After surviving the hot seat following a disappointing 5-7 season, head coach Dave Aranda begins his seventh year leading the Baylor football program, and this spring signals a period of transition for the Bears, featuring a new defensive coordinator, more than 40 newcomers on the roster and a team working to establish a fresh identity.
“We want to be tough,” Aranda said when asked about what he wants this year’s team to be known for. “We want to be smart. We want to be dependable. The tough part starts with your mental toughness, and we really made it hard in the offseason.”
In Baylor’s first spring practice, Aranda was impressed and somewhat surprised by how clean it went, considering all the new faces. He noted that there was energy and excitement with so much newness, and that the Bears spent the last few months really trying to get everyone integrated into the program and on the same page.
“We haven’t spent as much time on football as we have in the past, probably less,” Aranda said. “We would have spent twice as much time on football [in the past] than we have this time. We’ve spent more time on people, and it could be that — it could be those connections.”
Out of the 40-plus new faces on the roster, Florida transfer quarterback DJ Lagway is undoubtedly the most notable. Lagway, the No. 1 quarterback in the nation for the 2024 recruiting class, chose the Bears out of the transfer portal this offseason after two up-and-down years with the Gators. Early reports indicate that Lagway is blending in well with the Green and Gold.
“He leads a lot from the football field; I think we’ve mentioned that before with Sawyer that there’s a lot of leadership from Sawyer that would be off the field, and he would bring it on to the field, and DJ is almost the opposite of that,” Aranda said of his new starting signal-caller.
Aranda continued, “Both are really good leaders in their own right. There have been multiple times, DJ — with this being practice one — is pulling guys aside. He’s talking to guys. He’s constantly kind of on the move and communicating. It’s just really cool to see. His level of comfort in his own skin to do that in the first practice is impressive. It’s a good start that way.”
Another new feature this spring is that Aranda is able to return to being the de facto CEO of the program after he hired long-time Kansas State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman for the same position, something that’s a welcome change for the seventh-year head coach after spending the last two years controlling every aspect of the defense.
“I liked bouncing in between the individual periods, and I liked having a bird’s-eye view for the team periods and coaching up whatever kind of caught my eye there,” Aranda said. “I like sitting in the position coaches’ meetings. I haven’t been able to do that for the last couple of years. You really get to kind of help your coaches grow, be around and really see guys as they try to put it together. It gives you a better perspective on who’s who.”
Another aspect of no longer having to call the defense is that Aranda was able to step back and see which position groups needed the most help this offseason and spend the money it took to improve the defense.
“One of the biggest things that I found freeing was not being the head coach and the DC really allowed us to spend more money on defense,” Aranda said. “This is the most money we’ve spent on defense since I’ve been here.”
He added, “One of the things that held me back from being on defense and also the head coach was that I didn’t want to overload that side of the ball. Then you come back and look at it, and we didn’t do enough. We should have done a whole lot more on the line of scrimmage, and we made sure that we did this time, as well as our linebackers and secondary.”
Defensively, the Bears will be getting back an underdiscussed weapon who was poised to be a huge difference-maker last season: Northwestern transfer safety Devin Turner. After totaling 162 tackles across three seasons with the Wildcats, Turner transferred to Baylor but suffered a season-ending knee injury on the final play of spring practice. The Little Elm native is a full-go this go-around and is ready to make an impact.
“He’s been a great leader for us so far; he’s blessed with that gene, and then he works really hard at it too,” Aranda said of Turner. “When he got hurt last year, that was impactful, and we lost his ability to communicate. His recall of what is installed on the day of, and then taking it to the field, is very special. He’s got such command of it, and then he’ll hold you accountable for it. All of it makes just a really, really positive leader.”
Lastly, Aranda provided some house-cleaning notes and gave updates on the status of two impact transfers — defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler (Indiana) and offensive lineman Yakiri Walker (Memphis) — who are awaiting word from the NCAA on whether they’ll receive an extra year.
“I wish we knew more,” Aranda said. “We’re continuing. We check probably two times a day, so I think the last time it was sometime this week. When we checked again on Monday, it said ‘it’s day-to-day,’ so not much of a change.”
