Baylor has moved on from Dave Aranda after seven seasons, ending a tenure that never truly broke through and closing the book one day after a loss to Kansas.
The Bears announced the change on Sunday morning, and the timing made the message clear: Saturday’s defeat was the last straw. Baylor dropped to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play, and a game the Bears were expected to win instead landed like a crushing setback. At that point, the College Football Playoff picture looked out of reach.
Baylor defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman will serve as the team’s interim head coach for the rest of the season.
Aranda leaves Waco with a 40-40 record, a perfectly even mark that mirrors the uncertainty of his run. The high point came in 2021, when Baylor went 12-2 and reached the Sugar Bowl. Beyond that, the program never established the kind of sustained momentum that usually keeps a coach out of danger.
The situation was complicated further by the changes around the program. Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades stepped down last year, and that kind of leadership turnover always shifts the ground under a coach.
For Aranda, a new job may not be far away. It just might not come as a head coach at this level. His reputation still carries weight, built in part on the defense he coordinated at LSU in 2019, a unit that helped power one of the most memorable seasons in college football history.
Now the real question is where Baylor goes next. The search will say plenty about how the school views its future in the Big 12. Texas programs such as the Longhorns, Texas A&M, and SMU have leaned into the new era of college football, and Baylor has the resources to try to make a splash of its own.
That uncertainty extends beyond Waco. Baylor, NC State, and Maryland are all trying to avoid getting caught in a frantic coaching cycle, because if more major jobs open up, the market can get crowded fast. For schools like these, simply being a Power 4 program may already provide an edge.