Baylor has no new COVID-19 cases ahead of matchup vs. Texas football

There’s more hope now that Texas football will be able to take on the Baylor Bears, despite last week’s COVID-19 scare, at DKR on Oct. 24.

It appears that the home contest for the Texas football program this coming weekend against head coach Dave Aranda and the Baylor Bears will be very likely to happen after all. At one point last week, it looked like the Texas-Baylor matchup scheduled for Oct. 24 would be called into question. Baylor was dealing with a plethora of active COVID-19 cases among their players and staff last week.

But those cases appear to be clearing up this week, according to a press conference with Aranda early this week. That’s really a relief since the Bears were in a bad spot last week, with nearly 30 players and more than a dozen staffers testing positive for COVID-19.

Baylor had to push back their originally scheduled Oct. 17 home showdown against head coach Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys to mid-December. That effectively gave both Texas and Baylor bye weeks heading into their meeting on Oct. 24.

That also leaves the Baylor-Oklahoma State showdown with very little margin for error come mid-December. The following weekend is supposed to be the Big 12 Championship Game. If either one of those two teams are in contention to play in the Big 12 Championship Game, then that contest needs to happen on Dec. 12.

However, the fact that there’s no new active cases of COVID-19 among the players and staffers for the Baylor football team is a very encouraging sign for head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns. Texas needs a big win in Big 12 play to take some of the heat off of Herman. They currently hold a two-game losing streak that from disappointments since the beginning of the month against the Oklahoma Sooners and TCU Horned Frogs.

The lone wins for the Longhorns on the season so far came over the Texas Tech Red Raiders and UTEP Miners. They’ll be looking to move their record to 3-2 (2-2 Big 12) on the season if they can take down Baylor this coming weekend. Meanwhile, Baylor will be looking to avoid moving to 1-2 (1-2 Big 12) on the season if they lose to Texas.

According to the ESPN Football Power Index, the Longhorns have a 76.6 percent chance to beat Baylor at home on Oct. 24. As of the evening of Oct. 19, the Longhorns are a sizable 8.5 point favorite over Baylor, and the over/under is set at 61.5 points.

Texas and Baylor are set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on the afternoon of Oct. 24. The Longhorns hold the all-time series edge over Baylor, with a record of 78-27-4 (.734 winning percentage).