Following Baylor's fifth loss to TCU in six years, head coach Dave Aranda stepped up to the podium on Monday and started his weekly press conference, saying, “I’m excited for this week. I’m really disappointed with Saturday and frustrated. We’re trying to use that for a big week this week, and as a positive. So far, so good in terms of meetings. At practice, the energy was really strong. The leadership was really strong this morning. I’m proud of how we’re starting to respond. We’ll see — we have to put some days together.”
Aranda said that the team is now in “fourth-and-one” mode, knowing that every remaining game is a “must-win,” starting with this weekend against No. 21 Cincinnati.
“Everyone wants to win,” Aranda said. “Everyone’s really hungry for a win. When you win a little, you want to win a lot. That’s where everybody’s at. There’s talent on this team. There’s a really strong care-factor on this team. We’ve got to put it together, and we’re going to need to do that to get a win on Saturday.”
After the loss to the Horned Frogs, Aranda has noticed more vocal leadership from players like quarterback Sawyer Robertson, linebacker Keaton Thomas and safety Devyn Bobby, in an attempt to inspire the rest of the team.
“A little more volatile, which I think is good; emotion goes there,” Aranda said of their leadership. “Some people only really listen when it’s that way. If it’s not in that type of tone, they’re not hearing it. It’s gotten louder, but I think that’s positive. Guys are stretching their leadership maybe where they’re uncomfortable, but know they’ve got to go.”
Despite giving up 42 points to TCU, Aranda said the defense took positive steps forward, particularly in the first quarter, where the Bears held the Horned Frogs scoreless.
“There’s positive stuff. You look at the first 20, 25, 28 plays of this game that we just played, and it was about as good as we’ve played,” Aranda said. Then we get a negative play, and ‘Here we go again’ type-thing, and it took us too long to snap out of it.”
He added, “You look at the first and fourth quarters, the issues were the second and the third. We’ve got to keep fighting the good fight there, and we keep showing the positive things, where, ‘Hey. This was not good enough. We addressed it. We fixed it. This is it now. Now, let’s point our attention somewhere else and do the same thing.’ I think the guys can see it — I know they can. We’ve got to keep working to get there.”
While maybe there were a few glimpses here or there against TCU, overall, Baylor’s defense is toward the bottom of the Big 12 in every relevant category and is the second-worst defense in the Power Four, even though one of the reasons Aranda was retained following the 2023 season was that he was going to take over play-calling.
“It’s frustrating; I wish it were way better. It really needs to be,” Aranda said of the defense’s continued struggles. “I hate that the offense almost has to play perfectly. You’ve got to keep at it. There's so much stuff that you can put in the box, the box would be labeled outside, and you just have to put it on the outside and focus on what you can control and what's right in front of you to try to get better. But it takes a disciplined approach to do that, and sometimes that's hard.”
Offensively, Baylor was expected to be able to run the ball at will against the suspect TCU rushing defense, just as they did last year. Instead, the Horned Frogs completely shut down the Bears’ ground game, with star running back Bryson Washington totaling just 23 yards on 11 carries.
“Mental errors,” Aranda said of why Baylor didn’t run the ball effectively. “When you watch the film, effort-wise and pushing piles and moving bodies and all of that, you could see that on film. But in a critical moment, we’ve got to go right, and we go left or this protection changed to this. It’s unacceptable. It hurt us in critical moments.”
This season, there’s also been a lack of big runs for 10-plus yards, something Aranda says the offense dearly misses, forcing the team to rely on Robertson’s arm to get down the field almost every drive.
“Last year, [we] did that,” he said. “There’s always a level of, just naturally, I imagine as fans, they have a level of angst with, ‘How is this going to go? How is this going to be?’ Then, you have these runs that kind of settle everybody down, and it’s ‘Okay, here we go.’ We’re missing those right now. We’ve been able to get a few four or five-yard runs, which are always good to have, and to move the chains, but we need those explosive runs.”
The pressure of not having a steady rushing attack finally caught up to Robertson, as he was off the mark on most of his throws throughout the afternoon and finished 25-of-52 through the air with three interceptions.
Aranda believes Robertson is most comfortable when the ground game is going, saying, “We are at our best when we can run the ball. If we’re as good as the throw game is and with the skill that we have and our ability to be able to hold up against twists, stunts or pressure, we are at our best when it’s run first. The run sets the table. We’ve got to be able to get that going.”
While Baylor might have the best combo of quarterback-running back-pass catchers in the league, we’ve rarely seen all of them firing on all cylinders this fall.
In some games, it’s fumbles lost by Washington. In other games, it’s interceptions thrown by Robertson. Sometimes, it’s fumbles from Josh Cameron or drops from Michael Trigg or Ashtyn Hawkins. But with an extremely flawed defense, the offense must put it all together for Baylor to have any shot at winning a handful more games.
“It’s important that our best players play their best,” Aranda said. “We’re a unique team that we’ve got a core group of guys that give their all and are all-in and are good players, and we’ve got a level of guys, when they’re on, can take over a game. When they’re on, they can be finalists for all the things. We’ve got to get those guys to play their best when it matters most.”
This weekend, the Bears (4-3, 2-2) will travel to Nippert Stadium to take on the No. 21 Cincinnati Bearcats (6-1, 4-0), who are having a fantastic season and remain unbeaten so far in Big 12 play. Aranda spoke highly of Scott Satterfield’s squad, noting, “They’re on a different level from a lot of teams we’ve played so far.”
“When you look at the film, this is clearly the best team and the most complete team,” Aranda said. “They don’t make mistakes. They don’t beat themselves. Really good offensive line, quarterback and running back play. They have receivers that can make you miss. Defensively, they swarm to the football. They’re physical. I’m impressed; it’s going to take our best effort. We have to stack some wins this week to get it done.”
