Week one continues with a match-up of power conference opponents on Friday as Auburn visits Baylor. Expectations are high for Baylor football this year, currently projected as a Top 25 team. Both teams received votes in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll, but neither made it into the Top 25. With a statement win on Friday night, one of them could be a Top 25 team in the next round of votes. With two quality opponents set to face off, here are three bold predictions for this Week 1 contest.
It was a 5-7 season for Auburn in their second year under head coach Hugh Freeze. Auburn opened 1-0 before being upset by California. They would rebound to move to 2-1, but then lose five of their next six games. It was the second time in three years the team failed to make a bowl game.
Baylor would go 8-5 in 2024 after falling in the Texas Bowl to LSU. It was a rough start for Dave Aranda's fifth season. They opened up just 2-4 before winning six in a row to end the regular season. This made it the third time in the Dave Aranda era that the team went to a bowl game.
Bryson Washington has a massive day
Baylor has lost Dawson Pendergrass for the season with a foot injury. This means Bryson Washington will need to step up for the team. He was great for the squad in 2024, running for 1,028 yards and finding the end zone 12 times. Further, the Bears' running back brought in 22 receptions for 217 yards and a score. He was a major reason for the turnaround of the season in 2024. During the six-game winning streak, he ran for over 100 yards in five of the games and found pay dirt in four of them. Further, he scored 12 times in those six games, with a total of 914 all-purpose yards.
The sophomore running back will need to continue that dominance if Baylor is going to win, and he will. The Auburn defense will be looking for cohesion in the first game, with multiple new pieces making up the front seven. The linebacking core may be in for a tough day, though.
Caleb Wheatland will be the new middle linebacker, transferring in from Maryland. While he is a solid tackler, he has not shown a lot in pass coverage. Demarcus Riddick will take one of the outside spots and is coming off a 27-tackle year in his first season, but he will need to be better against an elusive running back. The Tigers struggled on third downs in 2024, and that is where Washington shined.
If the Tiger defense focuses too much on Sawyer Robertson at quarterback, Washington is going to make them pay. He runs for over 100 yards in this one, finding the end zone at least once, and also bringing in a few receptions out of the backfield.
Eric Singleton provides a spark for Auburn
Auburn football got great news with the fact that it seems Eric Singleton will be able to go against Baylor. The Auburn passing game was solid, but not great in 2024, lacking explosive plays. Part of that was the receiving core, which does return Cam Coleman. Coleman scored eight times in 2024.
Still, the team needed a big play target, and they brought that in with Singleton coming in via the transfer portal from Georgia Tech. He brought in 56 receptions for 754 yards and three scores in 2024, while often being the focus of double coverage in the Georgia Tech offense. Meanwhile, he had six games last year with receptions longer than 30 yards. In one of the games where he did not have a reception longer than 30 yards, he had a rush for 35 yards.
The Baylor defense is solid in the secondary, but Singleton is going to have at least one big play in this game. He eclipses the 50-yard mark in this one, with one reception over 20 yards, and also finds the end zone.
Baylor announces their presence on the national stage
Odds at the time of writing, according to FanDuel, have Baylor as a 2.5-point underdog heading into this contest. Auburn has the talent to warrant being the favorite, but it does not have the consistency. Hugh Freeze is not going to help that, teasing that he may play all three quarterbacks in this game. The old adage is that if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. Auburn claims to have three.
Meanwhile, Sawyer Robertson is one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12. He was a massive reason for the turnaround of the Baylor season, along with Washington. In the six-game winning streak, he threw 17 touchdowns while having just four interceptions. Further, he ran in a score. The quarterback will continue to improve and is set up to have a massive first game of the season.
The Bears have returning experience and continuity, combined with being at home will be the difference in this one. Not only will Baylor cover, but they will win the game outright, coming away with a 31-28 victory.
