WACO, Texas — It’s kind of fun watching Cortney Grixby grow up as a collegiate player.

He grew up more than a little Saturday night, the capper being his 33-yard fumble return midway through the fourth quarter. Grixby also had a career-best 48-yard punt return that set up NU’s first touchdown.

“It kind of just rolled to me,” Grixby said of the fumble return, “and I picked it up, tried to take it back for a touchdown. The punt return, that’s just special teams. We got the blocks, and I just hit the sideline and tried to score.”

The sophomore cornerback also had two pass breakups.

“Coach E challenged us,” he said, referring to assistant Phil Elmassian. “He wanted us to make plays after last week. He said the corners need to make some more plays. I just tried to hold up to it.”

Well, it’s about time. I was wondering when we were going to have our first simultaneous recovery of the Bill Callahan era.

That was the official ruling after the wild 51-yard pass play from Baylor quarterback Shawn Bell to Trent Shelton, who lost the ball at the 1. The Bears benefited from a timeout call on first-and-goal. The delay gave replay officials time to decide it was a play worth reviewing.

The final call was a fumble, recovered by both Daniel Bullocks and Dominique Zeigler in the end zone. Touchdown Baylor. The score made it 20-14 midway through the third quarter.

Bullocks and Blake Tiedtke both appeared to have a shot at tackling Shelton near the sideline before he made his dash for the end zone.

“What happened there was Daniel thought I had him wrapped up, and I thought Daniel had him wrapped up,” Tiedtke said. “I should have just come up and tackled him.”

As for the rare simultaneous recovery ruling, that sounds like code for “We have no idea who got the ball in the end zone.”

“I think that’s exactly what it means,” Tiedtke said.

Two-minute drill:

— Freshman receiver Todd Peterson said “it seemed like forever” before he got Zac Taylor’s attention on the touchdown play early in the second half. “I don’t know what happened, but I just got lost in that coverage. I went back in the end zone and started waving my arms hoping he saw me, and luckily he did.”

— Two of NU’s three nonconference wins look a lot better after Saturday. Wake Forest almost knocked off Boston College, and Pitt blew past South Florida 31-17. As for that Hofstra 44, Maine 0 score, no comment.

— Le Kevin Smith had a nice game for someone who should not have been playing. If the coaches “didn’t condone” whatever he did to that parking cadet, they should have dished out some discipline for everyone to see, not that internal baloney.

— The announced crowd of 40,853 was Baylor’s largest home crowd for a game not involving Texas or Texas A&M since 1996.

— Waco’s really not that bad if you stay in your hotel room and watch TV. I kid because I love. My sister is a Baylor alum, so I need to be nice. The campus is actually pretty eye-catching. And if you ever visit, the barbecue at Rudy’s is incredible.

— Wasn’t much chance of NU being homered by the officials. Former Husker Clete Blakeman was the linesman for Saturday’s game.

— Former Baylor star Mike Singletary, now an assistant with the 49ers, was honored during the game. From the “Did You Know?” file, Singletary’s hard-hitting ways made life tough on the Baylor equipment staff. He cracked or shattered 16 helmets during his collegiate career.

— Man, there sure are a lot of Dr Pepper signs in this town. You’d think they invented the stuff here.

Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabry@journalstar.com.