Baylor vs. Kansas State: Score, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

In his first collegiate start, Jarrett Stidham did more than enough.

And then some. 

The true freshman quarterback threw for 419 yards and three touchdowns as the No. 6-ranked Baylor Bears (8-0, 5-0 Big 12) narrowly edged the Kansas State Wildcats (3-5, 0-5), 31-24, on Thursday in Manhattan, Kansas.

Although Kansas State came into Thursday night losers of four in a row, head coach Bill Snyder's group clawed back from an 18-point third-quarter deficit to make it a seven-point game with four minutes to go. Wildcats quarterback Joe Hubener found Deante Burton for a 10-yard touchdown to make it 31-24.

Baylor drove down the field on the ensuing possession and got inside the 10-yard line. After a holding call and a sack on Stidham, Bears kicker Chris Callahan missed a 41-yard field goal that would have iced the game.   

Kansas State, with no timeouts and starting on its own 36, called a double-pass play on the first play of the drive. Wide receiver Kody Cook threw a deep ball with pressure coming toward him, but Terrell Burt picked off the pass to end the game.

Hubener single-handedly kept Kansas State in the game, amassing 304 total yards and totaling all three of the Wildcats' touchdowns, with two coming on the ground.

But it was true freshman Stidham who put on a show in relief of Seth Russell, whose season ended on Oct. 26 because of a neck injury that required surgery. Stidham got a huge boost from receiver Corey Coleman, who had 11 catches for 216 yards and two touchdowns, including an 81-yard TD grab with 7:06 left in the second quarter. ESPN CollegeFootball provided a clip of the game-changing play:

KD Cannon also had 108 receiving yards and a touchdown for the Bears, who now improve to 37-8 under head coach Art Briles when ranked. The Baylor Football account had video of Cannon's 55-yard touchdown. The receiver went on a post route over the middle and used his speed to get to the end zone:

The first step in life after Russell couldn't have gone any better for Baylor. Although Kansas State has seen its share of struggles, Stidham looked anything but a freshman quarterback against the Wildcats.

Tougher tests lie ahead for Baylor, but the Bears have to feel comfortable knowing Stidham not only played well on the road in a usually raucous environment, but he didn't turn the ball over. Baylor still has some work to do in order to jump the other unbeaten teams in the polls, but this was a good start against a Kansas State team that almost pulled off the upset.

Postgame Reaction

Baylor leads the entire Football Bowl Subdivision in margin of victory at 36 points per game. Even on the road with a freshman quarterback, there's reason to believe this game should not have been close.

At this point in the year, though, all that matters is how a college football team wins games. If they can do that, the margin of victory doesn't matter. Seeing the circumstances that Baylor now faces down the stretch, Briles knows the importance of that, per ESPN.com's Jake Trotter:

And it surely helped Stidham knowing he has a target like Corey Coleman, who hit the 20-touchdown mark with his two scores on Thursday. Coleman set a Big 12 record with seven straight games of two or more receiving touchdowns, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

In a conference that had the likes of Dez Bryant and Michael Crabtree, Coleman stands alone with that record.

Call it succeeding in the system if you wish, but Coleman is putting together a Heisman-worthy season. Not only that, he is carving his own niche in Baylor receiver lore. First it was Kendall Wright, then Terrence Williams, and now it may be Coleman who's atop the greats of Baylor receivers. CBS Sports' Jon Solomon seems to think the same thing:

But if Baylor wants to find itself in position to be in the national championship conversation, it's going to come down to Stidham. Baylor is the sixth-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Bears are undefeated and behind a one-loss Alabama team in the top four. The voters are not looking at Baylor as a threat down the stretch, and the Bears are sure to use that as motivation, per Dave Skretta of the Associated Press:

"I think that motivated the whole team, but especially Jarrett," Baylor running back Devin Chafin said about the rankings. "We definitely came out here with a chip on our shoulder." 

The road doesn't get easier for Baylor. Two of its next three games are on the road, including the showdown on Nov. 27 at TCU. Baylor is either going to get into the College Football Playoff or find itself playing in the Cotton Bowl once again. One thing's for sure, though: Confidence is not a weak point in Stidham's game.

"People," Stidham said, per Skretta, "don't need to be counting us out."