The Battles of Baylor’s Bohanon
Despite being overlooked, battling injuries, and having seasons shortened, Gerry Bohanon just kept grinding away and now is QB1 for the Bears.
Before ascending to become Baylor’s starting quarterback, Gerry Bohanon battled for attention from his home school of Arkansas; endured his high school forfeiting their 2017 season days before the state semifinals; and served as the Bears’ backup quarterback for three straight seasons. Then a leg injury limited his effectiveness in the 2019 Big 12 championship game and left him as an after thought to fans during a turmoil filled and Covid shortened 2020 campaign.
Last offseason, the writing was on the wall for Gerry Bohanon—now more than ever— that it was not meant to be for him at Baylor University. He was unwanted and overshadowed and therefore, like thousands of other athletes before him, best off turning to the transfer portal and leaving Waco.
Baylor, however, was where Gerry really wanted to be.
After all, this wasn’t the first time he had stared adversity in the face. He was determined to find a way to power through like he had done so many times before.
In order to understand how, we have to start in the sleepy, small town of Earle, Arkansas. Included in Crittenden County, the town is named after prominent landowner Josiah Francis Earle who also fought with the Confederacy in the Civil War.
In Earle, Gerry was the beloved four-star quarterback at 2A Earle High School. There, in a town of just over 2,400 people, he was a star.
Whole Hog Sports reporter Dudley Dawson described Gerry as “the best athlete on the field at every game. Earle is a small community, they love their football, they love their athletes…[Gerry] was a big deal for them. There’s not a lot of great athletes to come out of Earle, and certainly not a lot getting attention from Arkansas and other major schools.”
Over Bohanon’s four years, the two-time all state playmaking QB passed for 11,362 yards and 142 touchdowns and rushed for another 5,925 yards and 70 touchdowns. He picked up offers from Arkansas, Baylor, LSU, Georgia, Indiana, Louisville, UNC, Auburn and even Alabama.
Ask anyone, and they will tell you that the pinnacle of football success in the state is playing for the Arkansas Razorbacks. By every stretch of the imagination, that is where the top duel threat QB talent was heading as well. As luck would have it, there was another four-star quarterback in the Natural State.
Connor Noland, another four star QB at Arkansas’ 6A Greenwood High School, had committed to Bret Bielema’s Razorbacks early in July of 2016. That left Bohanon as the odd man out.
“He handled the recruitment great; never said anything bad about Arkansas, never said anything bad about Connor or anything else,” Dawson added. “He just wanted to look around… and see what’s the best situation for him. He seemed more mature than his age at that point.”
That maturity served Bohanon well during his senior season after he led Earle to the state 2A semifinals after a 50-31 victory in the quarters. Despite winning easily, Earle self-reported afterwards that they had an ineligible player on the team and therefore they had to forfeit their spot in the semis and all 11 of their games.
Just like that; Bohanon finished his senior season with an 0-11 record and was ripped of an opportunity to achieve his goal of winning a state title. It would be his last game in the state of Arkansas.
But Bohanon did not sulk or dwell on what he could not control. Not even a month later, he signed with Baylor.
Ultimately, with not much room on the Razorback roster, Bohanon turned to Baylor. He gravitated towards Waco for two reasons: the coaching staff and to follow in the footsteps of RGIII.
Dawson recalled, “The [Baylor] coaching staff really appealed to him… did a great job recruiting him… and he was also old enough to remember Robert Griffin III. So I think that played a lot into his thinking as well that he could go down there and have the same type of career that RGIII did.”
There was talk about Bohanon being a second ‘RGIII’ like player when he committed, and this play against UTSA in 2019 certainly reminded Baylor fans of their Heisman Trophy winner:
Back on signing day in December of 2017, then head coach Matt Rhule said that Bohanon was “a young man who we think is special, to get that commitment… was really something we were excited about.”
Rhule continued to describe Bohanon as a “unifying force” and that it was palpable when he visited Earle, Arkansas, because “you can tell he is a person who lives his life trying to be there for other people, so the whole community is behind him…I think he’ll have that same effect… on this team.”
Despite not playing for three seasons, Bohanon won the admiration of his teammates, especially starting quarterback Charlie Brewer.
When asked about his former teammate, Brewer reflected, “Gerry is a great teammate; all the guys on the team love him. He’s a big team guy. We’ve always had a great relationship whenever we were in the same quarterback room.”
The now Utah Ute QB continued, “He’s a really good guy. Within the team, he’s a good leader, somewhat outspoken. Meshes well with everyone, kinda friends with everyone.”
He was the same dude in high school. Whether he experiences success or setbacks, Bohanon simply does not change.
“I remember how polite and how accommodating he was. When a lot of these kids become big deals, their personality changes and they don’t answer the phone. [Gerry] always did a good job of that, to answer the phone to do stories. He’s got a very infectious personality. A great representative of not only Earle, but Northeast Arkansas and Arkansas in general,” Dawson bragged.
