WACO, Texas (AP) — Dalton Sturm threw for 155 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 98 more yards as UTSA got its first-ever win over a Power Five team, 17-10 Saturday night over a Baylor team that has lost its first two games under new coach Matt Rhule.
The Bears are 0-2 for the first time since 2003, and have now lost eight consecutive regular-season games. They won the Cactus Bowl last December after a 6-6 record was enough to get one of the Big 12’s bowl spots.
UTSA went ahead to stay on the opening drive after halftime when Sturm, the former walk-on who started his 21st consecutive game, had a keeper for 40 yards and then on the next play threw a 29-yard TD pass to Kerry Thomas Jr. for a 14-7 lead.
A week after their scheduled opener at home against Houston was cancelled because of Hurricane Harvey, the Roadrunners started their seventh season as a program with their biggest win yet. They had been 0-9 against Power Five teams.
Jalen Rhodes ran for 103 yards on 20 carries for the Roadrunners.
Both of Baylor’s losses under Rhule have been against first-time opponents that had never before beaten a Power Five team. The Bears opened the season with a 48-45 loss to Liberty, a team just starting the two-year transition from the FCS to FBS.
Rhule, coming off consecutive 10-win seasons and an AAC title at Temple, took over a Baylor squad in the wake of a sexual assault scandal that rocked the nation’s largest Baptist university. Two-time Big 12 champion coach Art Briles was fired in May 2016.
Under interim coach Jim Grobe last season, the Bears started 6-0 before six losses in a row.
THE TAKEAWAY
UTSA: The Roadrunners won six games and went to their first-ever bowl last season in coach Frank Wilson’s debut. A win at Baylor is a huge boost for Year 2. After Victor Falcon’s 38-yard field goal with 14:12 left made it 17-7, UTSA gained only 1 yard on its next three series without a first down. But when Baylor got the ball back with just over 2 minutes left, the defense forced four consecutive incompletions.
Baylor: The Bears had 137 yards passing and 137 yards rushing. But graduate transfer Solomon, after a promising debut (278 yards, three 3 TDs passing with 97 yards rushing), had 10 carries for 9 yards and was 10 of 26 passing for 121 yards. UTSA linebacker Josiah Tauaefa was wrapped around Solomon on his desperate fourth-down throw on his last play.
UP NEXT
UTSA: The Roadrunners getting to play their home opener next Saturday against SWAC team Southern, two weeks after their scheduled opener against Houston that won’t be made up this season.
Baylor: The Bears go to ACC team Duke next Saturday for their first nonconference game against a Power Five team since 2009.
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