Inside The Bears

Baylor Football: Top X-Factor players for the 2025 season

Tabbing the five guys that will could put Baylor over the top as a potential playoff contender

Josh Crawford

Three transfer (Kobe Prentice, Matthew Fobbs-White, and Calvin Simpson-Hunt) could be key for Baylor's success in 2025
Three transfer (Kobe Prentice, Matthew Fobbs-White, and Calvin Simpson-Hunt) could be key for Baylor's success in 2025 / Via: Baylor Athletics, Waco Tribune
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We know who the established stars of Baylor football’s 2025 squad will be -- Sawyer Robertson, Bryson Washington, and Keaton Thomas won’t be surprising anyone. But, if Baylor wants to meet or even exceed expectations, we here at Baylor on SI, think that these five guys will be key in determining the season's success for the Bears. 

1. Kobe Prentice, WR

The Alabama native comes to Waco after three modest seasons in Tuscaloosa, totaling 60 catches for 780 yards in his Crimson Tide career. We know Josh Cameron will be the guy, but the guy always needs a few guys with him to truly help him shine. Especially with the status of last year’s second-leading receiver Ashtyn Hawkins squarely in limbo, the Bears will need Prentice to consistently stretch the field and provide explosive plays to add another dimension to this offense in 2025. If Prentice can do that and show why he was a top-100 recruit coming out of high school, it will add a dimension to Baylor’s offense that wasn’t there, open up the field for the entire offense and elevate the ceilings of Cameron, Sawyeron Robertson, and this Baylor aerial attack in 2025.

2. Matthew Fobbs-White, EDGE

I've already tabbed Fobbs-White as an X-factor, so here’s to doubling down. Baylor’s top four sack guys have all found their way to an NFL roster, with the Bears losing 14 of last year’s measly 23 sacks to graduation. Even so, Steve Linton was the only thing the Bears had last year resembling a prototypical EDGE build, and Fobbs-White fits that same bill this year. However, with Fobbs-White, he brings a level of athleticism off the EDGE that I don’t think Aranda has had at his disposal since he took over. No Baylor defender has reached 7 sacks in a season since James Lynch’s record-setting 13.5 sack campaign in 2020, and I think Fobbs has the best shot to crack that threshold of anybody in the 2020s. With the amount of athletic QBs in the Big 12 (Avery Johnson, Devon Dampier, Jalon Daniels, the list goes on), Fobbs-White will be key in wrangling in those scrambling athletes, and if he can build off the production he had at Tulane, it’ll allow Aranda to get pressure by rushing four, muting the need to blitz as much as they did in 2024, and putting less stress on the secondary.

3. Samu Taumanupepe DT, Baylor

A transfer from just down the road in College Station, Taumanupepe is the only projected member of the D-LINE rotation over 305 pounds -- and it’s not by a small margin, with big Samu tipping the scales at 380 pounds. While we don’t know if Taumanupepe (we’ve got to find you a nickname, buddy) will start, whenever he’s in, he’ll immediately be Baylor’s best option to clog up the middle, command double teams, and allow Baylor’s pair of standout run-and-hit linebackers, Keaton Thomas and Travion Barnes (who totaled a combined 236 tackles last season, just those two) to run free. Most importantly, Samu could potentially provide a big boost to Baylor’s porous run defense, which ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 after allowing nearly 1,400 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground. He didn’t play a ton at Texas A&M (just 3 games over 2 seasons), but with projected starters Jackie Marshall and Devonte Tezino best as disruptive upfield penetrators, Taumanupepe could play a key part in plugging the biggest hole in Dave Aranda’s defense from last year.

4. Calvin Simpson-Hunt, CB

Another former four-star recruit, Simpson-Hunt played five games as a true freshman for Ohio State in 2023, and nine in last year during the Buckeyes’ title run, but he's been mostly restricted to special teams. A toolsy corner who hasn’t fully been able to showcase his talent, he could be a game changer in Baylor’s thin cornerback room. If he can be a real guy, the combination of him, Tevin Williams, and Caden Jenkins would be one of the better CB1/CB2/nickel combinations in the conference. Baylor could feature a ton dose of man-heavy schemes and Cover 1 looks, and, in the same way that Fobbs-White could potentially be a lift to the secondary by consistently creating pressure, if Baylor can trot out three corners they feel comfortable throwing out in man coverage, that allows for more flexibility to send more pressures and blitzes and speed up the clock for opposing QBs, which could lead to more takeaways for the Baylor defense in 2025.

5. Michael Trigg, TE

Trigg was by far the most productive guy on this list last year and it’s even debatable if he even belongs on this list, after earning a second-team All-Conference nod by Big 12 coaches after hauling in 30 passes for nearly 400 yards and three touchdowns. However, with no certainty for can be Sawyer Robertson’s #2 option, and mounting expectations for the senior QB, he’ll need to have someone that offers duality as a security blanket in the middle of the field, and have the ability to stretch defenses up the seams and offer chunk play potential -- which Trigg has the frame and ability to produce. The senior from Florida could work himself into a NFL draft prospect, with a solid season of production under his belt, and, at 6’4, 250, if he can showcase some explosive ability and potentially become a game-changer in jump ball situations.

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Josh Crawford
JOSH CRAWFORD

Josh began covering Baylor athletics in July 2025. Before this, he previously wrote for Syracuse men's basketball and football at SI from 2022-24. As a former Division I defensive lineman at Prairie View, Josh is passionate about storytelling from a former athlete's perspective. When he's not covering Baylor, he enjoys traveling, listening to podcasts and music, and loves cooking a good meal.

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