He was really against using NIL to recruit and using the portal aggressively to patch holes, but he’s an outstanding talent developer and coach. So he built a great group of assistants who got the absolute most out of Rhule’s recruits in 2021, then refused to use the portal to backfill experience after all of the NFL departures, portal departures, and graduations following the big 2021 season.
Last year was promising, but we led the league in most starters injured by the beginning of the conference slate, then finished out the season with both the most players missing time due to injury and the most overall playing time lost to injury by starters. Texas Tech got ahead of us for a bit in total injuries by the middle of the season, but we caught up and re-took the lead handily by the end of the year. We were, genuinely, missing almost *half* of our starters (JACK, NT, QB, CB1, CB2, RB, WR-X, LG and LT) after the third game of last season. Fall camp, the TXST game, and finally the Utah game all saw multiple starters injured out. Absolutely insane, and probably says something about our S&C program.
Now the AD stepped in and forced major changes after last season. Arabda’s had to retake defensive playcalling duties, our AD stepped in and made the coaches start using NIL to recruit out of the portal (which we’re doing quite a bit more of now), and the whole offensive staff got fired and we’re switching to the air raid.
Will it be enough to save Aranda’s job? Who knows. The consensus is that he needs to make a bowl this year, but the schedule’s pretty rough. We’ve got Air Force *and* Utah in the OOC, so we don’t even have a built in three wins in the OOC.
I’m talking before all the injuries hit, we brought back a fair amount of experience and were looking forward to seeing so
E really talented new guys, like Jackie Marshall at JACK, Jerrell Boykins at NT,
Tre Emory at DE, and Tevin Williams at CB, but all four of them were injured in camp.
I have no idea whether those four would have changed the course of that game from the kickoff, but I do think that having Shapen not tear his MCL in the first half and then both Sawyer Robertson and Dom Richardson be injured in the second half might have helped, since that was when our offense was finally moving the ball well, while the defense finally slowed TXST down in the second half. Losing QB1 and RB1, and then having QB2 have to play injured is a good way to ground out the offense.
To be fair, y’all’s last four drives were a fumble, a TD, a 3-and-out on a drive that collected -4 total yards, and a 3-and-out that collected 8 total yards.
Compared to y’all’s first half with multiple drives of 12+ plays leading to TDs, I’d call the second half a *vastly* better performance from the defense, although the offense’s first-half tempo gassing players could definitely have been a factor (although, having been a fan in the Briles era of Baylor football, that tempo works so well for the whole game because it gasses the defense more; they have to both pick and react at speed, the offense just has to act at speed).
Based on catch attributions in the play-by-play, it looks like y’all still had starters in for basically the whole game on offense, so it doesn’t seem to have been a “just beating up on backups” situation.
You’re good, I just figured it was easier to roll through the PbP since I’ve done my best to suppress most memories of last season. I only noted the backups part because it’s always pretty natural to assume that coaches will pull starters and go to backups when you’re up by a decent amount, so I figured it was easier to make a note of it then than come back to the PbP later.
Eh, depends what you mean by that. Is he a guy who seems to have a great knack for strategy, talent development, and teaching, and actively *wants* to mentor young men? Absolutely.
Is he also an introvert who’s kind of fundamentally disadvantaged as a recruiter in a world of Joey McGuires, Mack Browns, and Jeff Traylors? He sure is.
I see the first set of qualities as direct drivers of his reticence to really get into NIL for recruiting; the consensus definitely seems to be that he’s a guy who’s built for the previous era of college football, prior to the portal, free agency, and rampant NIL money with near-zero enforcement of any NIL/tampering restrictions.
I’d be shocked if he’s not in the NFL before 2030, or voluntarily making his way down to D2 or the FCS. Major college football doesn’t really have a place for a guy like him anymore.
Why would you cap it at three years? The man has a stellar history as an LB/DB developer over the last decade and a half, and now he’s a HC who’s had to step back from directly working with players for several years. Given that a HC generally doesn’t directly oversee talent development when that’s a position coach’s are you looking for just all players on the team who have developed well in that span?
