Dave Aranda, Baylor Football Ready to ‘Take It to the Grass’ Against Auburn

Despite all the noise that surrounded Baylor football in 2025, which included an athletic director resigning, a university president stepping in to retain the head football coach and a disappointing five-win campaign, Dave Aranda is back for his seventh season at the helm of the program.

After a tumultuous start to the offseason, the waters eventually smoothed out as the Bears added a new defensive coordinator and more than 50 newcomers. By all accounts, the transition for all the new faces has been pretty seamless, and the culture has been strong. While there’s excitement within the building, it’s now all about turning that belief into wins.

“We've got to take it to the grass, and so that's where we're at,” Aranda said in his Monday press conference. “I think the leadership, the culture, the mental prep — those have been our three big things, and so it's now time to take it to the field. I'm excited for it.”

Aranda has appeared noticeably more relaxed in recent settings than he did over the last few years, when he was balancing his head-coaching responsibilities with defensive play-calling duties. With less on his plate, he has made an intentional effort to open up more this offseason, whether on social media or in his interactions with fans and the media.

“I've always been this way,” Aranda said. “I think losing and the criticism and the judgment that comes from losing sucks, and so you kind of close up and all that. I don't want to do that anymore, and so that's very much a conscious choice. With whatever comes, we're not going to do that.”

All of these changes are good in theory, but ultimately, the only thing that’s going to keep Aranda in Waco beyond 2026 is winning football games. An area that will likely determine Aranda’s future is how the Bears open games, as sluggish starts have seemingly plagued Baylor for the past four years.

Aranda has tried to address the problem by emphasizing fast starts throughout fall camp and bringing in Baylor alum and former Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson to discuss the mental preparation required before a major race. Johnson explained that sprinters enter a call room before a race and that he would have to remain focused and visualize the race rather than looking around wide-eyed or letting competitors distract him.

“There are very much elements of that as we get into Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, where we're in our call room, so to speak, and we've got to prepare ourselves,” Aranda said. “Football's a game of random events and setbacks. Whatever comes, we're able to reset and meet it the way that we need to. That's a big area of improvement for us."

The player arguably with the biggest role in making sure Baylor jumps out to a fast start is Florida transfer quarterback DJ Lagway. Across two seasons, Lagway has started 19 games, many of which have been in the SEC, and has totaled over 4,000 yards through the air and 28 touchdowns. That experience is sure to pay off in Saturday’s showdown against Auburn.

“It's an advantage that he's played a lot of football,” Aranda said of Lagway. “I think he's been in some big arenas, and he's been in some bright lights, and so I don't think anything's going to faze him that way. I think he's got really good confidence. I know he likes Spav's plan for him, so getting a really energized and confident DJ is a plus for us.”

Keeping Lagway upright and healthy, however, is a major question mark for a Baylor offensive line that returns only one starter. Aranda has often talked about the money spent on both sides of the trenches, but it sounds like that investment finally began to pay off on the offensive front this fall.

“That's been the most improved [group] from camp,” Aranda said of the offensive line. “In the spring there was a fair amount to want to improve there, and I thought from the start of fall camp to the end is the most improved. There were scrimmages where guys were moving people off the line of scrimmage, and the run game was showing up. That's a must-have in this game to win the line of scrimmage, both on offense and defense.”

On the flip side, Aranda echoed defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman’s praise for the defensive line and believes they can be the catalyst for the unit’s rapid improvement this fall, while noting they are significantly better than in years past.

“They've probably been our strongest unit,” Aranda said of the defensive line. “Defensively, there's just been a lot of really dominant personalities there, and there's guys that have really strong ownership of that unit and this team. There's a way different feel now than what there was previously, last year's team and the year before, and so I would say in that respect, for sure, it's totally different.”

Behind Baylor’s new and improved defensive line, anchored by sixth-year senior Hosea Wheeler and fifth-year senior Jamaal Whyce, is a suspect linebacker group that struggled immensely in 2025. Instead of hitting the transfer portal, the Bears ran it back with most of their linebacker crew from a year ago and are depending heavily on fifth-year senior Travion Barnes, the 2024 C-USA Defensive Player of the Year who played in just four contests last fall before suffering a season-ending leg injury.

“He's the heart and soul,” Aranda said of Barnes. “He has a knack for making plays. He makes stuff look so simple. There are certain guys that go fast in every which way, and they may find the ball. He plays it just like Cool Hand Luke, just chilling and will go and make a big-time play. His instincts, I think all that stuff's inside of him. He does a good job of studying and communicating and everything, but I think everyone knows when he's in there that whatever anxiety goes down because TB's got this, and I think he's a major part of what's going on on defense.”

Switching gears to this weekend’s opponent, Auburn has also undergone a lot of change since the Bears faced it last season. After the program parted ways with head coach Hugh Freeze, it hired South Florida head coach Alex Golesh, who brought prized quarterback transfer Byrum Brown. The Tigers' defense, however, remains mostly intact from a year ago, as the Tigers held on to longtime defensive coordinator DJ Durkin and All-American and First-Team All-SEC linebacker Xavier Atkins.

“Auburn's a really good team. They've got a coach I respect who has won a lot of games, and they've got a really good defensive line and one of the best linebackers we'll see all year,” Aranda said of facing the Tigers.

He continued, “They’ve got a rebuilt secondary. Some guys returning, some guys that are new. Offensively, they've got receivers on either side. When the running game gets going, they want you to give them one-on-ones on the outside and take advantage with deep throws. So a fair amount of challenges ahead, and we would lose track if we got caught up in noise. We’ve got to focus on what's in front of us.”

One of the strengths of a Golesh-coached team is pace; last season at USF, the Bulls ranked among the nation’s fastest teams in tempo. The Bears also ranked near the top of the list, which is helping Baylor’s defense prepare for what they will face this weekend.

“That is definitely one of the biggest advantages for them in the past,” Aranda said of Auburn’s fast-paced offense. “When you look at it, they're able to have success when they get people on the ropes with their tempo.”

There will be a familiar face on the opposing sideline on Saturday, as former Bear Bryson Washington will be suiting up for the Tigers. Washington is competing for a backup running back spot after battling injuries throughout 2025 and rushing for 788 yards and six touchdowns.

“I want to see him win that job, but in this game, we're going to have to be able to stop him, and he's tough to stop,” Aranda said of Washington. “It was interesting seeing the breakdown of him. He's a tough runner, falls forward, all those things, and so we know what he's going to bring, and we know what we have to do in order to meet that.”

Originally, Saturday’s season opener was slated for Jordan-Hare Stadium before it got moved to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Although Atlanta is roughly a two-hour drive from Auburn, most of the crowd is still expected to wear blue and orange. Aranda, however, sees a slight advantage in not having to play a true road game and wants his team to make Atlanta feel like home rather than the hostile confines of Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“We want guys visualizing that and seeing that, and so when they get to the stadium, we'll do a walk-through at the stadium on Friday when we land in town there,” Aranda said. “We want that to be the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth time that they've walked it because they've already kind of gone through it on their phones.”

Aranda and the Bears will kick off the season against the Tigers at 2:30 p.m. CT at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, Sept. 5. The game will be nationally televised on ABC.