Waco, Texas ? Daniel Andino kicked a 33-yard field goal with a half-second left, ending four years of Big 12 misery for Baylor as the Bears beat Kansas 35-32 Saturday to end a 29-game conference losing streak.
Baylor (3-2, 1-0 Big 12) blew an early 14-0 lead but scored 11 points in the final 1:18 to beat the Jayhawks (2-4, 0-2). Baylor also beat Kansas for its last Big 12 win, on Oct. 10, 1998.
As soon as Andino’s kick went through the uprights, Baylor students stormed the field. But there was still a half-second left, so the field had to be cleared.
But right after the Bears kicked off, and even as Kansas players lateralled the ball back and forth trying to keep alive the chance of a miracle return, the students again swarmed the end zone and tore the goalpost down.
The longest conference losing streak in the nation now belongs to Duke, which lost its 19th straight ACC game Saturday 27-22 to Virginia.
Baylor tied the score at 32 when Aaron Karas threw a 41-yard TD pass to Robert Quiroga with 1:18 left and Chedrick Ricks added the 2-point conversion with an incredible effort.
Kansas defensive back Donnie Amadi had an angle on Ricks as he sprinted toward the corner of the end zone. As Ricks was hit, he fully extended his arms, getting the ball over the goal line even though the rest of his body never got there.
Kansas then went three-and-out, and Baylor took over at its own 35 with 35 seconds left.
Karas hit Ray Harrington for completions of 20 and 9 yards and then had an 8-yard keeper on fourth-and-1 with 10 seconds left. A 12-yard catch by Reggie Newhouse got the Bears to the 16 to set up Andino, who earlier kicked a career-long 46-yarder.
Bill Whittemore threw two touchdowns and ran for two, including a 2-yard keeper that gave the Jayhawks a 32-24 lead with 2:51 left. That came six plays after Karas was sacked and fumbled.
Whittemore passed for 246 yards and ran for 79. The junior college transfer has eight rushing TDs since replacing Zach Dyer in the second half of the season-opening 45-3 loss to Iowa State.
Karas hit 22 of 32 passes for 359 yards and two touchdowns. After his third turnover (he also had two interceptions), he went 8-of-11 for 117 yards on the last two possessions.
On the final play of the third quarter, Whittemore took off to the right on a designed keeper. When he ran into a wall of defenders, he reversed field and got into the end zone virtually untouched
Johnny Beck, who missed an earlier extra point, kicked the extra point for a 25-24 Kansas lead.
Baylor led 14-0 after Karas threw a 25-yard TD pass and then caught a 20-yard TD on a throw back from Jonathan Evans in the first quarter.
Kansas got to 14-12 at halftime when Whittemore threw a 9-yard TD pass to Mark Simmons and Reggie Duncan had a 13-yard TD run.
The Jayhawks took their first lead when Whittemore threw an 18-yard TD to Derick Mills to end their first drive of the second half.
Baylor then had a 100-yard kickoff return nullified by a penalty, but drove 91 yards in six plays to go back in front when Vince Copeland scored on a 16-yard run.
