Joe Klanderman Encouraged by Baylor's Defensive Progress, Depth Early in Fall Camp
After spending the last decade alongside Chris Klieman at North Dakota State and Kansas State, Joe Klanderman is more accustomed to continuity rather than building a defense from the ground up. In his first year at Baylor, however, the newly hired defensive coordinator has been tasked with installing his system, establishing a new identity and getting an overhauled unit up to speed in a matter of months.
When Klanderman first arrived in Waco, he likened the Bears’ process of learning his scheme to “crawling before walking.” Nearly half a year later, the unit is beginning to look much more like what Klanderman originally envisioned, saying in a Friday afternoon press conference, “To see these guys come together is pretty cool. This is a cool group of guys. It’s still a race to maturity for us, though, in what we do, the volume and the checks, whatever that comes with it.”
He continued, “It’s a process that takes a couple of years, and we don’t have a couple. We got weeks and months. We did a good job in the spring. We made progress in the summer, and right now we’re at a level that we haven’t been at yet. Sometimes you regress a little bit when you start camp. We haven’t done that. We’re on it. We’re doing a great job.”
When Klanderman and head coach Dave Aranda were tasked with fixing a defense that ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 in nearly every category in 2025, allowing 32.6 points and nearly 400 yards per game, they prioritized bringing in experienced defenders through the transfer portal this offseason, which has helped shorten the learning curve.
“They handle installation better,” Klanderman said of veterans. “They handle conceptual football better. With what we do, you piece together concepts so you can use them, and you’re not teaching 1,000 concepts. You’re teaching 10 concepts 1,000 ways. To have people who have had exposure to those things is a big deal, and that’s helping us speed it up.”
Speaking of experienced defenders, the majority of Baylor’s transfer portal funds went into the trenches this offseason, and although the Bears are only three days into fall camp, Klanderman didn’t hesitate when asked about the biggest strength of his developing unit.
“Our D-line is really good,” Klanderman noted. “Our D-line is deep. They’re explosive. They play well together. They communicate well together. They’re playing hard. It’s not me leading that charge anymore; it’s them leading that charge. They’re calling each other out on the loafs. They’re calling each other out on the effort plays. They’re recognizing it when it happens in a good way. That’s cool to see.”
The unquestioned leader on Baylor’s improved defensive line is the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Hosea Wheeler. The Indiana transfer posted 31 tackles, four for loss, 11 quarterback pressures and two fumble recoveries last fall for the national champion Hoosiers. Unfortunately for Wheeler and Baylor, however, his eligibility status remains unresolved, with a decision expected Aug. 11 on whether he’ll receive an additional year of Division I eligibility after spending the 2021 season at a junior college.
“Today was the first day of pads, and I’ll tell you what, [Hosea] was dominant,” Klanderman said. “You knew when he was out there. It’s a frustrating thing for him, as it is for us, because we care about him. He’s handling it well. He’s expecting to be here. He’s doing everything on a daily basis, like he’s going to be here. He’s sacrificing his body like he’s going to be here. We’re eager to get that ruling here in a few days.”
In the event that Wheeler is denied a temporary injunction in McLennan County — a possibility after Judge Ryan Luna denied offensive lineman Yakiri Walker an extra season of eligibility, albeit under different circumstances — Klanderman still feels good about the numbers up front.
“Fortunately, we have some depth there, so there are plenty of people who can play,” Klanderman said. “In fact, there are some people who can really play that, but probably won’t play very much because of the depth there, which is a good thing to have in the future. But the leadership aspect, how he affects his teammates on a daily basis, that would be a big loss.”
Baylor could also have an opportunity to add more depth following a recent class-wide preliminary injunction requiring the NCAA to grant an additional season of eligibility to certain athletes who graduated high school in 2022. Klanderman confirmed the Bears are exploring their options but cautioned that the pool of available players isn’t very large.
“The ruling probably is a little more limited than people think,” Klanderman noted. “It’s not like there’s [a ton of] people out there. You had to have been either at this institution or in the portal. A lot of those guys wouldn’t have thought to be in the portal. Those guys are a little bit few and far between, but we’re out looking. Whether or not anything happens with that, we’ll see.”
Switching gears to the back end of the defense, fifth-year senior Kansas State transfer Colby McCalister has helped set the tone in Klanderman’s safety room while getting his teammates up to speed in the new system.
