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Baylor football head coach Dave Aranda, on preparing for Matt Corral: “He does not take to failure.”

11by: Jake Thompson12/27/21JakeThompsonOn3
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Sugar Bowl week is here and the preparation for Ole Miss and Baylor begins in earnest on Monday.

The mission is simple in nature for Baylor head coach Dave Aranda and his defense — keep Matt Corral in check. Though that mission will not be so simple in execution and Aranda is fully aware of what they will be getting in Corral.

Corral is the only FBS player this season with more than 3,000 passing yards and 500 rushing yards.

The Rebels quarterback being the lifeblood of the offense is not lost on Aranda.

“(Corral), surely he’s the engine for them,” Aranda said during his press conference on Monday. “I see everything kind of going through him. Has a great awareness and patience in the pocket and can find guys that are clearly open, can thread the needle on one-on-one shots on the outside.

“When the rush is divided and conquered he can get out and scramble and make plays happen. Which, for us, the majority of the year has been a struggle.”

This season, opponents have rushed for over 1,500 yards against Baylor and averaged 116.8 per game along with just over one rushing touchdown per game. When Baylor has gotten to the quarterback they usually succeed in bringing them down, averaging 2.6 sacks per game.

Corral has shown he has the ability to exploit a defense’s weakness of allowing broken plays to go for chunk yardage with only one healthy ankle. On Saturday, Corral will be on two healthy ankles for the first time since early in the Tennessee game two months ago.

Aranda also took the time to acknowledge what makes Corral special off the field, noting his character and personality that then in turn affects the rest of the team.

“But on top of all of those things, the thing about him is he’s a winner,” Aranda said. “He does not take to failure and he does not take to not succeed. So you can see that fight in him and that bleeds through his team.”

While Ole Miss knows who will be their signal caller, Baylor has a slightly murky situation for them.

Backup quarterback Blake Shapen, who led the Bears to the Big 12 championship, will be out due to an injury. That leaves starter Gerry Bohanon, who is returning from injury, and true freshman Kyron Drones as available options.

Drones has not taken one snap in a game all season.

“I feel really good about Kyron,” Aranda said. “He has really taken to the added responsibility and reps. Has attacked it and has not shied from it one bit.

“I think we’ve got a really good game plan for him that includes a lot of the things we’re doing with Gerry, but then there are a few specific things just for him if he were to find himself with a bunch of time on his hands there.”
Ole Miss (10-2) and Baylor (11-2) are set to kickoff the 2022 Sugar Bowl at 7:45 p.m. CT on Saturday.

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