WACO -- Fireworks shot out of the roof at McLane Stadium as Baylor jogged in front of its band. The scheduled postgame pyrotechnic show was the most explosive thing inside the venue on Halloween, but it didn’t really matter.

The No. 12 Bears inched past Big 12 doormat West Virginia, 17-14, in the ugliest win BU’s newish home has seen in its short history. There’s math to back that up; the Bears haven’t won a game while scoring fewer than 20 points since Sept. 30, 2006, when Guy Morris led the program. It’s a far cry from recent history, when the Bears fielded some of the most explosive offenses in program history. But now, for just the third time in program history, the Bears are 8-0.

“We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to fix, but 8-0 is great,” linebacker Blake Lynch said. “Two years ago, we were 1-11. Last year, [West Virginia] bullied us when we were up there. To get this win is big.”

It hasn’t always been pretty. The Bears were seconds away from losses to both Iowa State and Texas Tech. Late plays were critical in wins over WVU and Oklahoma State. 

Things haven’t always been like this under head coach Matt Rhule. Constantly pulling rabbits out of hats to win games is a relatively new development in Waco. To understand how the Bears keep playing at a high level in the games’ most critical moments, turn the calendar back two years to the last time Rhule coached against West Virginia in Waco. 

“When you’ve lost and been through wars, you can go in and fight unfettered,” Rhule said. “You can go in there and fight and not worry about the result and go play. Our guys have been through some battles.” 

Learning from the Past

Baylor played West Virginia – then No. 23 West Virginia – almost two years ago to the day, and things could not be more different. The Mountaineers were fresh off a win over No. 24 Texas Tech and were looking ahead to a matchup with No. 11 Oklahoma State. 

The Mountaineers went up by an almost embarrassing 38-13 mark heading into the third quarter. Then, Baylor inserted then-true freshman quarterback Charlie Brewer. The Lake Travis product exploded, leading the Bears to 23 unanswered points before WVU blasted him on a game-tying conversion attempt. 

That effort, a week shy of dropping to 0-8, culminated a frustrating season. The Bears found an unlimited amount of ways to lose close games. 

The opener against Liberty was a three-point shootout loss. A week later was a seven-point slugfest, where the Bears managed just 10 total points. Baylor kept things close against No. 3 Oklahoma, mounted the huge comeback against West Virginia and turned the ball over four times against Tech, losing despite outgaining a Kliff Kingsbury offense by nearly 200 yards. 

“We felt this feeling in our hearts that we weren’t good,” linebacker Jordan Williams said. “We talked about it. Everybody laughed at us.”

When the dust settled, the Bears were an unfathomable 0-8 in games within one score in the fourth. Even the lone loss in a 1-11 season wasn’t within one score in the fourth, simply because the Bears blew out Kansas, 38-9. 

Rhule tried to sell a brighter future, even as the Bears posted their worst winning percentage since a winless 1969 season under Bill Beall. 

“None of those kids in that locker room are here by accident,” Rhule said after the West Virginia game in 2017. “They were all chosen to be there. They are strong enough to go through this. Somebody has to go through this for Baylor. Somebody has to go through this tough time.” 

Look at 2019 and the results become clear. There’s Brewer throwing for 277 yards and two touchdowns as the starting quarterback. There’s R.J. Sneed – who had one catch in 2017 – changing the game with a toe-tapping TD. There’s James Lynch going from potential redshirt to potential All-American in 2019. 

That process wouldn’t have happened without the leadership of the 2017 group, especially the names who could have grad transferred instead of sticking around. Even during a one-win season, those faces helped the Bears fight all the way through Game 12. 

“Taylor Young, Brian Nance, those guys built this foundation,” Williams said. “Though they didn’t get the love we get now, they are the steppingstones. They are the reason we play good football now.” 

No coincidence, Young is now a defensive grad assistant and Nance works in player development at Baylor. The program will never forget them. 

Trusting the Process

Baylor is finding ways to win even the tightest of games in 2019. Against Iowa State, the Bears hit a field goal as time expired. Two weeks later, senior JaMycal Hasty broke away for a game-winning run in double-overtime. On Thursday night against West Virginia, defensive tackle Bravvion Roy broke through the line and blocked a potential game-tying field goal. 

Every time the Bears run into these tough situations, the image of 2017 jumps into their minds. No matter how, no matter where, the Bears keep finding ways to win football games. 

“Going through that really humbled us,” said Lynch, who was recruited to a Big 12 championship squad. “We know not to take any team for granted.” 

Now, Baylor is the second FBS program since 1937 to go from 0-8 to 8-0 within two seasons, along with UCF.

Rhule preached “The Process” when he arrived in Waco nearly three years ago. Even after falling to 0-7 and fielding one of the least successful teams in program history, he reiterated that Baylor’s day was coming. 

“There’s going to be a day when the scoreboard is going to be flipped,” Rhule said after the West Virginia loss in 2017. “There is going to be a day when we win and we win a lot.” 

Baylor football is 8-0, ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25, fresh off a two-point win over that same West Virginia squad and built fully in Matt Rhule’s image.

Two years after 1-11, that day is here.