'We’ve Got to Get It Fixed': Aranda’s Words Sound Familiar ahead of UCF Matchup

Baylor’s loss to No. 21 Cincinnati on Saturday felt like a microcosm of the season as the Bears lost the turnover battle (2-0), were gashed on the ground to a tune of 376 yards, consistently missed assignments on both sides of the ball and definitively looked like the softer team.

Head coach Dave Aranda addressed those recurring issues in his weekly press conference on Monday, saying, “We have to correct our ills. It’s been two weeks of losing to the same thing that’s kind of been the thing all season long. We’ve got to get it fixed, whether it’s the turnovers, stopping the run or self-inflicted wounds. Our focus has been on that, and we hit that today. We’re going to continue to hit it to try and build some wins throughout this week, so that we can get a win on Saturday.”

In the loss to the Bearcats, Baylor got out to its usual slow start, trailing by as many as 24 points, and was outscored in the first quarter, 14-0. The Bears have been outscored in the first quarter this season by Power Four opponents, 48-23, but Aranda and his staff have yet to figure out why these issues persist.

“That’s a really good question,” Aranda said when asked why Baylor’s been so bad in first quarters. “We talk about that all the time. We’ve changed practice three times to try to address that. This is going to be the fourth time, coming up tomorrow. It’s not for lack of trying. We’ve got too many guys that dip their toes in to see what the temperature is.”

When athletic director Mack Rhoades chose to retain Aranda after the Bears went 3-9 during the 2023 season, one of the reasons for keeping him was that Aranda would regain play-calling duties on the defensive side of the ball. After once being viewed as a “defensive guru,” it was expected that Aranda would easily fix the issues. Instead, it’s been back-to-back years of horrible defensive play with little signs of improvement.

“We’ve moved through three-something structures to try to be able to where we can play fast and adjust to all the things we have to adjust to,” Aranda said of why his team has struggled so much defensively. “Every year has been different. A run play for us has been seven yards. You watch other people; it’s been four yards. To get it to where it needs to be, four yards has been a task we haven’t completed yet.”

The Bears also saw a staff shakeup on Monday morning as it was announced that second-year offensive line Mason Miller was no longer with the program after Miller didn’t take the trip to Cincinnati over the weekend.

“It’s a personal matter with Mason,” Aranda said. “My heart, my thoughts and my best wishes for his future go out to him and his family. It’s a personal thing, and we’ve got a group of O-line guys who are analysts that took over the role on Saturday and are aiming to do it again this week and the remaining way through.”

When asked whether the team has resorted to finger-pointing amid the back-to-back losses, Aranda asserted that the veteran leadership on the roster wouldn’t allow the locker room to reach a point of complete disarray.

“The core group of guys that we’ve got aren’t going to allow that; that’s just not the culture that we’ve got,” Aranda said. “Whether it’s Omar, or it’s Sawyer, or it’s Josh, or it’s KT, or it’s Jackie, or any of those guys, they've been through the muck and the yuck a little bit, and they know you can easily get out of it, but it’s going to take everybody. It’s a close-knit locker room and there’s no room for that.”

With Homecoming slated for this weekend, the sixth-year head coach was also questioned on why frustrated fans should make the trip to Waco to watch the struggling team. He responded, “We’ve got a bunch of really, really good people in the program that are doing everything they can to get wins and to make it an entertaining product for the fans. It means so much when there are fans there and there’s a home-field environment.”

Aranda went on to praise the “care-factor” of the team, saying, “I look at the guys that are on our team right now, who have been through so much and are such quality football — really good football players — more than that, but just quality people. They’re the type of people that maybe some of the people who are talking about them knew them better, would be all for them, and support them no matter what. I think for them, to have it where their work is being rewarded with people that got their back in a critical game would be cool, but I understand what you’re saying. I can definitely see that.”

This Saturday, the Bears are set to face UCF, a rebuilding team under first-year head coach Scott Frost. The struggling Knights, however, are coming off a bye week and have one of the best ground games in the conference, with an average of 208 rushing yards per game.

“They’re explosive on offense,” Aranda said of UCF. “Very, very multiple. They have really good skill [talent]. Special teams are very explosive, too. Their returners are really dangerous. In the past, the coach had been really kind of multiple with a lot of line movement, disruptive stuff. They've got a very big and really good front; he lets them go a little bit more.” 

He added, “It'll be interesting, just with the news that came out today, how much movement and everything we get, I'm sure that's probably going to spike up a little bit because of that. I think he's got an itch to do that. But they've got really good skill on offense, really good front people on defense. It's a good team.”

The Bears (4-4, 2-3) will face UCF (4-3, 1-3) at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1, at McLane Stadium. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU.