WACO, Texas — Dequan Finn threw for 192 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a 39-yard score to lift Baylor to a season-opening 45-3 win over FCS Tarleton State on Saturday.
Finn made his mark immediately with a 39-yard touchdown run on the Bears’ first drive and added a 32-yard scoring pass to Ashtyn Hawkins later in the first quarter. Finn, a sixth-year senior transfer from Toledo who was named MAC Player of the Year last season, also found Michael Trigg for a 17-yard TD strike in the third quarter.
Finn finished 14-for-22 passing and was picked off twice. Keaton Thomas added to Baylor’s fast start when he intercepted a Jaden Pete pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown to make it a 21-0 lead with 4:12 left in the first quarter.
“I thought there were really good things (from Finn),” Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. “The leadership he brings, the confidence he brings, Dequan is a dog. Our team feeds off that. His performance tonight, there was good and bad, but that’s with all of us. We’re going to continue to try and feature those things he does really well. I’m confident with Dequan at the helm.”
Baylor’s win came on the 10th anniversary of McLane Stadium’s opening, a 45-0 victory over SMU on Aug. 31, 2014.
“When McLane is rocking, it’s really special,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “You can see that with our staff. I think today was a fresh start for our fans. We’re going to have to win some games so that we can be cool enough to hang out with and get some people to sit at our table at lunch. But when it’s rolling like that, it’s as good as it gets.”
Dawson Pendergrass ran for a 1-yard TD, and Sawyer Robertson fired a 30-yard touchdown to Ketron Jackson Jr. in the fourth quarter for the Bears, who outgained the Texans (1-1) 442-181.
Daniel Greek was 7-for-13 passing for 80 yards for Tarleton State, a program in its final season of the four-year reclassification period before becoming a full NCAA Division I football program next season.
Baylor surprised Tarleton State with soft coverages in the secondary, daring the Texans to run the ball. Despite that, the Bears limited them to 2.5 yards per carry.
“It was hard. It was tough out there,” Tarleton State coach Todd Whitten said. “They were saying we weren’t going to be able to run the ball to beat them, and they were right about that. I thought they had a good plan on the defensive side. We couldn’t get anything going, and a lot of that is to their credit.”
PLAYING TO THE END
Whitten didn’t seem pleased with the way the game ended, as Baylor continued to throw the ball throughout the fourth quarter and even on the last play of the game.
“They would have scored 100 points if they could’ve today, I guarantee it,” Whitten said. “They left their best players in there until the very end. The game was certainly out of hand, but that’s OK. That makes us better as well.”
The Bears removed Finn in the fourth quarter, allowing Robertson to get in the game for a stretch before freshman Nate Bennett came in for the final possession. Bennett connected with Micah Gifford for 19 yards on the game’s final play.
THE TAKEAWAY
Tarleton State: Nerves showed early for the Texans, who were playing a Big 12 foe on the road for the third straight year. They called timeout before their first offensive snap, then had several bobbled snaps and one that was off the mark en route to posting 0 yards in the first quarter despite holding the ball for 7:46 to 7:14 for Baylor.
Baylor: Finn showed his explosiveness on the TD run, when he rolled to his right and froze the defense with a pump fake before breaking away for the score. But it was an up-and-down performance overall for the quarterback, whose first interception came on the goal line late in the second quarter to kill a scoring chance. He also missed a wide-open receiver in the end zone on a fourth-down play early in the fourth.
UP NEXT
Tarleton State will play the second of three straight road games when it meets Houston Christian next Saturday.
Baylor will go on the road to meet Utah next Saturday in a nonconference game that was scheduled before the Utes joined the Big 12.