Two years ago, Baylor suffered the ultimate humiliation of losing to an FCS team in the debut outing for head coach Matt Rhule. That was a 48-45 loss to Liberty.

But no one said rebuilds were going to be easy.

In year three, the Bears completely flipped script. An efficient and dominant performance, highlighted by three Trestan Ebner touchdowns, powered the Bears (1-0) to a 56-17 victory in the 2019 opener at McLane Stadium.

Baylor accounted for 518 total yards. The special teams accounted for two blocked kicks. The defense limited the outmanned Lumberjacks to 277 total yards.

The Bears looked the part of a program that is well on their way to being a dark horse in the Big 12 championship race.

This team also didn’t beat itself. It committed no turnovers and the first team committed only one penalty before the benches emptied.

Junior quarterback Charlie Brewer threw for 199 yards and three scores including two to R.J. Sneed, the second of which was a 21-yard toss that was originally called incomplete but overturned by replay. Junior tail back R.J. Sneed rushed for 108 yards. That’s the fourth time he’s rushed for 100 yards in a game in his career.