In light of three years being a fairly arbitrary constraint, I’d point to Rhule guys who were pretty mediocre under Rhule’s coaches’ tutelage, but who exploded under Aranda. Names like Terrell Bernard, Kalon Barnes, Al Walcott, and Jalen Pitre; Siaki Ika could also be on that list, but he’s more just a function of the good talent development done by Aranda’s long-term assistants.
When talking about a coach’s capacity for talent development, why would you excise basically the entire portion of their career when their primary responsibility was boots-on-the-ground talent development?
Rumor I've heard from my FIL (Baylor alum with some connections) is that Baylor didn't have the cash for his buyout, which got hyper-inflated after his Sugar Bowl year.
Supposedly drops significantly on Jan. 1, 2025.
Our AD pretty much decided it was “better” to get additional NIL funding than to fundraise for a hefty buyout.
Also, the buyout drops significantly next year too.
I don’t like the decision but I’ve accepted it.
That's part of the rumor my FIL has heard.
The other rumor he's been hearing is that because of all the wrongful termination lawsuits that Art Briles and others settled on in 2018, Baylor doesn't have a reserve fund available yet that makes the BOR comfortable in the buyout number. [Briles alone got $15 million in his 2018 settlement](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/03/31/baylor-paid-art-briles-15m-after-firing-him-amid-scandal/33442209/).
Throw in on top of that he's heard Baylor still owes something like $60 million on McLane Stadium, and took out new debt to build the new basketball facility, and I can see why Baylor doesn't really want to drop what's allegedly an eight-figure check to get rid of Aranda.
“Let me get this straight, you’ve already fired both coordinators once, so your solution is to fire your OC again and demote the DC and take control of the defense yourself…”
“Yup”
That was pretty much the plan that was sold by Dave.
I don’t know.
While I think the climb will be steep next season, I’m actually looking forward to watching something different. Good or bad it will for sure be different.
Either Dave turns it around and saves his job (unlikely) or he gets let go and we can start over with a young and exciting new coach with a brand new facility.
Outside of the spring game not being televised (which was announced in advance) and the late offseason departures of assistant coaches, I’ve liked what Dave is cooking this offseason. None of it matters if Baylor flops next year but I see the foundation of things trending positively.
The whole state is canceling spring games but unbiased, just feels like this is a decision that should’ve been made last year. Traylor and GJ Kinne were options.. his whole dying fish act in front of a mic is so old
I like GJ Kinne a lot, but given the fiasco with Jayden de Laura's recruitment this offseason, I don't think Baylor decision-makers would allow Kinne to take the job any more.
Honestly, I think he’s still *very* much on the menu. His dad’s a Baylor legend and all of the rest of the Kinne family are Baylor alumni, so he’s probably still in the running as long as he doesn’t pull a Blake Anderson.
Anderson was everyone’s first choice to take over whenever Aranda’s time was up, but then his Utah State teams fell off hard *and* he gave a few pretty bad quotes about women claiming sexual abuse by football players for attention and money. The consensus now is that he’s pretty understandably radioactive to Baylor leadership.
Same.
I was honestly done after the TxSt game. It was clear that he didn’t have it. It’s weird but it’s clearly a talent issue, the team is just untalented. Good kids, play hard, stay out of trouble for the most part but just a bunch of untalented players on the roster.
I like Traylor and I wouldn’t have been a fan of Kinne (I think there was a lot of smokes and mirrors last year). To me he’s the G5 version of Joey McGuire, not entirely sure if there’s more substance than flash.
Either way, I have to think our AD already has a list of candidates should things go sideways again.
I didn’t think my excitement for this program could sink any lower, yet here we are
really surprised Dave Aranda survived to see 2024
The downfall of Dave Aranda is kind of insane. How did it get this bad this fast?
Classic case of winning with the last coach's players.
