A New Era with Joe Klanderman? Baylor’s Defense Takes Priority This Spring
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 heading into spring football.
With all of the new faces on the roster, as well as head coach Dave Aranda being firmly entrenched on the hot seat going into another season, what is the top thing you’re hoping to see or learn about the Bears during spring football?
Colt: For the last two seasons, the ceiling of this team was directly connected to the defense. Jake Spavital’s offense and a nationally recognized special teams group did everything they could to pull the team out of mediocrity. In 2024, it pushed them about it as far as it could. In 2025, a year that didn’t meet offensive expectations, it couldn’t carry the team to a bowl game.
That means, for me at least, all eyes are on Joe Klanderman’s defense in Year 1. If he has anywhere as close to the impact that Spavital did in 2024, and Spavital can even put what he did on the field in 2025, that’s a great recipe for success. A top 30 offense, a top 50 defense and a special teams inside the top 25 is a recipe for a massive rebound year.
But I’m not fooling myself either to think that we will learn much about this team in the spring. For several years now, we haven’t been able to watch anything of substance in media windows, and the spring scrimmages are a lot like what the NFL’s Pro Bowl used to be before it switched to skills events.
If you trust Klanderman’s evaluations, which he had a lot of control over, then that’s probably your best indicator of what is to come. KSU did a great job of that while he was on staff. Let’s see if he can bring some magic sauce to Waco.
Grayson: The biggest thing I want to see and hear about is the identity of the defense under new defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman. Baylor has frankly been lost and weak on the defensive side of the ball for multiple seasons now. I would like to see that change. A refocused unit with a new leader and hopefully a strong offseason in the weight room could lead to a big one-year shift.
Head coach Dave Aranda has tried a lot of things in his career on both sides of the ball, some of which have worked while others have not. He figured out the offense with Jake Spavital in 2024, and now hopefully he can do the same with Joe Klanderman in 2026.
Specifically, I would like to hear a lot about the defensive line being one of the strongest units on the team, the defense's attacking style forcing sacks and turnovers, a competent run defense and a healthy number of leaders emerging. You can’t hope to have all the answers in the spring, but a consistent identity that is being formulated at this stage should be expected and seen as the DNA of the defense for the 2026 season.
