By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
There’s something about those small visitor locker rooms.
The Bears are 2-0 on the road so far this season, compared to a 1-5 mark at McLane Stadium. Baylor football head coach Dave Aranda said the team was trying new things over the weekend.
After four home losses to FBS opponents, Aranda and his staff wanted to switch it up and make the approach similar to a road game.
The Bears’ new approach didn’t go as planned, and Iowa State eased its way to a 30-18 victory on Saturday in Waco. Aranda’s squad faced another slow start — something that’s plagued them all season — and they couldn’t lock in like they’ve been able to in road venues.
“It’s a frustrating thing because I think when you go on the road, it’s very clear that it’s only us versus all of them,” Aranda said. “So, we wanted to really kind of capture that here at home and have that feeling.”
Baylor football entered the 2023 season with eight home games — the most in the country — on its schedule. And yet, the Bears are 1-5 at McLane Stadium through eight weeks of football. They need to win three of the final four games of the season to advance to a bowl game.
Aranda said he brought former players to preach about the importance of protecting McLane and playing in front of alumni and fans. He said he was disappointed to see them struggle to do that again and admitted there’s lots of work to be done.
The root cause of the home woes comes with slow starts. Baylor has been outscored 35-16 in the first quarter at home, causing the team to have to play catch-up for the rest of the game — especially in the second half. The Bears are also being outscored 135-65 in the first half against FBS opponents this season, including road games. If you take out the road contests, it’s a 93-38 score differential at McLane Stadium through the first two quarters.
Aranda said he believes Baylor fans deserve better home showings and that he and his staff are doing the best they can to make sure a better product comes out of the tunnel.
Senior tight end Drake Dabney said the “us versus the world” mentality is what fuels the team on the road. Dabney echoed Aranda’s comments about trying to make the squad more uncomfortable at home, as he said there was a much different approach pregame.
Dabney said he thinks it could provide better results with more trial and error.
“It’s still a work in progress and didn’t go the way we wanted … but we’re going to keep working at it,” Dabney said.
Sitting at 3-5 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play, Aranda said he knows the Bears are in a vulnerable spot. In this era of NIL and the transfer portal, Aranda was honest in saying that he’d be foolish to think other coaches or programs aren’t reaching out to his players with the intent of poaching them.
But Aranda said he’s not concerned about losing the locker room. He said it’s a tight-knit group and that everyone wants to play for each other. Seventh-year senior safety Bryson Jackson said no one’s checking out early on the 2023 season, especially with bowl eligibility still in the cards.
“We’re not giving up on each other and the coaches are not giving up on each other,” Jackson said. “We’re going to fight and we’ll come out the other end of this, for sure.”
Baylor hosts Houston for a 2:30 p.m. contest on Saturday at McLane Stadium. The game will be live-streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. The Bears are looking for their first home win over an FBS foe since Oct. 22, 2022, when they defeated Kansas 35-23 on homecoming.
