Aranda Encouraged by Baylor’s Progress, Emphasizes Cleaning Up Mistakes Ahead of La. Tech

Following Baylor football’s 44-3 victory over Prairie View A&M in Saturday’s home opener, head coach Dave Aranda had plenty to be encouraged about. But as the Bears turned their attention toward Louisiana Tech on Monday, Aranda made it clear that turnovers and penalties remain the biggest obstacles keeping Baylor from playing the way he believes it can.

“We're excited about this next week,” Aranda told the media at his weekly press conference. “It's good to have a victory. I know the locker room was a fun time on Saturday night. It's well deserved, but we've got a lot to clean up. One of the things we've talked about a lot is being hard to kill, and that's not making it easy for a team to beat us. And right now, it's too easy to beat us with the penalties and the turnovers. We have to clean that up. Our identity needs to be the opposite of that.”

A lot of Bears made their first-career starts on Saturday, most notably junior quarterback Nate Bennett, who filled in for an injured DJ Lagway and threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns on 23-of-35 passing. Aranda was impressed with the confidence Bennett displayed and believes the experience will benefit Bennett moving forward.

“There’s the start fast, let’s be aggressive and get on them type of thing, but for some of them, it’s like ‘Whoa. This is... whoa,’” Aranda said about players making their first-ever starts. “Working through that so they could still get out and play free and cut it loose and all that was a big win. That shows that if you put all this work into it, you can let it go once you're in it. Once they do that, they have a recipe, routine or process they can count on to repeat.”

As for whether Bennett will get another crack at starting this weekend against Louisiana Tech, it remains to be determined, as Aranda gave the latest news on Lagway and made it seem like the ankle injury isn’t serious.

“No update, other than he felt great yesterday,” Aranda said when asked about Lagway’s status. “We have a walk-through later today, and we expect him to go and expect him to go on Tuesday.”

The one area where Bennett struggled a bit was protecting the ball, throwing two interceptions and a couple more risky passes. Across the first two weeks, Baylor quarterbacks have combined for five turnovers, and the team has totaled 14 penalties for 125 yards. Aranda believes self-inflicted wounds are the biggest thing holding the offense back and that the team’s efficiency will rise considerably if they fix their mistakes.

“We have to get it cleaned up,” Aranda said of turnovers and penalties. “It's a major, major number one thing that we have to do. That, along with penalties, and particularly penalties on the offensive line. I think you look at what's holding us back on offense; those are the two things.”

Junior right guard Asher Hale was flagged five times against Prairie View A&M and graded out, according to Pro Football Focus, as Baylor’s lowest-rated offensive lineman (49.8). Aranda, however, doesn't plan to reshuffle the offensive line, as junior center Koltin Sieracki is expected to return against Louisiana Tech after sitting out Saturday with an injury and should bring back some stability.

“No, I think we probably want to have some guys in spots to push certain guys that are on that starting group,” Aranda said. “But I think that starting group has proven itself that when they play consistently, they can move people against their will, and they can close a drive out. We just have to get that more consistently. I think that's the issue.”

While Aranda still wants to see more from the offensive line ahead of conference play, he was pleased with what he saw from the skill positions, particularly the running backs, with all three contributing: Dawson Pendergrass (15 carries, 69 yards), Caden Knighten (12 carries, 66 yards) and Michael Turner (5 carries, 41 yards).

“Caden Knighten was much improved from the previous week,” Aranda said. “He was really finishing runs and was hitting downhill. I thought Caden on special teams really was impressive as well. Mike Turner's been impressive both weeks. Dawson Pendergrass has been his old self, and you can count on four yards every time he touches the ball.”

Aranda added, “But we have to be consistent. This offense right now, there's some big-play ability. I think the more that we get in a good rhythm with our receivers, and with Jayden, Gavin and Louis, and we get JP back, and where those guys are situated. But it's a 12-play, 15-play, 17-play drive outfit, and we just can't go backward when we're trying to go forward.”

Arguably the most impressive player across the first two weeks is fifth-year senior Gavin Freeman, who currently leads the team in receiving yards (258) and leads the nation in receptions (22). The seventh-year head coach was a big fan of Freeman at Oklahoma State and believes his toughness has translated into Baylor’s locker room this fall.

“I remember after the [OSU] game [last year] speaking with him about just how impressed I was with him and what he means to his team,” Aranda said of Freeman. “To have him on our team is just a crazy, crazy world now. But those words I said to him are still true now. It's just that he's with us, and so his energy is infectious. He has a huge, huge chip on his shoulder, and that's leaking off to other guys, and it's a good thing.”

On the other side of the field, Baylor’s defense appears to be really good, but it unfortunately suffered a big blow on Saturday night as fifth-year defensive lineman Devonte Tezino broke his ankle on the second play from scrimmage and will miss the rest of the season. Even without Tezino, Aranda remains confident in the defensive line's depth, naming Traevon Mitchell and Braylen Jackson as players who need to step up. Still, Aranda is bummed about Tezino, who was playing the best football of his career.

“We've got some good depth,” Aranda said. “I think Tez, after Week 1, was probably our best interior defensive lineman. He graded out the best, and so I just feel horrible for him in terms of all the work he put into it to get to a certain spot. We're certainly going to miss him.”

At safety, the Bears already lost senior Jacob Redding for the season before the fall began, but on Saturday night, fifth-year senior Devin Turner, arguably Baylor’s best player in the secondary, played just one snap before being sidelined with a tight hamstring. Aranda was pleased with some of the players who have filled in, such as senior Micah Gifford, but obviously wants to see this group stay healthy.

“We've been hit there with injuries too,” Aranda said of the safety room. “This last game, we're really without the two guys that were slotted as starters at the beginning of the year, and so we would very much want this injury thing to go away. But at this point, we're having guys step up, and it's been a positive thing.”

Aranda continued, “You look at Micah’s [Gifford] progression from a receiver to a special teams phenom to a spot guy on defense to a guy that can go out and carry the load, and the load mentally, which is just way impressive. It's a credit to him. So proud of Micah.”

As for the opponent this weekend, Louisiana Tech, Aranda’s connection with its head coach, Sonny Cumbie, goes back a long way. Aranda was a graduate assistant at Texas Tech when Cumbie was the scout-team quarterback. Cumbie’s offense derives from the Mike Leach tree, and Aranda said the Bulldogs’ defense have a talented front seven that creates a lot of havoc; Louisiana Tech turned LSU over four times last Saturday and trailed 10-7 at the half before losing 45-14.

“We're going to have to clean up our turnover issue because this is a team that loves to get takeaways,” Aranda said of Louisiana Tech. “They've got some weapons. We're going to have to control the game at the line of scrimmage on offense and defense.”

Aranda and the Bears (1-1) will close non-conference play against Louisiana Tech (1-1) at 3 p.m. on Sept. 19 at McLane Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPNU.