Baylor Football: Ranking Bears’ 2020 opponents by toughness

Charlie Brewer, Baylor football (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Charlie Brewer, Baylor football (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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Baylor football
Charlie Brewer, Baylor football (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Skip Holtz has done a fantastic job in Ruston over the past seven years, piecing together a 56-36 record and he’s coming of a 10-3 season. Louisiana Tech will be down J’Mar Smith and the starting quarterback job will likely be Aaron Allen’s to lose.

The Bulldogs are losing nine starters from the No. 53 defense in the nation last year.

Louisiana Tech will be one of the best teams from the C-USA this season but the Bulldogs don’t pose a huge threat to Baylor.

Taking over a struggling program is never easy, but when it has resources like Texas Tech, the turnaround could become sooner rather than later. Matt Wells went 4-8 in his first season with the Red Raiders, but there’s plenty of talent returning to the roster for 2020, including 15 starters, led by Alan Bowman at quarterback.

A quarterback with starting experience, the top rusher from last year, four of the team’s top five receivers from 2019 and eight starters on defense are all back.

If the defense can improve from its league-worst 480 yards per game allowed, we could be looking at one of the surprise teams int he conference. For now, the Red Raiders are a fringe-bowl team.