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And thus begins the longest offseason in Baylor history. Think of all the could-have-beens. We could have been up 44-21 and missed a field goal. We could have been up again 48-28 and then got called for a block in the back. We could have iced it at 48-35 and got called for a facemask. We could have then kicked a field goal to ice it at 44-35 and it was blocked and nearly returned for a TD. We could have won this game a hundred times and gone into the offseason with our first 12-win season in school history as Cotton Bowl Champions. We could have.
But we didn't.
Two teams won games down 20 in the fourth quarter this season: Baylor and Michigan State. This is an absolute nightmare we get 9 months to relive every second of every day.
I hate this for our seniors, the best we've ever had. I hate this for our fans, who had every reason to exalt in this season ripped from their fingers. I hate it for our coaches, who will be called out anywhere and everywhere for what happened. I hate it for our program, which will now hear about this game on the recruiting trail, on social media, and every time we come up in discussion for the Playoff in the future. We had an opportunity to make the kind of statement today that TCU made yesterday about why we should have been in and looked poised to do just that, then ... I just hate it, and I can't believe it happened. But it did.
And now we're finishing another season 11-2 with a crushing bowl loss.