Waco, Texas ? Forget The Streak. So what if every media outlet in Texas had been reporting that Baylor had an opportunity Saturday to end its 29-game tailspin against Big 12 Conference foes.

“The story is not breaking the streak,” Baylor coach Kevin Steele said following the Bears’ pulsating come-from-behind 35-32 win over Kansas. “The story is how these men performed to get to this point. It’s about them never giving up. They’ve never come apart at the seams.”

Don’t ask quarterback Aaron Karas, the engineer of the Bears’ stirring march to 11 points in the last 2:51, about The Streak. Karas shrugged it off when a reporter asked him about it.

“It really doesn’t matter,” Karas said. “To us we’re just out there playing.”

Or kicking. Daniel Andino, a fifth-year senior, booted the game-winner from 33 yards away after nailing a career-long 46-yarder earlier. Andino overcame two Kansas timeouts to drill the kick right through the middle of the uprights.

“I kind of thought they’d try to ice me,” said Andino, who hails from suburban Dallas. “I just tried to visualize and know the kick was good before I kicked it. I kept visualizing the field goal going through.”

Steele took some of the credit for keeping his veteran place-kicker loose during the Kansas icings.

“I said, ‘Danny, you’re going to be on the ESPN highlights,'” Steele said, smiling, “and he laughed.”

Steele, a former Nebraska aide now in his third year at Baylor, gave Karas just as much credit as Andino for his first conference victory.

“Aaron lives on the edge,” Steele said. “That’s the approach he has and he’s pretty good at it. Eleven points in three minutes. That’s hard, real hard.”

Karas threw a 41-yard TD pass to Rober Quiroga with 1:18 remaining, then Chedrick Ricks squeezed into the left corner of the end zone to forge the 32-32 deadlock.

Baylor regained possession with :35 remaining and 65 yards to the Kansas goal. Karas promptly completed three passes for 41 yards and tossed in an eight-yard run to put the Bears on the KU 28 with :04.7 remaining.

“You gotta have faith out there,” Karas said. “That sums up our program.”

Then, after the two timeouts, Andino punched the decisive kick through the uprights as Karas watched with delight.

“It was the best feeling ever,” Karas said, grinning.

Steele was even able to joke about the late heroics of his sophomore signal-caller.

“After Kansas scored, I told him he had to get eight points I didn’t ask for the extra three,” he quipped.

Steele had another bit of joviality in his postgame media session, too. When Kansas had one more chance to return the kickoff with :00.5 showing, the Jayhawks tried to lateral their way into the end zone in the same way California had stunned Stanford in that famous comeback contest several years ago.

“It wouldn’t have been another Cal-Berkeley,” Steele remarked, “because I would have tackled him myself.”

Not often has Steele had an opportunity for levity in his three years at Baylor, but Saturday was one of them, thanks to the Bears’ amazing rally.

“A lotta, lotta people give up in life,” Steele said, “and these guys have had many, many opportunities, and they had another chance with three minutes left. They just didn’t give up.”