SAN MARCOS, Texas — In preparation for this weekend's football game against Baylor, below are five talking points to preview the Bears: 

THE SIGNAL CALLER

Fourth-year junior Gerry Bohanon is expected to start at quarterback for Baylor on Saturday. Bohanon, an Earle, Ark., native, will become just the fifth Baylor quarterback since 2000 to make his first career start in a season-opening game.

The 6-foot-3, 221-pound right-hander appeared in two games during the 2020 season and completed only one pass attempt for seven yards against Kansas. As a redshirt freshman in 2019, Bohanon finished the season by completing 17-of-36 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing for 272 and three touchdowns on 42 attempts. He appeared in the 2018 Texas Bowl against Vanderbilt and the 2019 Sugar Bowl against Georgia. 

NEW GUYS ON THE BLOCK

Baylor football head coach Dave Aranda welcomed four new assistant coaches to the Bears coaching staff this offseason: Jeff Grimes (Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends), Eric Mateos (Offensive Line), Chansi Stuckey (Wide Receivers) and Kevin Curtis (Cornerbacks).

Grimes comes to Waco following a three-season stint at BYU, where he was a finalist for the 2020 Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach. Mateos, just three seasons ago, served as the offensive line coach at Texas State, where he had an All-Sun Belt performer each of his two seasons. Stuckey spent five easons in the NFL (2007-11) following an all-conference career at Clemson, where he served as a graduate assistant in 2019 and in an offensive player development role last season. Curtis played under Aranda during his time at Texas Tech (2000-01) and comes to Baylor after spending time at Louisiana Tech and most recently SMU as the Mustangs' cornerback coach. 

IT'S BEEN AWHILE

Following the Big 12 Conference's COVID-19 regulations for the 2020 football season, Saturday's matchup against Texas State will mark the first non-conference game for the Bears since Jan. 1, 2020 against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl — a span of 613 days. This weekend's game will also mark the first non-conference game for Aranda, who will begin his second year at the helm of BU this weekend. 

Additionally, Saturday's game will mark the first time since 2007 that Texas State and Baylor have played a football game against each other. It'll mark the first football game against the Bobcats in San Marcos for the Bears in program history. 

E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E

Baylor returns 10 starters from a defensive unit in 2020 that allowed only 203.0 passing yards per game, the second-best mark in the Big 12 Conference. The Bears' five starting defensive backs have a combined 177 career games played and 77 career starts. Cornerback Raleigh Texada leads all Baylor returners with 29 career starts, including a streak of 23 consecutive. 

On the other side of the line of scrimmage, the Bears' offense returns seven starts, led by offensive linemen Connor Galvin and Xavier-Newman Johnson with 23 starts each. Baylor, like Texas State, added a pair of experienced offensive linemen this offseason as Jacob Gall (113 starts) and Grant Miller (16) comes to Waco from Buffalo and Vanderbilt, respectively. 

DOING IT ALL

Baylor's Trestan Ebner is more than just a "running back" as the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Henderson native leads all active FBS running backs with 1,232 career receiving yards. Ebner, who was named a Walter Camp Second Team All-American, Sporting News Second Team All-American, AFCA Second Team All-American and Phil Steele Third Team All-American in 2020, needs only one reception to join Brandon Whitaker as the only running backs in Baylor history with 100-or-more career receptions. Ebner was also named the 2020 Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year.