Transcript: Dave Aranda Previews the Big 12 Championship Game
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Dave Aranda answered questions Monday morning about Baylor's upcoming rematch with Oklahoma State for the conference title.
It's good to see you guys. Reviewing the tape, I think defensively is a good example, you went from one week playing our best game to a week later playing our worst. Offensively you look at it and you see opportunities, possibilities, and whether it's lack of effort, lack of execution, things that we could control. Unfortunate. A lot to learn from, a lot to grow from for sure. Ttoday is going to be really diving into all that and trying to get lessons that hit home so we don't have to revisit those lessons. Looking forward to this next week. The opportunity to play in this, I think credit goes to a bunch of folks. I think of our seniors, I think of the overall team buy in, I think of the staff, and their cohesion and their belief. I go back to those December, January meetings where things were maybe unclear to see kind of how this was all gonna play out. And so the belief and the connection that was forged then, I think is way special. Great opponent, so much respect for Coach Gundy, and that team. Very talented. They play with an edge. They play as a team. You could see the connection with them. You could see the culture there. On both sides of it, I think athletically and team wise, they're elite. What a great challenge for us.
It's been a long time since you've played OSU. What areas do you feel like you guys will have to get better than the first time you played.
The first thing that pops out was that was our first really rode environment. Pressure creates abnormal behavior. I think we were in spots where the jersey number said it was so and so but we weren't acting like that person. Coaching wise, same thing. And so there's a lot of unforced errors in that game. Things that, unfortunately, we could control that we didn't do a very good job with. Credit to Oklahoma State, we played Baylor and we played them that night. There's that. The ability to play through adversity and to control the stuff you can control, I think we've grown in that space. I don't think we're there yet by any means, but we're better than what we were. The ability to run the ball and effectively crack eighth, ninth guys in the box, our growth in that was kind of demonstrated in the OU game a couple of weeks ago. To be able to take some of lessons and apply them here moving forward, I think is is going to be needed. Our ability to make contested one-on-one catches. We talked about, if you remember back then, if people are putting everybody in the box, and they're really threaten you or forcing you to throw the ball and you have to make those throws. I think in that there's a couple that we did once we started to run the ball effectively, we are able to get some throws there in the second half. We're going to have to start the game with that. I anticipate especially coming off of our last game their defense just closing in on our people on that side of the ball. And so I think a fair amount of lessons there. I Defensively, being on the same page, communicating, not silent when off when stuff gets competitive or pressured, and playing team defense, doing your 1/11th. Those are things that we can control that we're going to have to. They're a very good running team.
Another college job opened up yesterday. Just first of all, what was your reaction to Coach Riley going to USC? And there's already been speculation that Oklahoma will come after Dave Aranda. How do you handle that? When when these kinds of things come up? And is it hard to keep the focus the focus, when you got people like me asking you about it?
The first thing I thought of, I came out of a meeting with the offense, we were just watching Saturday's game, and we came back and saw that, and I immediately think of the coaches. How many of them knew? I'm sure there's guys that didn't know, that just found out in a meeting that was called hastedly. My heart goes out to them and their families. The world can flip on you quick. Then I think about the players. I think about everything that goes into buying into stuff and believing in stuff. And when you're a young person, generally, your identity is tied to your belief. And so it takes it awhile, usually, to get a real strong belief in, but you tie your feelings and self worth and everything to it. And when that is gone, that hurts. Where those kids are at and everything, I feel for that. I think there's probably gonna be more like that. For me, I've spoken to the team I think twice on these things. And I feel they know me well enough. They know that the quirkiness, and everything that I've got, I think is a great fit for here. And so I'm hopeful, that we're past some of that.
They announced the Broyles award finalists today, Jeff Grimes offense, Jim Knowles defense. Can you talk about what Jim Knowles defense, how much he respect it, and then what Coach Grimes has done here?
With Coach Knowles, there's an intelligence about him, there is a real strong football coach about him, just this passion. Back when I was at LSU, we would talk. I would call him and go, 'Hey, man, what you doing? And he goes, I'm just watching this tape. 'Hey, you want to visit like tomorrow?' And you go, yeah. So it'd be stuff like that. He just wants to talk ball and get into it and go through all this stuff. Those times were fun. You can see, when you watch their film, there is an intelligence about them, there is an edge about them. They play with a confidence and they play with a respect, all fear none. And it screams off the tape and so it's awfully impressive. I think their linebacker is a great representaion of all of it. The way he plays and calling out plays and the toughness and just everything about him, is a kind of a caricature of him and his philosophy and that defense. They've been a four-man rush and they've been man coverage and that gave us issues however many games ago that was, but the last two years particularly, but they added three man rush, drop eight and then making that look the same, has really given them the benefit of the doubt of taking away just man beaters and everything else that I think they were being hurt on early in his tenure at Oklahoma State. His ability to learn and grow in that space under the type of pressure and everything that he's under, speaks a lot of him and that program and all of it. Really impressed that. I'm a fan of coaches, I'm a fan of his. When you look Grimey, Grimey is someone that exudes confidence. He has an easiness and a manner in which you can trust him, you can believe in him. Our players at times this year, especially on offense in the beginning of the year, I think needed that type of bedside manner. Grimes specific, personally, is someone that has really strong confidence with the ability to really have strong empathy for other people. And those two things are uncommon in the same person. I'm a fan of his he's been a great asset to us.
I'm guessing you like the challenge of a rematch with a team you played just a couple of months ago? What's involved in that chess match and playing a team twice?
