt sat at 3-5 and Mason’s hot seat was getting a lot warmer. Needing to win three out of their last four, Vanderbilt rose to the challenge. A win over Arkansas on the road followed by a loss to Missouri and win over Ole Miss gave Mason’s squad a 5-6 record heading into the finale against the Volunteers.
With both teams in the contest fighting for the same thing, Vanderbilt proved to be the team that wanted it more. Quarterback Kyle Shurmur threw three scores and running backs Kalija Lipscomb along with Khari Blasingame ran for two more in a 38-13 blowout victory.
The senior Shurmur has become of the more underrated quarterback in the SEC this year with 23 touchdowns to only six interceptions. Lipscomb and fellow receiver Jared Pinkney combine for 16 of them and over 1,500 yards. However, the most dynamic weapon for the offense is arguably running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn. Vaughn is sixth in the SEC in rushing yards with 1,001 and ten touchdowns. If he goes for over 100 yards against the Bears’ defense it could be a long night in Houston.
Thursday night’s game will be nationally televised on ESPN and streamed live on Watch ESPN.
How to watch and bet Vanderbilt-Baylor
Date: Thursday, Dec. 27
Start time: 9 p.m. ET
Location: Houston, TX
Stadium: NRG Stadium
Spread: Vanderbilt -4.5
TV info: ESPN
Stream: Watch ESPN
Prediction: Vanderbilt wins and covers the spread.