NEW ORLEANS — In the second quarter, Baylor's stingy defense shattered a Sugar Bowl record which had stood since 1945.
No. 7 Baylor beat No. 8 Ole Miss 21-7 Saturday in the 88th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl inside the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Al Walcott opened the scoring in the second quarter, picking off Rebel backup quarterback Luke Altmeyer and returning it 96 yards for a touchdown. It shattered the Sugar Bowl interception return record of 80 yards which had stood for almost 80 years.
The play came shortly after star Rebel QB Matt Corral left with an injury to his right leg.
The opening half also saw JT Woods intercept Corral on the second play of the game, while also coming within a controversial replay decision of forcing and recovering a fumble over the middle of the field.
The Bears went in to the half leading 7-0 and then failed to score on its opening drive in the third quarter.
Ole Miss scored its lone touchdown early in the third quarter, a 37 yard pass from Altmeyer to Braylon Sanders.
Then, when needing a spark, Baylor ran a perfectly-executed jet sweep to Shoemaker High School graduate Monaray Baldwin, where he went 48 yards for the score with nobody around him.
When the defense got another stop, Gerry Bohanon threw his first TD pass since Nov. 20th at Kansas State (when he sustained an injury keeping out of the next two games) to Raleigh Texada to push the lead to 21-7.
The defense finished with a total of 10 sacks, while the offense did not allow a single one on Bohanon.
Linebacker Terrel Bernard was named Sugar Bowl Most Outstanding Player after logging 17 total tackles, 11 of them solo to go with a pair of sacks.
The win is Baylor's first bowl win since 2018, when the Bears beat Vanderbilt in the Texas Bowl. The win is the Bears' 12th of the season, the most in program history.