Reading the Tea Leaves: What Baylor’s Spring Camp Revealed About Aranda’s 2026 Squad

Two of our resident experts — Colt Barber and Grayson Grundhoefer — answer some of the top questions surrounding head coach Dave Aranda and the Baylor program as spring football wraps up.

There didn’t seem to be anything special or different about this year’s spring football, but what are some of your main takeaways, whether that be because of what you’ve heard from sources or just by reading the tea leaves?

Colt: This goes back to my conversation from before the spring with defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, and it’s something that I truly believe has stayed consistent throughout the spring: this is his defense, and Dave Aranda is letting him do his job. 

By all accounts, Aranda is a head coach who will let coordinators do their thing, for better or for worse. That’s been a consistent theme for him in his tenure in Waco. And we’ve definitely seen the better and the worse on both ends of the spectrum, and on both sides of the ball. 

So, the question now is how quickly Klanderman can put his fingerprints on this defense. Can he bring all of it together? Personally, I think he’s going to bring the defense back to respectability pretty quickly. He has fine personnel and is familiar with personnel and schemes throughout the league. 

Offensively, I think Jake Spavital will have a solid product as he always does. If my takeaway is right and Aranda is just letting Klanderman do his thing, maybe we are in for a non-frustrating defensive season. 

Grayson: The re-focus on the trenches was very important and something that Baylor needed to correct this offseason through the transfer portal and new coaching hires. This emphasis seems to have worked in some ways, but may still need to be corrected going forward. It is clear that the defensive line is far better than last year’s; that isn’t a difficult feat, but it's still a big deal for the defense. The pieces are there for this unit to be inside the top five in the Big 12 this season, coming off a strong spring camp. The offensive line has some hits like Logan Moore (UAB) and Nate Kibble (Texas), but as a group, there is still work to do to be good in the run game. There have to be improvements this summer and fall, but at least there are more options to address the areas where they struggled this spring. The staff is very focused on these two groups, and effort has been put into improving both sides, but there is still work to do.

DJ Lagway had an up-and-down camp. The arm talent is obvious, but the consistent accuracy and touch are still hit-or-miss. He makes a bunch of ‘Wow!’ plays, but he has to hit on the layups for this team to be as good as they need to be on offense. Lagway opens up many new pathways for the offense in the screen game, down the field and across the middle of the field due to his arm strength. He also ran some and showed off a bit of his athleticism, which should help this offense find success. Overall, it was a good camp for Lagway because he came away healthy and got a ton of much-needed reps, which he never got during his time at Florida. The obvious connection between him and Louis Brown IV was key this spring as well. I am expecting him to lead this team at the wide receiver position along with Dre’lon Miller and Gavin Freeman.