‘A Bunch of Nasty Dudes’: Baylor Offensive Line Setting New Standard for 2026

Nearly two weeks into the grind that is fall camp, teams sometimes have a bad tendency to just go through the motions in an attempt to make it through another day, especially in the Texas heat.

When head coach Dave Aranda noticed his squad had gotten off to a lackluster start on Thursday, he stopped practice and ripped into his group. The chewing out didn’t stop there and eventually made its way to the offensive line, where first-year coach Austin Woods made sure his unit knew that it’s unacceptable to be sluggish if they want to change the narrative surrounding a program that holds a 22-28 record across the last four years.

“We want to come out and start fast in everything we do, whether it's a special teams drill, an individual drill or a team period,” Woods told the media in a post-practice press conference. “We want to start fast, and today that was the message and the narrative we were trying to change.”

This is technically Woods’ first fall camp as Baylor’s offensive line coach, although he finished the 2025 season as the interim coach when Mason Miller left the program midway through the season. The knowledge and experience gained from those five games, in which Woods led the unit, have proved invaluable throughout the offseason and into fall camp.

“It helped a lot, just on a communication level,” Woods said. “Building those relationships with those guys, and the guys that returned, hearing me, how I communicate, how I talk in the room and I coach them. It helped that group tremendously. We brought in so many new guys, having those last five games, that helped really the transition of me taking over and then new guys coming in, and it made that a little bit more seamless.”

Last season, Baylor’s offensive line was viewed as a strength on paper with all five starters returning. Instead of making the expected leap, however, the Bears took a major step back and were completely ineffective in the ground game last year. This offseason, Aranda and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital poured a ton of money into the trenches, bringing in over 10 new faces into the offensive line room.

“Our physicality has really grown, and that's a testament to these guys,” Woods said. “They dove into the summer conditioning portion of the year, and they got bigger and stronger. They're in great shape right now, and you can see it out there. The physicality has definitely grown since spring.”

Fifth-year senior right tackle Kaden Sieracki, who Aranda praised as “probably the most improved player on the team,” is the only returning starter up front and believes this year’s unit will be tougher.

“I think we're gonna be a bunch of nasty dudes,” Sieracki said. “We're gonna go out there and play with extreme effort. That's one thing Coach Woods has been pushing on us: just going out there and playing with a sense of urgency, running down the ball and playing as fast as we can.”

He continued, “I think that's one thing you guys are going to see is that we're going to be finishing blocks. There's not going to be one play where one guy's going to be walking. Every dude's going to be on top of someone and just driving to the whistle.”

Kaden’s younger brother, Koltin Sieracki, is also back for his third season in the Green and Gold, and there’s nowhere he’d rather be than lining up alongside his brother.

“It's the most special thing in the world to me, honestly,” Koltin, the younger Sieracki,  said. “ Every day that I get to get out there and play one more snap with my brother is just truly, truly special.”    

Last year, Koltin played in 11 games, with three starts, mostly filling in for injured Omar Aigbedion and Coleton Price; Sieracki played 132 snaps at center and 278 at right guard. This year, however, he’s projected to be Baylor’s starting center and is prepared for the increased responsibility.

“I actually prefer center; I think it's more of a natural position for me,” Sieracki said. “I just feel like it's a space that I fit in. I really like hitting double teams, getting on a hip and riding out with my guys. Nate [Kibble] and Asher [Hale] and all the guys have been playing next to me have been doing a great job setting it up for me and getting us right.”

Koltin Sieracki was originally expected to be Baylor’s starting right guard this fall, until Memphis transfer Yakiri Walker, the initial projected starting center, was denied an extra season of eligibility, despite playing only three snaps at Colorado in 2024.

With Walker out of the picture and now helping the Bears as an offensive analyst and Koltin Sieracki moving back to center, it’s opened up a position battle at right guard between senior Toledo transfer Cole Rhett, 6-foot-6, 348 pounds, and junior South Alabama transfer Asher Hale, 6-foot-5, 326 pounds.

“Yeah, they're really doing a great job,” Woods said when asked about Rhett and Hale. “Cole's playing kind of all over the place. We're getting him some reps and working him into different spots. Then Asher's done a really good job of being more consistent coming out of spring and into fall camp. They're both doing a good job and getting a lot of reps and just continue to get better every day.”

On the opposite side of the trenches, first-year defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, who’s no stranger to solid defenses across his decade-plus tenure at North Dakota State and Kansas State, believes his defensive line is the strength of his unit. The hope is that group, anchored by defensive tackles Hosea Wheeler and Jamaal Whyce, is helping get Baylor’s offensive line ready for the competition it’s bound to face this fall.

“It's just iron sharpens iron,” Texas transfer left guard Nate Kibble said. “Going against them guys every day is gonna make us better. I love going against them. I love talking to them off the field, asking them, ‘What did you do on this play? How can I stop that?’ Just giving each other counters. So it's been great.”

Kibble, formerly a highly-rated recruit, transferred to Baylor to see some immediate playing time. Kibble, however, has seen what success looks like, as the Longhorns racked up a 23-6 record across his two seasons in Austin, and he wants to bring a similar level of success to Baylor.

“When I say change the narrative, it's just like this team hasn't got the success that we've wanted, and now that we're all coming together here, we're going to be the team to flip it,” Kibble said. “We're going to be the team to have that winning season, to go make a bowl game, to go do things that Baylor hasn't done in a little while.”

Standing at 6-foot-3, 333 pounds, Kibble and the rest of the offensive line have developed an early relationship with Florida transfer quarterback DJ Lagway. One of the key bonding experiences is Lagway taking his offensive line to dinner and letting them rack up the bill to their heart’s content.

“Who puts away the most food? You could say me, or you could say Cole Rhett,” Kibble jokingly said when asked about the quarterback-offensive line dinners. “It's a couple of us that can really put down. It's good to sometimes get away from football and just talk about each other, about life and stuff like that. It really builds chemistry between us.”

Despite all the new faces within the program, Kaden Sieracki, a rarity in today’s college football landscape after spending all five of his collegiate seasons in Waco, has been impressed by the team’s chemistry and believes it will translate to the field this fall.

“We're a really tight team right now,” Sieracki said. “It feels like everybody's on the same page. Every time we have some time off, it feels like everybody's coming together and hanging out. It seems like there's definitely a really strong bond within the team right now. We're going to rely on each other, and that's one thing I feel like we're going to do differently from other teams.”