Baylor has a rare chance to reset its football program after Dave Aranda’s dismissal on Sunday, but the next move carries extra weight because of the quarterback already in the building.
Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman will handle the final five games as interim head coach, and his early work gives him a credible case for the full-time job. He arrived from Kansas State in December and inherited a defense that had been second-to-last in the Big 12 in points allowed at 32.6 per game.
Since then, that unit has become Baylor’s best since the 2021 conference championship season. The turnaround showed up right away, with the Bears holding each of their first six opponents to 20 points or fewer.
Even with that success, Baylor should think twice before staying in-house. Klanderman’s résumé looks a lot like the path the Bears took with Aranda in 2020: a veteran defensive coordinator stepping into his first head coaching job. That route can work, but Baylor has already lived through the version where the offense never fully matches the promise of the program.
The Bears’ 2021 peak under Aranda came with balance. They won the Big 12 title and the Sugar Bowl while averaging 31.6 points and 219.3 rushing yards per game. But Baylor couldn’t keep that level going, and much of the burden for offensive production shifted onto the coordinator.
That’s why the next hire needs to come from the offensive side.
Baylor hasn’t made an offensive-minded coach its permanent head man since Art Briles in 2008. Since then, the program has leaned defense-heavy with Matt Rhule and Aranda, while Jim Grobe filled in as interim coach in 2016. This time, the Bears have a shot to change the formula.
That matters because of DJ Lagway.
A consensus five-star prospect and one of the top recruits in the 2024 class, Lagway arrived from Florida with the kind of buzz Baylor quarterbacks rarely bring. The last one with that level of hype was arguably Jarrett Stidham in 2015.
Lagway’s arm strength, mobility and playmaking ability give Baylor a real foundation, but the support around him has not been consistent enough. The offensive line has been up and down, and the rushing attack has not been reliable.
An offensive-minded head coach won’t magically fix everything. But a coach with a proven history of developing quarterbacks could get Baylor closer to what Lagway makes possible and help the offense hold up against quality defenses.
There’s another layer here too: Lagway’s future. He has eligibility left for 2027, but Baylor cannot bank on him staying that long.
There’s no sign he wants to transfer, yet the fit of the next staff could matter. For a program that does not often land a quarterback with this kind of pedigree, letting him walk before that final season would sting.
Baylor has already been linked to a few names outside the program. Texas State’s G.J. Kinne, New Mexico’s Jason Eck and UTSA’s Jeff Traylor all stand out as options.
Kinne may be the cleanest match for a quarterback-driven offense. A former Tulsa quarterback, he has built a reputation for explosive attacks at Incarnate Word and Texas State.
In his first three seasons at Texas State, his teams finished among the nation’s top 15 in scoring offense each year. He also brings quarterback development experience and Texas recruiting ties, plus a Baylor win on his ledger after Texas State upset the Bears 42-31 in his debut as Bobcats coach in 2023.
Eck offers a different kind of appeal. He turned Idaho into an FCS playoff contender before leading New Mexico to nine wins in his first season there in 2025.
He also spent three seasons as South Dakota State’s offensive coordinator and helped the Jackrabbits average 37.5 points per game in 2021. That combination of offensive background and program-building makes him intriguing.
Traylor adds something else: deep Texas recruiting connections and a proven track record at UTSA, where he won consecutive Conference USA titles in 2021 and 2022. He is not branded as an offensive mastermind, but his ability to build and sustain a program gives him real credibility in this search.
Baylor does not have to make this decision solely around one player. But Lagway changes the equation. The Bears have a chance to build around the most gifted quarterback they’ve had in years, and the next coach should be the one best equipped to make that count while Lagway is still in Waco.
In Other News...
Baylor Let A Wild Finish Turn Into One Brutal Collapse
Baylor had control deep into the fourth quarter, and for much of the afternoon it looked like the Bears had put themselves in position to leave Lawrence with a win. But Kansas kept hanging around long enough for the game to swing in a hurry, and a matchup that had tilted Baylors way turned into a gut-punch finish on the Jayhawks' homecoming stage.
The collapse stung even more because it came with so much happening around the edges of the game, from Matthew Gills critical punt to a controversial officiating call that wiped out a sack and a Kansas offense that struggled to find consistent footing. In the end, the Jayhawks turned an 11-point deficit into a comeback and snapped a 14-game skid against Baylor, leaving the Bears to sort through how a win slipped away in the final moments. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Just Entered A Defining Coaching Search
Baylor has moved into a new era after parting ways with Dave Aranda following a loss in the 2026 season, ending a seven-season run that left him with a 40-40 record. The university wasted little time in making the change, with defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman stepping in as interim head coach while the search begins for the programs next leader.
Athletic director Doug McNamee framed the decision as both a farewell and a reset, thanking Aranda for what he brought to the Bears while signaling that the focus now shifts to finding a replacement. For Baylor, this is more than a routine change on the sideline, it is a defining coaching search that will shape the direction of the program well beyond this season. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Makes A Sideline Change At The Worst Possible Time
Baylors narrow 25-24 loss to Kansas landed with extra weight because it did more than just snap a 14-game winning streak over the Jayhawks. It also dropped the Bears to 4-3 and pushed the program into a sudden change on the sideline, with the school moving on from Dave Aranda after the recent run of uneven results.
Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman will serve as interim head coach for the rest of the regular season, beginning with the upcoming game against UCF. Klanderman, who arrived at Baylor in 2026 after seven seasons at Kansas State, now inherits a team trying to steady itself quickly while the schedule keeps moving. [Read more 🡒]