Baylor RB Richard Reese Making the Simple Look Easy
Every Monday at the Baylor Bears' team chapel, true freshman running back Richard Reese plays the bass guitar without any emotion. The bass is so crucial to jazz music and it has a simple sound with its low pitch and how it seamlessly blends into the background of a song without the ferocity of an electric guitar. It's simple.
It's simple like playing with a lead late in the fourth quarter and running out the clock to seal a victory. Sounds simple, right?
As Bears coach Dave Aranda once said, "jazz is simple, but simple ain't easy."
None of it is easy, Reese just makes it look that way.
On a day where the Bears honored running back Abram Smith's 2021 homecoming game where he went for 188 yards in a win over BYU. Reese looked the player Smith was a year ago, going for 186 yards on the ground and two touchdowns on 31 carries in Saturday's 35-23 win over the Kansas Jayhawks.
What Reese did the first 53 minutes of the game, though, was almost inconsequential. It's how he finished the game that made his performance stand out.
After jumping out to a 28-3 lead (how ominous) at the half, the Jayhawks scored the next 20 points and Baylor got the ball back with just under seven minutes left and in desperate need of a score to take back the momentum and see out the victory.
Enter Richard Reese.
Reese caught a Blake Shapen pass early in the drive for a 14-yard gain and a first down. Two plays later, the Bears were faced with a crucial 3rd and 2 from the Kansas 45-yard line and called on Reese to give them just three yards to keep the clock moving. He gave them 37 yards instead.
After marching them down to the Kansas 8-yard line, Reese finished the job with the game-sealing touchdown, his second score of the day.
In a game where Baylor desperately needed stability and needed a closer, the true freshman gave it to them. His teammates aren't even surprised anymore.
“I just think he did his own Richard Reese things,” senior tight end Ben Sims said. “Since he played against Albany we knew he was going to be special and he shows us that in practice every week."
We have only seen Reese's meteoric rise from third-string running back to game closer in a matter of seven weeks and we think it's almost unbelievable. Aranda sees the kid playing bass guitar in Monday chapel, so he can believe it.
“I think there is a humbleness about him and just a matter-of-fact-ness about him,” Aranda said. “When you put those things together, you can see the journey.”
But the killer instinct Reese showed Saturday may just be the beginning of his stardom. His coach sees a bright future.
“If he can continue to have a learner’s mindset and really apply it, the sky is the limit for him,” Aranda said. “We’re way excited he’s on our side.”
So no, simple ain't easy, but Richard Reese could have fooled me.
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You can follow Cameron Stuart on Twitter @RealCamStuart
Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.