‘I Feel Like I’ve Got Juice’: Aranda, Baylor Football Trying to Carry New Energy Into 2026

While a new season is set to start in a few weeks for head coach Dave Aranda and Baylor football, some priorities stay the same, including an emphasis on starting fast.

There might not be a better person to deliver that message than Michael Johnson, a Baylor alum and Olympic sprinter, who spoke with the team on Thursday about the mental approach to preparing for a big race.

“We've been making a big point on starting fast, that the start is the main event, and so I was able to see that today,” Aranda told the media following Friday’s fall camp scrimmage. “The last couple of days, I've been able to see it. We're going to have to take it to prime-time games and when it matters most. But those messages in the staff room and in the team room are making it to the practice field and to the game field, in this instance.”

Baylor fans would be justified in thinking, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Aranda seems to genuinely believe in the character and makeup of this group. He noted that this year’s squad has started to form an identity around being tough, smart and dependable.

“Today is very hot, so it's good that the practice got more intense the later it got, and so that's really a good sign,” Aranda said. “One of the biggest differences, of all the differences from maybe the past till now, is that football's fun. It's hot, and we've been out here for a minute. The guys are having fun. Where in the past, you couldn't say that.”

Obviously, whether that translates to wins this fall is the biggest question and arguably the most pressing concern for a seventh-year head coach who enters the season on one of the hottest seats in the country.

Aranda, however, has tried his best to block out the noise, saying, “I'm hopeful. I have a lot more outbursts maybe than I used to, and just passion and all that. It's been a slow-moving thing from December till now, but I feel good. I feel like I've got juice, and I feel like the team feels me.”

One factor that could be contributing to Aranda’s renewed energy is that he’s no longer responsible for calling the defense after two rough seasons in which the Bears finished near the bottom of the Big 12. With Aranda back in the CEO role, first-year defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman has fully taken over play-calling duties and, on paper, put together a unit that everyone inside the building feels pretty strongly about.

“Joe's a great teacher,” Aranda said when asked about Klanderman and the overall improvement on defense. “He's got great coaches with him. The buy-in with the players and the coaches is really strong. We've got really good talent there, and so there's been some good investment, especially up front. Those boys are playing hard, and they're playing with a chip on their shoulder, and so it's going to be much improved.”

Understandably, a lot of the talk this offseason has been about the hype surrounding the defensive line, which is anchored by Indiana transfer Hosea Wheeler and Marshall transfer Jamaal Whyce, but Aranda was quick to heap praise on a safety group that’s much deeper than anything Baylor has seen in recent years.

“They're interchangeable, so there's guys that can be down in the box and be back in the post, and then can cover,” Aranda noted. “Joe's doing a great job of getting them to communicate, and so they're running the show.”

He continued, “A lot of the dependability for us has been from the safeties, where sometimes they're not even making a play, but they're getting everybody aligned. It's a weird formation, and everyone's calm because they're calm, and they're putting everybody where they need to be. They're captaining the ship, and it’s cool to see.”

Ultimately, one of the biggest factors in determining whether Aranda remains in Waco beyond the 2026 season will be the play of Florida transfer quarterback DJ Lagway, formerly the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class.

Aranda believes his starting signal-caller has taken a step forward this fall, saying, “He's more confident. He trusts the guys that he's got. He and Spav can finish each other's sentences when they're talking about what they're seeing and where they're going next. He can bring up suggestions, and they're right on. They're seeing it from a much closer view than what it was before, and I think that's just part of just getting to know each other and going through these things. The progress has been pretty strong.”

As for the group protecting Lagway, Aranda has been pleased with what he’s seen from the offensive line, noting that Baylor poured significant resources into the unit this offseason and has shown the group plenty of film from the 2021 Big 12 Championship season in an effort to regain that edge in the run game.

“The moving of the line of scrimmage has been impressive,” Aranda said. “What's different about this offense is that the inside zone is really more like a dive, and it's more of a wedge than it is a zone. If you've got two guys that can double-team a single guy and a linebacker that's not shooting a gap, you can move that one guy with two off the ball, and that's been consistently happening. I’m excited about that, and it sends a message.”

Beyond the progress on the field, one of Aranda’s biggest priorities throughout fall camp was keeping the roster healthy. That job was accomplished for the most part, noting, “As of right now, we're looking alright. We'll look at how today goes. We had maybe something with a hand today, which shouldn't really hold us back too much. We're gonna look at maybe something with a loose knee, but it shouldn't hold us back too much.”

The one unfortunate injury, though not season-ending, was to sophomore wide receiver Taz Williams Jr., who sustained an upper-body injury. Williams Jr. had put together a strong fall camp and was pushing for significant playing time behind Baylor’s three expected starters at wide receiver: Louis Brown IV, Dre’lon Miller and Gavin Freeman.

“He’s gonna have surgery on it, and he’ll be back in a couple of weeks,” Aranda said of Williams Jr. “He went up for a pass and fell down on his collarbone and broke it.”

In light of Williams Jr.'s injury and all the recent uncertainty surrounding extra years of eligibility and new temporary injunctions seemingly popping up by the day, Aranda made it clear that Baylor is still looking around and open for business, even with kickoff against Auburn in two weeks.

“It's unprecedented, but if you were to go back and look at last year and the year before, there's something unprecedented in that too,” Aranda said. “You have to stay open, and you have to stay aggressive.”

He continued, “That would be a thing with Doug [McNamee] as an example. That was way aggressive. That's probably been a change. We haven't been that way. We've been in the past; let's see how everyone else goes. Let's see what everyone else does, kind of where we fit. We're aggressive, and that's a good feeling. We want to continue to be aggressive.”