Every Sunday you got a brand new team. So you play on Saturday and so taking lessons learned, taking confidence gain, maybe doubt is crept in, maybe belief is strengthened, maybe questions are answered. And so I think to get to where you're going, you have to start where you are. And that is probably harder to do. Might be easy to say. So to start with what's real and the things that since that game that we have grown in, since that game the things that we've regressed in, and then how much of that has been due to that game. I think we've seen that game plan a couple times over since that game. So there's been growth through adversity, there's been contested catches made, there's been the ability to run block on the perimeter with skill positions, there's been the ability on defense to get a four man rush effectively. So there's been growth, but then there's also been, 'Hey, these people are in the game, they do this. This package is in the game, they do that.' So there's also traces being left. All of those things come to mind when you talk a second time through. I look at their side of it and , down the stretch they've been a confident team and they've really got things rolling. You watch the tape, and it pops off just the energy and edge that they've got. And so for us, it's going to be narrowing the focus, upping in the quality of what we're doing, disregarding the stuff that ain't really our stuff, focusing on getting the stuff that's our stuff, getting it better, and having really high standards for it, and then increasing the speed, and then letting it go.
Last time Baylor was in the Big 12 Championship, Gerry threw a touchdown to Tyquan, Trestan had a big touchdown. How much do those plays, those experiences help coming back into a situation like this?
I'm sure it does. You talked about those guys in particular, they're a confident bunch. There's a great connection to their teammates and I think there's a great belief in what we're doing and what we represent. I'm anticipating that we're going to have a great day of practice today. Then we will stack days as we go. As a coaching staff we're going to demand it just coming off of last week's roller coaster. The surroundinh prelude to all of this can be good if we approach it the right way. They approach like those guys did a year ago.
Last year, things did not go well for you against Oklahoma State's. Substantially better in Oklahoma, and I know John asked about what's changed between October 2 and now, going back further when you made those swift offensive changes after the OSU game a year ago, what's changed for you guys to the point to get to the Big 12 Championship game now and when you walked off the field and McClan stadium that day last year, did you think you would be in this game this time out?
Walking off that game. I was just like, 'Man, I wonder how all of our guys that are sick. I wonder how they're doing, man.' Yeah, I'm remeber being on that sideline, during that game, I think juice was doing an admirable job of calling plays. I think for maybe four or five plays we have gone backward, consecutively every play. So I remember him trying to call play and just trying to spit it to get it out, and I go, man, it's harder than it looks, man.' From that phase of it, to get guys healthy and then you're talking about making changes, and then you talk about Christmas, and you're talking about families, and you talking about people moving, and extended family planning on moving over, and just all it man, it's just like he floodgates kind of open when you bring it up. I think kind of the rebirth of all of it is really trying to see what's real, treat it being real, and treat it in a way that you have respect for people, and then try to grow. We've been able to do that really since since that time. Since the time of our last game versus Oklahoma State we've grown quite a bit and we're going to need to continue to. Just mettle that they showed on Saturday's game is impressive. It's quality team, a connected team. When you have talent plus that connection, it's dangerous. Now we got that too. We're going to have to be on it.
What's the status of Gerry Bohannan and getting him back this week?
He's practicing today. So today is a non-padded day, but he's going to go through the practice. So we'll see, take it day by day and kind of see where he's at. I know he's awfully eager.
Connor Galvin has been a starter for a long time, he plays a very key position. What kind of leader has he been in? Have you seen him improve?
He's grown a lot. Connor is someone where I think leadership was something that maybe wasn't introduced to, or maybe didn't see the necessity for it. He's always had leadership qualities and always kind of relegated himself to leadership among the offensive line and I think so much of it was, and I credit Eric Mateos a lot for this and Grimey as well, to broaden those horizons and it can be so much more than that. Big men are leading this team and you are the face of that man. Being in the standard. Tthat's the hardest thing about all of it is that everything you do, you are the standard. His ability to embrace that, however many coaches now that he's had, how many different ways that we're doing the same block, right? However many different ways we're calling the same play. For him to kind of not get locked into that, but see people and see their heart and what they're trying to get done and bring people with him once he sees it and he's with us, we owe him a lot.
In the last Oklahoma State game, Terrel was out and OSU could run the ball more freely than most games this season, with him back this week, how does that change things? Not just defensively, but for the team in general?
Good question. I appreciate it. Terrel is one of those guys that when in the huddle, and he's in it, there's just an added confidence that comes with it because of his maturity and his resilience and his preparation, you just feel like he's a coach on the field. There's a fair amount of runs in there, to your point, where I think he makes us better if he's in there. They're a different team than it was that particular night and so are we. You go into a game like this, you want Terrel on your side. I'm excited for him, You look at someone that has poured his heart out for this place. He has been a stalwart on way different ways of getting stuff done. He's been just a role model on how to accept change and how to play through change, and all of it and so I want him to be successful. I'm excited he's playing in this game.
Gerry is still coming along, but if he is a 100% and can go, how do you make that decision process because Blake played really well. 254 passing yards, two touchdowns and obviously he's a freshman versus Gerry has all the experience.
We'll see kind of how this week goes with Gerry and his ability to be safe and move around and use his legs. Not necessarily to use his legs for productive reasons, but use his legs to stay clean and not take unneeded hits. Then I'd look at Blake and just his performance. There was tight coverage, a lot of times, there was a substantial rush a lot of times, but there was just a calm ,coolness, back in the pocket where he threw the ball. If it needed to be to the outside, he threw it to the outside. If it needed to be high through it high. If it needed to be away from a defender, he threw it away from a defender, and just put the ball where it needed to be. There's a couple of big boy throws in there specially in that second half. Impressed with him. I think towards the end of the game he got comfortable running it. There's still a fair amount of improvement on that side of it, but I'm happy for him and his contribution. If it comes to it where it's Blake, more than enough confidence in him.