Baylor Routs UCF 41-9 as DJ Lagway Throws Four Touchdowns in Joe Klanderman's Debut

Last Sunday, Baylor fired the coach who had run the program for more than six seasons. The day before, UCF beat the No. 2 team in the country for the biggest win in school history. On Friday night in Orlando, those two weeks collided, and it was not the team riding the high that looked like it had something to play for.

Baylor hammered UCF 41-9 at the Acrisure Bounce House, giving interim head coach Joe Klanderman a win in his first game in charge. DJ Lagway threw for 319 yards and four touchdowns on just 25 attempts, the Bears' defense sacked UCF quarterbacks seven times, and the Knights did not reach the end zone once in the 10th edition of their Space Game.

Baylor moved to 5-3 and 3-2 in the Big 12, snapping a two-game losing streak. UCF fell to 4-4 and 2-3, and its four-game home winning streak is over.

From a firing to a party in one week

The backdrop matters here. Dave Aranda was let go after Baylor's 25-24 loss to Kansas, a game the Bears lost on a blocked field goal, and Klanderman, the first-year defensive coordinator, was handed the keys with a road trip to Orlando looming. UCF was coming off a 39-31 double-overtime upset of No. 2 BYU.

None of that showed up in the first quarter. UCF ran eight plays on its first three drives and gained 6 yards, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Cornerback Devon Jordan picked off Keyone Jenkins, his team-leading fourth interception of the season, and Baylor turned it into points when Lagway found tight end Tony Livingston from 4 yards out with 4:06 left in the opening quarter.

Lagway was surgical early, completing 6 of 7 passes for 61 yards in the first quarter per the Baylor Lariat. By the time Caden Knighten plowed in from 2 yards out at 8:58 of the second quarter, it was 14-0 and UCF had barely moved the ball.

A record kick, and not much else

The Knights' only real offensive highlight of the half came from their kicker. Will Stone hit a 39-yarder midway through the second quarter, Rhett Armstrong answered with Baylor field goals of 45 and 29 yards, and then Stone stepped up just before halftime and drilled a 57-yarder. It was the longest field goal in UCF history, breaking the 55-yard school mark shared by Ed O'Brien and Colton Boomer, per the Sentinel. Stone's previous long had been 40 yards, against Georgia State in September.

"I'm probably the most confident one on the field when it comes to believing in myself at the position of kicker," Stone said afterward.

That confidence was about the only thing UCF had going. Baylor led 20-6 at the break, and the Knights had converted none of their first five third downs.

The turning point: the 77-yard dagger

Baylor put it away in the third quarter. Lagway hit Livingston again, this time from 21 yards out, to push the lead to 27-6. Then came the throw of the night: Lagway found Gavin Freeman over the middle, and Freeman, who entered the week third nationally in receptions per game, took it the distance for a 77-yard touchdown that made it 34-6.

"That's Baylor energy," Klanderman said of the Freeman score, per the Lariat.

Things got worse for UCF on the same night. Jenkins, the hero of the BYU win, went down in the third quarter with a lower-leg injury and did not return. Alonza Barnett III, back from a hamstring injury that had cost five games, came in and immediately hit Josh Derry for a 67-yard gain. Then the drive went backward from the Baylor 8, with Devin Turner adding a sack. Stone's third field goal, a 35-yarder, accounted for the Knights' only second-half points.

Lagway lets it rip

Lagway finished 16 of 25 for 319 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, tying his season high in touchdown passes. He also ran 11 times for 23 yards. Freeman led the way with 114 yards on five catches, Jadon Porter added 74 on two grabs, and Livingston had two of the four scores. Matthew Klopfenstein caught the last one, a 5-yarder in the fourth quarter that made it 41-9.

"I thought DJ cut it loose tonight," Klanderman said, according to the Associated Press. "He's getting healthier, and he's just playing with a lot of confidence."

The Florida transfer had been slowed by an ankle injury earlier in the season. On Friday, he looked like the quarterback Baylor thought it was getting. Even UCF coach Scott Frost acknowledged it. "He's a really good player. He made all the throws and all the plays tonight," Frost said.

The run game did its part too. Ryelan Morris carried 11 times for 82 yards, and Baylor ran for 184 as a team. The Bears cleared 500 total yards, a season high allowed by the UCF defense, according to the Sentinel.

A defensive line that owned the night

As good as Lagway was, the most lopsided matchup on the field was up front. Baylor came in leading the Big 12 with 27 sacks and added a season-high seven. Kaleb Burns and Jamaal Whyce Jr. each finished with 1.5 sacks, and the Bears finished with 12 tackles for loss, per the Lariat. UCF had allowed 11 sacks in its first seven games combined.

Klanderman, who built that front as the coordinator, was blunt about it. "There can be no doubt who is the superior unit," Klanderman said of the defensive line.

UCF's rushing attack never got going, finishing with 66 yards on 30 carries, and most of that came on freshman Rocco Marriott's late run to the Baylor 1. Marriott fumbled on the game's final play, and Michael Allen recovered for Baylor. The Knights finished with 281 total yards. The full line is in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Baylor, this is the cleanest possible start to an interim run. "These guys just kept showing up for each other, and that's the way we're going to keep going," Klanderman said. The Bears are now one win from bowl eligibility, with Iowa State coming to McLane Stadium for Homecoming on Nov. 7. It was also Baylor's third straight win over UCF. Per the Lariat, since the Knights led 35-7 in the third quarter of the 2023 meeting, the Bears have outscored them 100-12, which is the kind of stat that makes a fan base check the schedule twice.

Lagway said the tone was obvious before kickoff. "I just knew when we came out there as a group for warmups, I could see the look in the guys' eyes," Lagway said. Jordan put the message from the new boss more simply: "Coach [Klanderman] was telling us play fast, play together, have fun."

For UCF, the hangover is real, and so is the quarterback question. Frost called the situation "musical chairs with quarterbacks" and did not commit to a starter for a road trip to Kansas next. The Knights have also now lost consecutive Space Games for the first time since the event began in 2017. "I said after last week we're good enough to play with and beat anybody in the league," Frost said. On Friday, UCF did not look like it.

Defensive tackle Horace Lockett Jr. offered the most honest summary of the week: "College football is a weird game."

The last word

Interim coaches usually get one night where the emotion carries a team further than the talent should. Baylor might have the talent too. With Lagway healthy and that defensive front playing like this, the Bears looked less like a team in crisis than one that had been waiting for permission to play loose. UCF, meanwhile, learned the hard way that beating BYU does not count twice.

Sources: The Associated Press, Orlando Sentinel, The Baylor Lariat and ESPN box score. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Baylor Athletics.