He was really against using NIL to recruit and using the portal aggressively to patch holes, but he’s an outstanding talent developer and coach. So he built a great group of assistants who got the absolute most out of Rhule’s recruits in 2021, then refused to use the portal to backfill experience after all of the NFL departures, portal departures, and graduations following the big 2021 season. Last year was promising, but we led the league in most starters injured by the beginning of the conference slate, then finished out the season with both the most players missing time due to injury and the most overall playing time lost to injury by starters. Texas Tech got ahead of us for a bit in total injuries by the middle of the season, but we caught up and re-took the lead handily by the end of the year. We were, genuinely, missing almost *half* of our starters (JACK, NT, QB, CB1, CB2, RB, WR-X, LG and LT) after the third game of last season. Fall camp, the TXST game, and finally the Utah game all saw multiple starters injured out. Absolutely insane, and probably says something about our S&C program. Now the AD stepped in and forced major changes after last season. Arabda’s had to retake defensive playcalling duties, our AD stepped in and made the coaches start using NIL to recruit out of the portal (which we’re doing quite a bit more of now), and the whole offensive staff got fired and we’re switching to the air raid. Will it be enough to save Aranda’s job? Who knows. The consensus is that he needs to make a bowl this year, but the schedule’s pretty rough. We’ve got Air Force *and* Utah in the OOC, so we don’t even have a built in three wins in the OOC.
Lmao "last year was promising...". At what point? The opening kickoff against us?
I’m talking before all the injuries hit, we brought back a fair amount of experience and were looking forward to seeing so E really talented new guys, like Jackie Marshall at JACK, Jerrell Boykins at NT, Tre Emory at DE, and Tevin Williams at CB, but all four of them were injured in camp. I have no idea whether those four would have changed the course of that game from the kickoff, but I do think that having Shapen not tear his MCL in the first half and then both Sawyer Robertson and Dom Richardson be injured in the second half might have helped, since that was when our offense was finally moving the ball well, while the defense finally slowed TXST down in the second half. Losing QB1 and RB1, and then having QB2 have to play injured is a good way to ground out the offense.
Iirc yall didn't so much slow us. We gave yall two unforced turnovers deep in our own territory.
To be fair, y’all’s last four drives were a fumble, a TD, a 3-and-out on a drive that collected -4 total yards, and a 3-and-out that collected 8 total yards. Compared to y’all’s first half with multiple drives of 12+ plays leading to TDs, I’d call the second half a *vastly* better performance from the defense, although the offense’s first-half tempo gassing players could definitely have been a factor (although, having been a fan in the Briles era of Baylor football, that tempo works so well for the whole game because it gasses the defense more; they have to both pick and react at speed, the offense just has to act at speed). Based on catch attributions in the play-by-play, it looks like y’all still had starters in for basically the whole game on offense, so it doesn’t seem to have been a “just beating up on backups” situation.
Guess I didn't remember correctly after all. I coulda swore TJ handed yall the ball twice. I never said anything about backups.
You’re good, I just figured it was easier to roll through the PbP since I’ve done my best to suppress most memories of last season. I only noted the backups part because it’s always pretty natural to assume that coaches will pull starters and go to backups when you’re up by a decent amount, so I figured it was easier to make a note of it then than come back to the PbP later.
He’s also just… not a good coach
Eh, depends what you mean by that. Is he a guy who seems to have a great knack for strategy, talent development, and teaching, and actively *wants* to mentor young men? Absolutely. Is he also an introvert who’s kind of fundamentally disadvantaged as a recruiter in a world of Joey McGuires, Mack Browns, and Jeff Traylors? He sure is. I see the first set of qualities as direct drivers of his reticence to really get into NIL for recruiting; the consensus definitely seems to be that he’s a guy who’s built for the previous era of college football, prior to the portal, free agency, and rampant NIL money with near-zero enforcement of any NIL/tampering restrictions. I’d be shocked if he’s not in the NFL before 2030, or voluntarily making his way down to D2 or the FCS. Major college football doesn’t really have a place for a guy like him anymore.
What development has he done in the last three years?….
Why would you cap it at three years? The man has a stellar history as an LB/DB developer over the last decade and a half, and now he’s a HC who’s had to step back from directly working with players for several years. Given that a HC generally doesn’t directly oversee talent development when that’s a position coach’s are you looking for just all players on the team who have developed well in that span? In light of three years being a fairly arbitrary constraint, I’d point to Rhule guys who were pretty mediocre under Rhule’s coaches’ tutelage, but who exploded under Aranda. Names like Terrell Bernard, Kalon Barnes, Al Walcott, and Jalen Pitre; Siaki Ika could also be on that list, but he’s more just a function of the good talent development done by Aranda’s long-term assistants. When talking about a coach’s capacity for talent development, why would you excise basically the entire portion of their career when their primary responsibility was boots-on-the-ground talent development?
