3 Most Interesting Things Baylor OC Jake Spavital Said on Thursday — Gearing DJ Lagway up for Auburn

Baylor offensive coordinator Jake Spavital spoke to the media on Thursday and he talked about DJ Lagway, playmakers, and the running back rotation.

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Day 2 of fall camp is in the books down in Waco and we heard from head coach Dave Aranda on Wednesday. On Thursday, offensive coordinator Jake Spavital took the podium to speak to the media.

Here are three interesting quotes from Spavital on Thursday.

Gearing DJ Lagway up for Week 1 against Auburn

DJ Lagway's first game as a Baylor Bear will come in a neutral site game against Auburn. Lagway is well aware of the Tigers, playing in the SEC for two seasons, but Auburn also has a new look, bringing in Alex Golesh as head coach.

Jake Spavital was asked where he wants to see Lagway grow the most from now up until Week 1 and what he can do to help the junior signal caller.

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"Yeah, there's a lot," on where he wants to see Lagway grow the most. "Like I tell him every day that we have to take one point of emphasis. It's about installs and situational football, but I want to see just the confidence that — like when he plays confident, I think he's one of the best quarterbacks I've seen. I want to make sure that he is as confident as possible going into this game, and into the first game of the season. That's just for me just to keep building and working with him and taking daily steps and stacking days and growing."

It's quite the compliment from Spavital, calling Lagway one of the best quarterbacks he has seen. Spavital's track record is fabulous, from working with Brandon Weeden, Johnny Manziel, Kyler Murray, and others.

Just about every quarterback Spavital has coached has had productive seasons, and Baylor fans are hopeful Lagway will have the same progress in 2026.

Throwing a few wrinkles into the offense

Baylor's offense lost almost all of its playmakers from last season. The Bears return a trio of running backs, along with hitting the transfer portal to give DJ Lagway some weapons this season.

With having some explosive athletes on the offense, Jake Spavital said he's trying to find different ways to put as many of them on the field together. He believes there will be some new plays in the books this season, adding some interesting wrinkles.

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"Like every year is a new roster and new pieces and I try to be as base, as I said in spring, just to see the playmaking ability of these guys," Spavital said. "And we've got a lot of great running backs, you know, and like it's you have like four or five kids that you're extremely confident in, but how do you get them all on the field?

"So that's when you start to package things, that's when you start to get creative and you start to throw these kind of like wrinkles at them, you know, and see if it sticks and see if it's going to be an efficient thing for us. But we're going to have a different look than what we were last year."

Spavital mentioned Louis Brown, Gavin Freeman, Dre'lon Miller, Jadon Porter, and Taz Williams all coming into their own in two days of fall camp.

Running back rotation in 2026

Last season, Baylor lost Dawson Pendergrass in fall camp, right around this time, to a season-ending injury. That put more of a load on Bryson Washington, who got beaten up during the season, carrying the ball one too many times.

Entering 2026, both Caden Knighten and Michael Turner are a year older, and Pendergrass is healthy. Spavital talked about the rotation of either feeding the hot hand or going by the depth chart.

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"A little of both," Spavital on feeing the hot hand or going with the depth chart. "But like last year, like we had so many young running backs that Bryson had to take on the load a little bit more, took him on about 10 more carries than what he should be doing a game and had warmed down.

"But now you have Caden Knighten and Mike Turner that are a year older, and Dawson Pendergrass is back and got Ryelan Morris back there... And I think there's a little bit of the hot hand stuff, you know, like that just be kind of not very smart coaching. If a guy's on fire and you don't put him in the game, but I think all these guys have the capability to be the hot hand. So, but you're going to see all these guys play this year."

Corey Watson was another name Spavital mentioned, but I'd expect the top three backs to see a ton of carries this season. And if injuries would occur, getting to see freshman Ryelan Morris is certainly on the table.