By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The holiday season is here, and with it comes a time to consider what one is thankful for. While others may be grateful for friends and family, Baylor football fans are thankful that the ignominious 2025 season has finally come to an end.
“Yeah, just frustrated and sad with the outcome of this season,” head coach Dave Aranda said. “We wanted to win for the seniors and also for the extended Baylor family … It’s been too long since that was the case.”
Baylor (5-7, 3-6 Big 12) came into the season with hopes high for what was queued up to be one of the more successful runs of Aranda’s tenure in Waco. Beginning the season receiving a handful of votes that placed the green and gold just outside the preseason AP Top 25, the Bears capped off another bowl-less year with a 31-24 loss to Houston on Saturday.
“In a lot of ways, this game is reflective of how the season went,” Aranda said. “Tough to look at and tough to swallow.”
Aranda’s team showed a multitude of flaws in its season opener against Auburn at McLane Stadium. The Tigers beat the Bears 38-24 and, despite redshirt senior quarterback Sawyer Robertson throwing for 419 yards and three touchdowns, Aranda’s defense was chewed to shreds, allowing 307 rushing yards to Baylor’s 64.
That loss was chalked up to be a one-off drop the team would learn from, as Baylor went on to get the program’s first ranked win since 2021 in a 48-45 double-overtime victory over No. 17 SMU.
Robertson’s 440 yards and four touchdowns in the win put the captain at Baylor’s helm into Heisman conversations across the nation.
Two interceptions in a buy game against Samford in Week 3 changed the course for the talented senior. Something was lost, as the notorious swagger fans came to love from the nation’s passing yards leader, went on to finish the season with a 2.6-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
“That’s kind of been par for the course this season,” Robertson said after the loss to Houston. “Just being in the fight but always having to swim upstream.”
The Bears reached their first bye week at 4-2. With what appeared to be the more difficult half of the season behind them, the green and gold were expected to finish strong.
Baylor went 1-5 in the second half of the season.
In a normal season at a normal football program, Aranda would’ve been removed from his head-coaching role. But Baylor neither had a normal season, nor is it a normal football program.
Less than a week after OutKick reported that Athletic Director Mack Rhoades had been investigated for an altercation with star tight end Michael Trigg on the sideline, Rhoades took a leave of absence for “personal reasons” while the university enacted an investigation into separate allegations.
On Nov. 20, Baylor’s athletic director stepped down after nine years in the role.
The next day, President Linda Livingstone published a letter confirming that, due to the unforeseen circumstances of searching for an athletic director, the university would retain Aranda despite the disappointing season.
“We recognize this decision will generate strong opinions,” Livingstone said. “Let me be clear: Baylor expects excellence, accountability and competitiveness at the highest level. We are not complacent, and we are not settling for mediocrity.”
Fans across social media expressed their distaste with the decision to keep Aranda. The players, on the other hand, saw the upcoming game at Arizona as an opportunity to defend their leader.
“Dude shows up, goes to work and works his butt off every day,” Robertson said. “It’s inspiring, honestly, because you go to war for guys like that.”
Baylor lost to Arizona 41-17 with four turnovers, all of which led to Wildcat touchdowns.
Despite the unfortunate outcome of the season, many of the graduating Bears remain thankful for the experience they had representing the green and gold.
“I love this place and I’m always going to come back,” redshirt senior wide receiver Josh Cameron said. “I’m Baylor for life, and it means everything to me.”
Robertson finished his three-year career in Waco as the fourth all-time leader in both passing touchdowns and passing yards for Baylor.
“You always want to leave places better than you found it [when] you got here, both on and off the football field,” Robertson said. “Even though the season was what it was this year, I fought and tried my hardest to do that. Hopefully, that grit and fight we showed is the foundation that is laid for Baylor football for years to come.”
Baylor looks ahead to what is sure to be an interesting offseason, with many key players exhausting their eligibility, including Robertson, Cameron and Trigg. The Bears now stand before a sea of unknown for what the future of the program will be.
