The 2023 Baylor Bears football team represented
Baylor University in the
Big 12 Conference during the
2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season is the 154th season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). ...
. The Bears were led by
Dave Aranda
David Christopher Aranda (born September 29, 1976) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Baylor University. He previously served as the defensive coordinator at LSU, Wisconsin, Utah State, Hawaii, Delta State, and Cal ...
in his fourth season as their head coach.
Baylor was picked sixth out of 14 teams in the preseason media poll of the conference. It was not ranked in the national top 25 polls of media or coaches, though the team did receive some votes.
The Bears played eight of their 12 regular season games at home, the largest number in school history and the most home games in the NCAA FBS this year, along with Penn State, Arizona State and Mississippi State.
This was the first season with Big 12 membership at 14 teams, after the
realignment upheaval of the preceding years, which saw the league add four teams (BYU, UCF, Houston and Cincinnati). Consequently, the football schedule was no longer a "
round robin" in which every team plays every other team, as was the practice when the league had 10 teams. The league continued to play nine intra-conference games; therefore, the Bears in 2023 did not play BYU, Kansas, Oklahoma State or Oklahoma, which (along with Texas) was in its final year with the league before moving to the SEC. The Bears played three of the four newcomers.
Five Baylor players were named to national preseason watch lists for the following awards:
*
Richard Reese
Richard Reese (born October 24, 2004) is an American football running back for the Baylor Bears.
Early life
Reese attended Bellville High School in Bellville, Texas, where he played on the football team and ran track and field. In his high scho ...
,
Maxwell Award,
Doak Walker Award and
Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award
*
Gabe Hall,
Bronko Nagurski Trophy
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been awarded annually since 1993 to the collegiate American football defensive player adjudged by the membership of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) to be the best in the National Collegiate Athle ...
*Clark Barrington,
Rimington Trophy
*
Blake Shapen,
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
*Alonzo Allen,
Wuerffel Trophy
The Bears played their home games at
McLane Stadium in
Waco, Texas, its 10th year of hosting play.
The Bears failed to qualify for a bowl game and suffered their first losing season since
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
following their loss to Kansas State.
Schedule
Game summaries
vs. Texas State
vs. Utah
vs. LIU
vs. Texas
at UCF
vs. Texas Tech
at Cincinnati
vs. Iowa State
vs. Houston
Personnel
Roster
References
Baylor
Baylor Bears football seasons
Baylor Bears football
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