“Colby was with me at K-State, so you’d think he would have a little bit of a leg up with some of the things, concepts and terms that we’re using,” Klanderman said. “But he was injured last year, and he was coming off a severe knee injury and didn’t do anything. He’s learning too, and from his perspective, he’s going to have a big role for us. He’s just Johnny-on-the-spot. He just does things right and is just Steady Eddie with the things he does — steady emotionally, steady on the field with his play.”
The Houston native has spent the previous four seasons with Klanderman and has played cornerback, nickelback and both safety spots, giving him extensive knowledge of the system. So far, McCalister has been encouraged by the Bears’ growth in the new scheme.
“I would say we’ve made huge improvements,” McCalister said. “If you’ve seen us from the spring to now, it’s like night and day. It’s head and shoulders above where we were in the spring. Obviously, we’re not exactly where we want to be right now, but we’re making progress. It’s going really good. The guys are picking it up really well, and I’m really excited.”
The other veteran in the safety room is fifth-year senior Devin Turner, who may be getting lost in the shuffle after missing all of last year with a torn ACL. Turner, however, was one of the bigger pickups the previous offseason, bringing with him 162 career tackles from Northwestern.
“Devin’s also coming off a knee injury. When I got here, I didn’t know the old Devin prior to the knee injury,” Klanderman noted. “I knew big-knee-brace Devin, and that’s what I saw in the spring, and it bothered him. To see him move around now versus where he was in April is night and day, and he is playing at another level. He’s playing out of his mind right now.”
Turner says he’s feeling the “best” he’s ever felt, and has quickly become one of the most impactful playmakers and leaders on Baylor’s defense.
“It felt amazing,” Turner said of ditching his clunky knee brace. “I threw that thing in the Brazos as soon as they told me I didn’t have to wear it anymore. I was so happy to get that brace off. I feel so much faster. I feel like I can move a whole lot more.”
Both veteran safeties have seen a ton of football over the years, combining for 51 career games played at the Power Four level, at Kansas State and Northwestern, respectively, and discussed the early identities forming for this year’s defense under Klanderman.
“I’d say our toughness, for sure,” McCalister said. “We are a very tough team. That’s something that I haven’t really been a part of in the past, this team I just feel like is really special with our toughness. We got guys that are going to play hard, even through the whistle.”
Turner added, “People will be most surprised by how fast we’re playing. We’re just going to run to the ball. We’re going to hit hard, and they’re just going to be like, ‘Man, this team is playing fast, offense and defense. These guys play physical. These guys play tough, and it’s like they just don’t quit. They’re just unrelenting.’ I think that’s what people are going to definitely see when we’re out there.”
Despite McCalister and Turner serving as the elder statesmen of the safety room, they’re far from the only players expected to contribute this fall. Jacob Redding, Tyler Turner, Micah Gifford, Daniel Cobbs and Bo Onu are all competing for significant playing time, giving Klanderman the type of depth that makes the titles “starter” and “backup” increasingly irrelevant.
“These battles aren’t going to get sorted out until, shoot, August 30th maybe, and even when they are sorted out, that’s an ongoing thing,” he said. “That’s a thing that we’ve addressed a little bit, and we’ll have to address it as we go on more. There’s somebody who’s going to be listed as a starter in the media guide. That doesn’t mean anything to me, and it doesn’t mean anything to them. If you’re playing 35 snaps and somebody else is playing 35 snaps, those are 35 valuable snaps, whether it’s the first snap of the game or the last snap of the game.”
In recent years, Baylor’s depth at safety has been pretty thin, to say the least, and with Klanderman feeling quite comfortable with the two-deep at each spot, he wants to emphasize rotating players and keeping everyone fresh as much as possible this fall.
“I’ve seen that play out in real time on a team basis throughout a game, where, in the fourth quarter, especially early when it’s hot, and you’re not quite in that shape, you can be fresh, and you can keep rolling guys out there and can keep throwing bullets,” Klanderman said. “Then I’ve seen that play out in late October when you’re seven, eight, nine games in and you don’t have the bumps and bruises that maybe the team that you’re playing has because you’ve been keeping those rep counts under control. As much as we can do that, we’re going to do that.”
