I do not care about flowers.

Dave is a disaster and should have been gone two years ago.

Most people on this board understand that Dave is a short term issue. Iowa State has long term issues.

Baylor can fix their issue anytime they want.

Iowa State can't fix their issue if their AD is accurate about their funding and donors willingness to donate.

And yes that was a dig at ISU.

Who are the big donors at BU? My understanding at least based on this board is that BU doesn't have many donors these days. The situation you describe at ISU is probably happening to a lot of programs across the country. Doubt they're the only B12 team sweating these days.

We have them. They are just not donating right now. Again a fixable issue. I am assuming that is ADDM's main focus.

According to the AD at ISU, for ISU they do not exist.

One is a fixable issue, one is a not fixable.

Well I certainly look forward to playing UNI. Guess will see if you're right or not in the next decade

Looks like we are swinging for the fences and shooting our shot on this one…

Former Ohio standout Wide Receiver Chase Hendricks has heard from these 16 Schools since entering the Transfer Portal, he tells me.

Hendricks totaled 71 Receptions for 1,037 Yards & 7 TDs for the Bobcats in 2025 & is ranked as the #9 WR in the Portal (#37 OVR.) per 247Sports.… pic.twitter.com/jBsqfW78QH

— JGPCFB (@jgpvisuals) January 2, 2026

#Baylor offers North Texas OL Brayden Nelson.

The 6-4, 321-pound prospect was a Second-Team All-Conference selection. https://t.co/MzDstXBwvn

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) January 2, 2026

I do like that the staff is chasing some dawgs. Cast a wide net and see what happens. Hendricks is a stud. Watched him several times this year when they had MAC games on Tuesdays

Inside the Portal House 🏠#TulsaPortalHouse pic.twitter.com/jzZVhXmTSm

— Tulsa Football (@TulsaFootball) January 2, 2026

If some of our guys are able to go and get SEC paychecks I don't blame them for leaving

Two Baylor transfers expected to visit Florida. https://t.co/7yRfRD94Rt

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) January 2, 2026

Also, provides supporting evidence that we do not have a talent issue.

Baylor offers Holmes CC JUCO defensive lineman Kaden Briggs. https://t.co/yXVPgcz5Ct

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) January 2, 2026

Bearknuckle said:

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I get that once y'all decided Aranda has to go, it makes sense to just go all-in on negativity/pessimissm - it feels better and is easier than having to sort through the muck of it all. But this "we had no strategy in the portal" stuff is just bunk.

We actually had a strategy in the portal last year and were mostly successful executing it: we secured Samu as the long-term solution at NT (he wasn't supposed to be a breakout addition in '25, fyi), Devin Turner as a stud STAR, Tra Barnes as Keaton's partner at LB, and brought in 3 pass rush specialists in E. Winston, Matthew Fobbs-White, and Phoenix Jackson.

Then we lost 3 of those guys for the season (Turner, Barnes & Jackson; also lost returning starter Carl Wiliams), as well as our two backup DTs in Bett and Foster. So we had to play a lot of guys who were barely supposed to play at all. That's last season's defensive woes in a nutshell: we had a roster strategy that got blown apart by injuries.

And that's without us discussing how successful our Offensive portalling has been (Sawyer, Trigg, Hawkins, Prentice, Wilson, etc) over the last few seasons. We literally built one of the best WR rooms in the nation through the portal. I guess you can give everyone but Dave credit for that, this is still America after all.

When I dare to provide any context for anything that's gone wrong, some folks around here act like Linda and the BoR lurk this site going "Well, gawrsh, Bearknuckle said Dave's not royally ****ing up every single aspect of the program, so I guess we can keep him around forever." Ok. I guess everyone needs a hobby.

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Well said

Taz seems to be the biggest player recruiter I've seen from a player...he seems so bought in to the BU program

🚨 🚨 All portal players that’s getting recruited by @BUFootball tap in wit me if you need anything, my DMs open 🤞🏾🖤
SicEm 🐻

— 𝑇𝑎𝑧 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑚$ 𝐽𝑟 (@Taz_1x) January 3, 2026

Walker...we hardly knew ye

Baylor backup quarterback Walker White is set to enter the transfer portal after just one season in Waco. https://t.co/OPrlX1MSjq

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) January 3, 2026

I hope he finds a place to have success.

MRPorter7635 said:

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Also, provides supporting evidence that we do not have a talent issue.

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I don't know. Florida hasn't been very good for a while. Not really sure that's much of an upgrade TBH.

Hard to believe he's leaving after all the claims by certain posters in here continually proclaiming the reason he didn't see any PT was because "we were trying to hide his skills so no one would lure him away."

Dude wasn't playing because he couldn't even beat Bennett out.

