The walls inside the position rooms at Baylor were fitted with a type of wallpaper that allowed assistant coaches and their players to decorate. That included spray-painted messages and signs and slogans. The offensive line room during the 2014 season possessed a message that was easier said than done: “Don’t leave it up to the specialists.” 

Baylor and TCU meet for the 120th time in series history on Saturday in McLane Stadium. The most-played intrastate rivalry in Texas at the FBS level is 10 years removed from one of the quintessential Big 12 games in history, which also occurred in McLane Stadum. The two teams combined for 119 points, 1,267 yards, and 62 first downs on 198 plays. But it was a kicker who decided the game. 

Baylor place kicker Chris Callahan entered the game 1-of-6 on the season. He was 3-for-3 on that Oct. 12 day, as he stepped onto the field with the game tied at 58 and four seconds left. Both teams had committed the cardinal sin. 

“We were collectively holding our breath,” said starting offensive tackle Spencer Drango, looking back ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the game. He’ll be among the dozens of former players from the 2013 and 2014 Baylor squads that’ll be recognized on Saturday. “I was on the sideline thinking that this could be good or bad for us, but that’s the beauty, right? So were they.” 

TCU running back and returner B.J. Catalon has a different memory of the 28-yard field goal that sealed No. 5-ranked Baylor’s win over his No. 9-ranked Horned Frogs. Catalon ran for two touchdowns and returned a kickoff 94 yards for another in the loss. He left McLane with 48 yards rushing, 71 yards receiving, 94 yards as a returner, and a sour taste in his mouth. 

“He had missed a few so I didn’t know what to expect. We thought he was due (to miss),” Catalon said of Callahan’s kick. “I watched it go in. It was heart-breaking.” 

A book can be written about what transpired before the kick. The story starts in 2013 when Gary Patterson took to the press conference stage after a 41-38 home loss to Baylor and was asked by a reporter if there was anything else said other than ‘good game’ to Bears head coach Art Briles after the game. What followed was a five-minute tirade about Baylor safety Ahmad Dixon, who was ejected for a hit on TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin, Briles, and class.

The bad blood between Patterson and Briles was real. Not even their players will deny it. But that wasn’t why the 2014 game lives in history, at least not from the players’ perspective. The game is still remembered because both teams were rivals at the height of their powers. Both teams were undefeated. Both teams were ranked in the AP Top 10. Both teams could make the newly formed College Football Playoffs if they beat the other and then ran the table. The bad blood between the coaches only added some extra gasoline. 

“When you have a good coach, the players move as the coach moves,” Catalon said. “We wanted to win, and we knew the intensity and the rivalry was real.” 

TCU jumped out to a 14-0 lead with 7:40 left in the first quarter when Catalon scored his first touchdown of the game, this one a 3-yard plunge to cap a three-play, 66-yard drive. Neither team thought the quick start would decide the game, however. Both offenses could score points in bunches, so the Bears never panicked despite a drive chart that began: TOD, fumble, punt, punt. 

“We knew it was just a matter of time,” Drango said. “We’d get it clicking. The bad thing about an offense like ours was that it can take a while to get into a groove, but once you do, you can score in two or three plays.” 

Baylor’s first scoring drive of the game was a three-play, 77-yard sprint that took 27 seconds off the clock and ended with Bryce Petty finding Antwan Goodley for a 66-yard score. Petty would throw for 510 yards and six touchdowns on 55 attempts. The game was eventually 24-24 with 1:49 left after a 67-yard bomb from Petty to KD Cannon. The momentum had flipped to the home side and the Frogs needed a big play. 

That’s when the Bears made a mistake. They kicked to Catalon, something they avoided for the first 28 minutes of the game. TCU made an adjustment and put a second returner deep next to Catalon, forcing the Bears to pick their poison. The result was a kick into the middle of the field that Catalon took back 94 yards to give the Horned Frogs a 31-24 lead with 1:38 left in the second quarter. Not bad for a guy who entered the game with a tweaked hamstring. He was nervous as he ran the ball towards the end zone, half expecting to hear a pop. 

“That is something I’ll always remember,” Catalon said. “I had to have some vision and make a move, and then it was just making it to the end zone after that. I was just praying there wasn’t a flag or that I’d torn something.” 

TCU remained ahead throughout the third quarter as the two teams traded field goals and touchdowns until Aaron Green scored a 6-yard touchdown with 14:29 left in the fourth quarter to give the Horned Frogs a 51-37 lead. A few plays later when Baylor had the ball, Petty threw one of his two interceptions, and this one was returned 49 yards for a touchdown by Marcus Mallet to push the TCU lead to 58-37. 

Still, there was no panic on the Baylor sideline. 

“We weren’t worried we had to score quick because we knew we could score in one, two, three plays,” Drango remembered. “We’re down 21 points, so we had to get a few stops to give us a chance. We’re like, ‘hey, defense, do your job, get us the ball back, and we’ll go score.’” 

That’s what happened. Baylor scored 24 points in the final 10:39 of the game. The three touchdown drives to set up the game-winning field goal? A four-play, 45-yard drive that took 59 seconds off the clock. A five-play, 92-yard drive that took 1:23 off the clock. And a five-play, 91-yard drive that took 59 seconds off the clock. 

“Yeah, we could do that,” Drango said when he heard the drive chart for the first time in a decade. “We set up the big plays with those runs. And those big passes set up the run. We just did what the defense gave us. If it was a light box, we ran. If you moved up to stop the run, we threw it deep to one of our Olympic sprinters we had playing wide receiver.” 

TCU turned the ball over on downs and didn’t get a pass interference call on fourth down to keep the ball and possibly win the game. Baylor marched down the field to set up the game-winning field goal, aided by a pass interference call. In games this tightly contested, those small margins change history. That isn’t lost on Catalon. 

“That was the only game on the college level that made me want to shed tears,” Catalon said. “The way they came back, the implications of the loss. If we won that game, we go undefeated and we’re in the College Football Playoffs.”