Though as a college freshman, Bohanon knew that he was still not ready.
“I think coming in as a freshman, I didn’t feel like I was ready and I’m pretty sure the coaches didn’t either,” Bohanon self-assessed.
So he studied and learned. Then in the 2019 Big 12 championship game, he finally got his opportunity when he was subbed in for Brewer. He rushed nine times for 15 yards and was 4-of-15 and threw for 56 yards—33 of which came on a wobbly touchdown to Tyquan Thornton.
The Bears led the Oklahoma Sooners by three at the half. Though Bohanon’s own leg injury would force him to be replaced by third-stringer Jacob Zeno in the fourth quarter.
“Gerry Bohanon was hurting all week, and he was trying to gut it out, really couldn’t move and if you put a guy out there who can’t move he’s eventually going to get hurt,” Coach Rhule would say afterwards.
Zeno dazzled fans with two long completions—one for a touchdown—in that championship game comeback. So much so that many assumed that Zeno would at least be second on the depth chart, if not overtake the starting role.
Then Baylor got a new coach in 2020 after Rhule left for the NFL; Covid-19 impacted college athletics in an unforeseen ways; and the Bears failed to move the ball on offense.
First year head coach Dave Aranda was steadfast in keeping Brewer in as the starting quarterback in 2020, while fans clamored for literally anybody else—but specifically Zeno. After a two win season, the Bears entered spring and fall camps with four quarterbacks vying for the job. Bohanon seemed destined to enter the transfer portal.
Instead he did the only thing he knows how— putting his nose to the grindstone and going to work.
That began every morning at 6 a.m.
He was beating Coach Aranda to the office daily that the second year coach asked “Is he sleeping here?”
Bohanon was wide-eyed and smiling when he responded, “I thought that was kinda a me and him thing.”
Bohanon continued:
I’d be getting me some coffee early in the morning, that way I would be ready to watch some film, and try to get ahead of the game plan and everything. I’m still the same way now. I like to be prepared, so I try to attack it in all ways that I can. I think it was instilled as a kid, I’d watch my mom get up every day and never complain. Go to bed late working, she’d never complain. So for me, it’s like waking up, I try to basically outwork my mom every day. She’s doing it, so why can’t I do it? What reason do I have to complain, when I just do football and school, and she’s working to provide for me and my siblings? I can outwork my momma at least.
With two weeks to go until the season, Coach Aranda made the call. Gerry Bohanon would be, finally, QB1 for the Bears.
“Gerry has a really strong work ethic and has a great appetite for football. You cannot feed him enough and he continues to ask for more,” Coach Aranda said. “You can give him pieces of information here and there and Gerry can connect the dots. He can take the information he has and apply it, and then teach others. As far as that goes, he was at a different level.”
Then again, Gerry has had the luxury of learning for over three years.
I’ve been here for three years and learned a lot from Charlie,” Bohanon said. “Just with the different coaches and the different offenses and getting more and more reps, I think the confidence is going to build just knowing what you’re doing. So for me, I wanted to absorb as much as I can, learn as much football as I could and take as much as I could from Charlie. That way, I would be ready when my time does come.”
Brewer was happy for Bohanon and recognized the difficult road that he has been on to simply get to this point.
“I think that will end up being great for him, now that he waited it out. He probably feels well prepared and ready to play. He’s gotten [insight] from multiple coaching staffs and what not; been able to soak in that knowledge and apply it right now,” Brewer said. “I know for a lot of people that’s not easy to not play for a few years, but I think he did the right thing by doing that and now I think it will pay off for him.”
Last Saturday it paid off with a win as Bohanon led Baylor to a 29-20 victory over the Texas State Bobcats. And, go figure, fans were critiquing his performance where he went 15-of-24 for 148 yards and only rushed for 16 more yards. He accounted for no points, even though Josh Fleeks had a touchdown catch that was called incomplete and could not be reviewed.
Just more adversity for Mr. Bohanon.
“I’m still grinding every day, trying to improve on it. I think just finding little things fundamentally to improve on. The more confident I am and the more consistent I am with my footwork and my body, the better I’ll be throwing the ball,” Bohanon said.
Lost in the poor audio and visual translation of game night was that Gerry looked silky smooth in the pocket on his bootlegs, was able to attack all areas of the field, and had an effective offensive line and rushing attack that were downright nonexistent last season.
He didn’t run or throw bombs because there was no need for him to. Yet at the same time he showed flashes that promised a solid foundation to continue to build on as the season progresses.
Gerry has been overlooked in his recruitment; set back due to forfeiture; and delayed due to redshirting, injury, and a coaching change in the middle of a global pandemic. He has since navigated the chaos, studied hard, and gotten up before 6 a.m. in order to finally get his shot.
Now that he is on the field; he is determined to stay there.