The Power Four coaching carousel is already moving hard as October winds down, and Baylor is now part of the churn.
Maryland got the first jolt when it fired Mike Locksley on Wednesday, just four days after losing to a Rutgers team described in the source as terrible. NC State followed on Saturday, moving on from Dave Doeren less than 24 hours after a road loss to Stanford. Then came Baylor, with Pete Thamel of ESPN reporting Sunday morning that the Bears had parted ways with Dave Aranda.
Aranda’s run ended with Baylor at 40-40 in his seventh season, a record that left him sitting on one of the hottest seats in the sport. The Bears looked like they might have something brewing early, climbing to 4-1 through five games with the lone defeat coming against Auburn after a failed two-point conversion.
But the momentum didn’t last. A 17-6 home loss to TCU and a blown fourth-quarter lead at Kansas wiped out any real sense of a rebound over the next two weeks.
This is also a notable break from Baylor’s recent coaching history. Aranda is the first coach the school has fired for on-field results in nearly 20 years. Art Briles was dismissed with cause in 2016 after an investigation into how sexual assault allegations were handled, Jim Grobe stepped down after serving one season as interim coach in 2017, and Matt Rhule left in 2020 for the Carolina Panthers.
So who could be next? Here are four names that could fit the Baylor opening.
UTSA’s Jeff Traylor has built a steady operation in San Antonio over seven seasons, and the results speak loudly. The Roadrunners are 58-27 under him and are 7-1 through eight games this season, putting them atop the American Conference standings.
Traylor’s appeal goes beyond the record, too. He spent 25 years in Texas high school football before moving into college coaching, and his first two assistant jobs came at Texas and SMU.
Jason Eck is the hottest Group of Six name in the mix. He made his mark at Idaho, where he put together a 26-13 run across three seasons that included seven-, nine- and 10-win finishes before moving on to New Mexico.
The Lobos hit nine wins in 2025, their best mark in nearly a decade, and their only loss came in a 14-6 defensive game at Oklahoma. Eck’s sideline energy and entertaining press conferences only add to the appeal, making him look like the kind of hire a Power Four program could swing big on.
Charles Huff may have bounced around, but he keeps producing. Marshall chose not to renew his deal after 2024 even though he had just won the Sun Belt Championship game, and he moved on to Southern Miss.
The Golden Eagles went 7-5 under him in 2025, but Memphis came calling anyway in search of a replacement for Ryan Silverfield. The Tigers are 6-2 with losses at Boise State and Tulane through eight games.
Then there’s Lincoln Riley, the obvious name if Baylor wants to chase a bigger splash. USC is 6-2 after a brutal loss at Wisconsin, and if the Trojans stumble again in upcoming games against Ohio State, Indiana and UCLA, Riley’s future there could get shaky.
The fit is easy to see: Baylor’s best teams over the last 15 years have been built on explosive offense, especially during the Art Briles era, and Riley has long run that kind of attack while keeping Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff conversation in the Big 12. Like Traylor, he also has deep Texas ties.