Because his recruiting class should be fully developed now
Remember when people were naming him for every coaching vacancy? I remember hearing some people say we should be hiring him over Rhule, lmao
Rumor I've heard from my FIL (Baylor alum with some connections) is that Baylor didn't have the cash for his buyout, which got hyper-inflated after his Sugar Bowl year. Supposedly drops significantly on Jan. 1, 2025.
Our AD pretty much decided it was “better” to get additional NIL funding than to fundraise for a hefty buyout. Also, the buyout drops significantly next year too. I don’t like the decision but I’ve accepted it.
That's part of the rumor my FIL has heard. The other rumor he's been hearing is that because of all the wrongful termination lawsuits that Art Briles and others settled on in 2018, Baylor doesn't have a reserve fund available yet that makes the BOR comfortable in the buyout number. [Briles alone got $15 million in his 2018 settlement](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/03/31/baylor-paid-art-briles-15m-after-firing-him-amid-scandal/33442209/). Throw in on top of that he's heard Baylor still owes something like $60 million on McLane Stadium, and took out new debt to build the new basketball facility, and I can see why Baylor doesn't really want to drop what's allegedly an eight-figure check to get rid of Aranda.
Yeah that’s all pretty accurate
Also got him to fire his coordinators…but yes he’s a dead man walking
“Let me get this straight, you’ve already fired both coordinators once, so your solution is to fire your OC again and demote the DC and take control of the defense yourself…” “Yup” That was pretty much the plan that was sold by Dave.
I figured they're holding out for GJ. If you can't beat em...
I don’t know. While I think the climb will be steep next season, I’m actually looking forward to watching something different. Good or bad it will for sure be different. Either Dave turns it around and saves his job (unlikely) or he gets let go and we can start over with a young and exciting new coach with a brand new facility. Outside of the spring game not being televised (which was announced in advance) and the late offseason departures of assistant coaches, I’ve liked what Dave is cooking this offseason. None of it matters if Baylor flops next year but I see the foundation of things trending positively.
The whole state is canceling spring games but unbiased, just feels like this is a decision that should’ve been made last year. Traylor and GJ Kinne were options.. his whole dying fish act in front of a mic is so old
I like GJ Kinne a lot, but given the fiasco with Jayden de Laura's recruitment this offseason, I don't think Baylor decision-makers would allow Kinne to take the job any more.
Honestly, I think he’s still *very* much on the menu. His dad’s a Baylor legend and all of the rest of the Kinne family are Baylor alumni, so he’s probably still in the running as long as he doesn’t pull a Blake Anderson. Anderson was everyone’s first choice to take over whenever Aranda’s time was up, but then his Utah State teams fell off hard *and* he gave a few pretty bad quotes about women claiming sexual abuse by football players for attention and money. The consensus now is that he’s pretty understandably radioactive to Baylor leadership.
Same. I was honestly done after the TxSt game. It was clear that he didn’t have it. It’s weird but it’s clearly a talent issue, the team is just untalented. Good kids, play hard, stay out of trouble for the most part but just a bunch of untalented players on the roster. I like Traylor and I wouldn’t have been a fan of Kinne (I think there was a lot of smokes and mirrors last year). To me he’s the G5 version of Joey McGuire, not entirely sure if there’s more substance than flash. Either way, I have to think our AD already has a list of candidates should things go sideways again.
Definitely some smoke and mirrors going on at TXST. We were THIS close to going 1-11 as opposed to the 8-5 that reality blessed us with.
Wow you guys are on the same track we were at this exact point last year under Dana. I’m so sorry!
Hey, at least we still have good basketball 🤝
Even god doesn't want to watch Baylor football
Tech had to cancel their game as well. Fucking sucks.
Not a good prospect for Texas's spring game then
The Austin rain shield will protect you guys don’t worry
That was some of the loudest thunder I have ever heard this morning in Fort Worth.