Total number of Division I scholarship football players to enter the transfer portal so far today:

3,753https://t.co/ju4goVhR9a pic.twitter.com/paX77knz49

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 3, 2026

boognish_bear said:

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Walker...we hardly knew ye

Baylor backup quarterback Walker White is set to enter the transfer portal after just one season in Waco. https://t.co/OPrlX1MSjq

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) January 3, 2026

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Haha this is so freaking stupid

After careful evaluation and consideration, we have decided to retain Coach Dave Aranda as the leader of our football program. We recognize this decision will generate strong opinions. Let me be clear: Baylor expects excellence, accountability and competitiveness at the highest level. We are not complacent, and we are not settling for mediocrity.

This decision reflects several critical factors:

Stability during transition:
Our next Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics must have the opportunity to assess the football program and chart its long-term direction;

Student-athlete experience: Retaining our current roster and protecting a nationally ranked recruiting class are essential to our future success; and

Financial stewardship: In an era of extreme volatility in college athletics with NIL, the transfer portal, revenue-sharing, and much more, this approach allows us to invest wisely in the program's future rather than incur significant buyout costs during an unprecedented turnover of coaches across the country.

Maybe we should just shut down football for a year. Kind of what we're doing.

I hope this means we're getting Lagway

Not sure there is any way to protect a roster anymore except perhaps to overpay everyone.

I wonder if it is not best to just sign players with college game tape and stop paying market value for HS players. If you pay a 4 star edge rusher and he sits for a year then transfers what's the point? Recruit HS players, give them an official visit, but don't get in a bidding war.

For a school like BU perhaps the model is to identify about 50 college players (or whatever you can afford) with good college game tape, sign them and play. rinse and repeat next year.

Paradigm shift.

Big12Fan2024 said:

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Hard to believe he's leaving after all the claims by certain posters in here continually proclaiming the reason he didn't see any PT was because "we were trying to hide his skills so no one would lure him away."

Dude wasn't playing because he couldn't even beat Bennett out.

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Well, that's the party line anyway. While I don't dispute that as fact, I learned long ago that things are seldom what they appear to be, and that is especially true of coaches' prejudice and myopia (at times). in short, I just don't believe much of what I read coming from BU these days. What I hear tends to be more accurate due to sources.

BigGameBaylorBear said:

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I hope this means we're getting Lagway

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sure seems that way. DJ's ceiling is crazy high, I hope we can put all the right pieces around him.

Bearknuckle said:

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BigGameBaylorBear said:

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I hope this means we're getting Lagway

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sure seems that way. DJ's ceiling is crazy high, I hope we can put all the right pieces around him.

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I do not see us having the pieces to enable his success.

Lagway's value is more of a brand to stimulate recruiting vs. talent at this point. If he does commit, he'll be here for a year and then off.

Oh well, UMHB needs another program in their conference. They only have three opponents that play each other twice. We'll meet y'all in DIII.

Bearknuckle said:

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BigGameBaylorBear said:

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I hope this means we're getting Lagway

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sure seems that way. DJ's ceiling is crazy high, I hope we can put all the right pieces around him.

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I feel like he's our best shot at having a decent season.

A big name like him could result in some other good transfers too

This is all so dumb... can you imagine in the NFL if every player was eligible to switch teams every off-season?

There is over 4500 Division 1 football players that have entered the NCAA Transfer Portal as of today. This represents roughly one-third of all Division 1 players. I’m not sure all of these players will find a home. Never envisioned this occurring in college athletics

— Randy Hedberg (@CoachRHedberg) January 3, 2026

Jacques Strap said:

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Not sure there is any way to protect a roster anymore except perhaps to overpay everyone.

I wonder if it is not best to just sign players with college game tape and stop paying market value for HS players. If you pay a 4 star edge rusher and he sits for a year then transfers what's the point? Recruit HS players, give them an official visit, but don't get in a bidding war.

For a school like BU perhaps the model is to identify about 50 college players (or whatever you can afford) with good college game tape, sign them and play. rinse and repeat next year.

Paradigm shift.

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Worked for Ole Miss...HS recruiting is becoming a waste of time I think

I’m not getting enough credit for Ole Miss success pic.twitter.com/h4mox2gOLl

— Transfer Portal (@NCAAPortal) January 3, 2026

Serious question. Short of hauling in a bunch of players from D2 schools, are we going to be able to field a full team this year?

It's a great question. Baylor probably needs to sign about 20-30 or so players. We can't put together a two deep at OL or DL at the moment.

DTBear said:

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It's a great question. Baylor probably needs to sign about 20-30 or so players. We can't put together a two deep at OL or DL at the moment.

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We aren't the only ones. This free agency is ridiculous. The NFL players may wish they could go back to college......probably good since many (most?) of them never graduated.

Problem is we have a lame duck HC, aka Limp/Way Cool Dave, who is only here because we didn't have an AD to fire him

Supposedly

Danielsjackson114 said:

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Problem is we have a lame duck HC, aka Limp/Way Cool Dave, who is only here because we didn't have an AD to fire him

Supposedly

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We still don't. The body in that position is a figurehead for Reverse Cowgirl.