Dave Aranda went hat-in-hand to the Baylor brass with a proposal following the season-ending loss to West Virginia. He’d move back to a familiar role as defensive play-caller, hire an offensive coordinator with head coach experience and an innovative, exciting offense, and push for more investment in the NIL world to attract better Transfer Portal talent to Waco ahead of an all-important 2024 campaign. 

Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades and the powers that be agreed and Aranda went to work. He hired Cal offensive coordinator and former Texas State head coach Jake Spavital to run Spav’s version of the Air-Raid offense he curated with mentor Kliff Kingsbury. Aranda also retreated to his mad scientist persona to fix a Bears defense that allowed more than 30 points per game in 2023. 

“I’m probably not a better person when I’m not (completely locked in on the ball), but I’m a better coach,” Aranda said. “I’m back to ball all the time like in a previous life. When I’m at home, I’m watching film and drawing on my whiteboard. It kind of takes over your life.” 

Aranda is an idealist. He’ll admit that one of his faults as a college football coach is that he prefers to see the world as it should be rather than for what it is. That’s hard in a college football landscape that cares more about results than process. And more about winning than growth. He sees taking 30 transfers as kicking 30 other players off the team. 

The transactional nature of the sport in modern times forces Aranda to question his philosophy and approach. That introspection also hardens belief in what is right. Aranda’s Bears carry the motto, “Person Over Player.” Heading into 2024, Aranda wants those players to win for the person inside. 

“It is very important to me to show that we can win while staying true to your beliefs and core principles,” Aranda said. “I want to see the guys who’ve stuck through it and kept belief in how we do things be rewarded. I want us to show that there is another way because we’ve lost the importance of how we do things when we only care about a means to an end.” 

Winning won’t be easy in the Battle Royal known as Big 12 football. Gone are monolithic powers Texas and Oklahoma. In their place, a stable of solid and competitive programs like Utah arrive to compete in a crowded conference without a true favorite. Baylor knows how quickly fortunes can change. The Bears won two games in 2020 before a program-best 12 wins in 2021. Rival TCU won five games in 2021 before reaching the College Football Playoff in 2022. 

“The margins are thin in this conference,” Aranda said. “There will be hard games on the road that require a tough team that handles adversity to win. We weren’t that the last two years. We’re working on getting back to that this season.” 

Aranda is betting his future as the Baylor head coach on change. Spavital’s offense is the antithesis of what was run by former offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. The man who was once opposed to utilizing the Transfer Portal in fear that it would mess up the culture of his locker room brought in a dozen new faces, including Dequan Finn (Toledo) as the expected starter at quarterback. Instead of sitting in on offensive meetings and recruiting meetings or watching his guys in the weight room, he’s back drawing up plays on a white board and watching film deep into the night at home. 

The goal is simple: Compete in the Big 12. Anything less might be the end of his tenure in Waco. Will it work? Only time will tell, but Baylor fans should rest easy knowing that the head coach is willing to do whatever it takes to prove that the Baylor way can still result in victories.  

“No one wants to get this thing right more than me and the people in this building,” Aranda said. “We’ve done what it takes to win before. I’m confident we can find the recipe again.”