By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
Baylor football head coach Dave Aranda is safe in his role, at least for now.
Mike Craven, senior writer at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, reported on Sunday that Baylor is keeping Aranda as its head football coach for the 2024 season. The Bears just wrapped up a 3-9 season that saw them go 1-7 at home.
Breaking: Baylor to retain Dave Aranda, Bears will make "significant" changes on and off field ahead of 2024. #SicEm
More here: https://t.co/oe2CTAAvoj— Mike Craven (@CravenMike) November 26, 2023
Pete Thamel and Adam Rittenberg of ESPN also confirmed the report.
Aranda has been on the hot seat given that 2023 marked the third losing season in four years at the helm. The one winning season was 2021 — Aranda’s second year — when Baylor went a program-best 12-2 and included a Big 12 championship and Sugar Bowl win.
Baylor extended Aranda through the 2029 season after the success of 2021, and DCTF reported that any buyout of that deal would have been in the $20 million range. Aranda is 23-25 overall with the Bears, and they’ve gone 9-16 — including a 6-12 mark in Big 12 play — since the start of the 2022 season.
While Aranda was retained, Baylor’s offensive coordinator, Jeff Grimes, was reportedly fired on Sunday, per DCTF and SicEm365. The report added that defensive coordinator Matt Powledge would remain in that role for 2024 but that Aranda will take over play-calling on that side of the football.
Grimes (OC from 2021-23) became the third coordinator Aranda has fired in four years, joining Larry Fedora (OC in 2020) and Ron Roberts (DC from 2020-22).
Craven wrote that the program is expected to overhaul the offense with a new coordinator who has “head coaching experience and an explosive offensive style.”
Baylor’s offense averaged over 30 points per game in Grimes’ first two years, but that dropped to 23.1 points per game in 2023. The Bears averaged 31.6 points per game during the first-ever 12-win campaign in 2021.
Craven also reported that with Aranda taking charge of the defense, he’ll want an offensive coordinator who has “experience running a football team.” Craven wrote that potential candidates include Matt Wells (offensive analyst at Oklahoma), Dino Babers (recent head coach at Syracuse), Sean Lewis (offensive coordinator at Colorado) and Jake Spavital (offensive coordinator at Cal).
The offensive woes under Grimes in 2023 were mostly tied to slow starts. Baylor was outscored 218-102 in the first half against FBS foes this season, including a 127-52 mark at home.
Meanwhile, on the defensive side, the Bears have seen a massive drop-off under Powledge. Baylor allowed 18.3 points per game in 2021 before seeing that number rise to 26.8 in 2022 and then 33.3 in 2023 when Powledge called plays for the first time in his career. Aranda hired Powledge before the 2023 season, poaching him from his co-defensive coordinator role at Oregon.
With Aranda still in the driver’s seat moving forward, Baylor is also reportedly going to amp up its NIL presence. Aranda has wanted to avoid leaning on NIL over the last couple of years, but he said he understands that the university needs to be a major player in that department.
According to Craven, Baylor is implementing an “aggressive gameplan moving forward” that indicates a “dramatic shift” for the program. The university is also on the cusp of finishing a $90 million player developmental center.
Aranda said he’s banking on returning young talent to get Baylor back to the top-end of the Big 12. He said it’s going to be critical to retain that talent and develop them moving forward.
Here's #Baylor HC Dave Aranda's full thoughts tonight on what his plan is to fix the Bears this offseason and his conversations with AD Mack Rhoades after a 3-9 season.
Said he's rejuvenated, he wants to do well and that Baylor is a great fit for him and cares about. #SicEm pic.twitter.com/JJc56yCzww
— Parker Rehm (@parker_rehm) November 26, 2023
Freshmen accounted for over 4,000 snaps this season, which led the conference by over 1,000 snaps. A league-high 46% of the Bears’ snaps were by underclassmen. If anyone were to jump ship on Aranda and the program, the transfer portal opens on Dec. 4.
