WACO, Texas -- — Dean Connors scored on a 1-yard run with 1:57 left, Conner Weigman accounted for three touchdowns while passing for 201 yards and running for 121, and Houston wrapped its regular season with a 31-24 win at Baylor on Saturday.

The bowl-bound Cougars (9-3, 6-3 Big 12) got the game-winning drive after Baylor had erased a 15-point deficit following a scary injury to Bears freshman running back Caden Knighten late in the third quarter.

Baylor (5-7, 3-6) then had one more chance to tie the game again, but Sawyer Robertson was under heavy pressure on a fourth-down incompletion from the Houston 13 with 43 seconds left.

“I was just really, really happy with our guys in the fight and the spunk they showed for four quarters,” second-year Houston coach Willie Fritz said, whose team improved from 4-8 last season. “We got here late last year, I've mentioned that a bunch of times, and didn’t really have a chance to recruit like we wanted to.”

The Bears ended coach Dave Aranda’s sixth season with their third loss in a row and fifth in six games.

“Kind of par for the course this season. Just being being in the fight and kind of swimming upstream it felt like,” Robertson said.

Weigman had his two rushing TDs after throwing one to Amare Thomas for the fourth game in a row. The quarterback's 1-yard plunge put Houston up 24-9 with 4:58 left in the third quarter.

Knighten was injured on the ensuing drive, staying facedown on the field after taking a direct hit to the back while being tackled for no gain at the Houston 12. He was taken off the field on a stretcher and Baylor gave the ball up on downs on the next play before the Cougars went 3-and-out.

Aranda and the school said after the game that Knighten, who was taken to the hospital, was still undergoing tests but had movement in his upper and lower body.

After a 1-yard TD run from Joseph Dodds and Robertson's run for a 2-point conversion, Weigman's incompletion on fourth-and-2 from the Houston 44. That set up Robertson's 31-yard TD to Josh Cameron on fourth-and-9 to tie the game with 8:53 left.

Weigman was 21-of-31 passing with an interception, and ran 22 times. Thomas had a 25-yard TD to cap Houston's first drive, his 10th of the season, and sixth in the four-game run.

Robertson finished 23-of-46 for 309 yards with an interception, on a tipped ball in the end zone, and a fumble while being sacked. Both turnovers were in the first quarter.

Undefeated on the road

Houston finished 6-0 in road games for only the third time in school history, the other seasons being 2011 and 2021. The Cougars went into the game as the only FBS team unbeaten on the road when playing at least five games away from home.

“Outstanding for the guys to have that resiliency week after week after week on the road,” Fritz said. “We're not like some of those programs that play eight home and four away. We're going to always play six and six."

The Takeaway

Houston: The Cougars finished with a nine-win regular season for the first time since 2021. It was only their second since 2016. The six wins in conference play are one more than Houston had combined its first two years in the league.

Baylor: It was the first home game for the Bears since athletic director Mack Rhoades stepped down for personal reasons and the school later said Aranda, now 36-37, would remain as coach.

Up next

Houston is going to a bowl game for the first time in three seasons. The Cougars have to wait until Dec. 7 to find out where and who they will play.

The Bears open the 2026 season against Auburn in Atlanta on Sept. 5.

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