HOUSTON, Texas (KXXV) — The Baylor Bears and the LSU Tigers met at NRG Stadium for the Texas Bowl.
This was the first game between these two programs since the Liberty Bowl in 1985.
The Tigers got off to a fast start, taking a quick 14-0 lead. Baylor would fight back by scoring 17 points in the second quarter but ended up trailing the entire game.
Despite a second-half fight, the Bears would lose to the Tigers 44-31 in their season finale.
"I think of this game — it's just way too many mistakes and it's just so unfortunate," said head coach, Dave Aranda.
"There has not been a game like this in a while. We've played complementary football and this was not that."
"We had we had prepped for a lot of stuff that we saw and we just didn't execute, you know. Which sucks, but it's something to something to fix in the future," linebacker Kyler Jordan said.
It's tough to see now, but this Baylor team was really something — they were 2-4 at one point, before battling back with a six-game win streak to end the regular season.
There were ups and downs but the Bears see a bright future ahead.
"This game was an opportunity to kind of take all that and get to a whole other level, and I think the moment was too big for us," Aranda said.
"I think you know, the opportunity with this group coming back is to focus their efforts and kind of harden their skin."
"It was a roller coaster ride — started low and back to high so I think even though we lost this game, we were still in it to the very end I believe so," said wide receiver, Josh Cameron.
"I think this kind of shows like what we're about as a team, as a program, and just kind of the future trajectory of where we're gonna be."
