4 Most Important Things Dave Aranda Said Following Baylor's Loss to Auburn
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After the heart-breaking loss to Auburn, Head Coach Dave Aranda sat down to take some questions at the post-game press scrum. In the coming week Coach Aranda may well be scrutinized for his late game decision to forego the extra point and just try to win the game, and rightly so.
These however, are Coach Aranda's thoughts to the press about as soon after the game actually ended as may be available, and the questions asked certainly reflected on that.
Coach Dave Aranda's Opening Statement
"Tough locker room in there. Everyone believed we were going to win. I did. And we fought to try to get that win. We have multiple guys that were injured in the game and were out of the game and then came back in to play and, so, fought to come back in. So guys were playing through pain, discomfort and all that.
"That's one of the reasons for going for it. A bunch of guys getting Band-Aid up, and we had a chance to kind of close it out. We wanted to try to do that."
I can't knock Coach Aranda here. He saw an opportunity to win and a team's stamina and durability for the rest of the season in question, and he made the decision that he made. I fully believe that Coach Aranda fully believed that it was the best course of action, and let's be honest about things; if Klopfenstein was able to get across the goal line to have the score be 18-17, we would be here today singing his praises.
Unfortunately for the Baylor faithful, that wasn't the result of last night's game against Auburn. The reality is that Coach Aranda had a golden opportunity to send the game into overtime by following the commonly accepted logic of attempting the PAT, and instead went for the win.
Was There any Hesitation at All?
"There was no hesitation with that. We referenced the book and the book said to go for it. But it wasn't so much that. It was more of we had so many guys that were just doing everything they can to try to push through and close this game out. I just didn't feel playing longer was going to benefit us."
Not for nothing, Coach Aranda doesn't seem the type to not be set in his convictions. The man has a team and a game plan, he believes and trusts fully in them both to succeed, and if the plan says "go for it," then by golly he goes for it.
Endearing almost to a fault, at least nobody is going to contest that Dave Aranda doesn't have faith in his team to be able to decide the fate of the game on a single play. And yes, we can all play armchair quarterback and claim that we would have played more conservatively and just kicked the PAT if they were Coach Aranda.
To those people though I would ask with a chuckle, "Coach Aranda? You think he's going to make a conservative play call?"
What is the Extent of DJ Lagway's Injury?
"It's an ankle sprain as far as I know right now. A lot of the fourth downs and the short yardage and all these things, we had both packages of kind of DJ runs, and then really a lot of running in the game.
He hurt himself. I think prior to hurting, two called runs. There was a fair amount of runs in this game that were called.
"And, so, him going out or him being hurt really cut that down. And we had to go to another package for the third-and-short and the fourth-and-short calls. So I credit [OC Jake Spavital] for mining those calls and getting kind of deep into the book to be able to do that because I thought DJ being able to play through pain and fighting through and pushing off and doing all those things, I thought was tremendous and inspiring."
Given how recent Coach Aranda gave this interview to how soon after this article is being written, no further updates have been provided in terms of the injury to DJ Lagway's ankle. Heavily wrapped and having Lagway appear more statuesque than the game plan had ever intended, he looked to be uncomfortable with every step.
Unable even to make it to the locker room under his own power at half time, having to be helped along with one arm on either side of fellow Bears teammates, and also because his right ankle was so heavily wrapped by that point that it almost needed a helmet of it's own.
The accuracy and overall zip on his passes that Lagway had at the very start of the game was noticeably higher than it would be throughout the rest of the game; but a motorcycle with a flat tire will still get you down the highway, just not at the same speed.
Gavin Freeman had a Pretty Strong Debut as a Bear
"He's been who we thought he was. He's been like that ever since the beginning. What's cool about Gavin is he's taken ownership of the team. Gavin's one of the guys, just his life story and his family and his upbringing and his high school and college career, just everything that he's done and how he's lived his life -- if Gavin Freeman was a football team, you're backing him because that team's going to win. That team's going to win.
"So to get the Gavin Freeman of the world to own this team, to put it on his back and say, hey, this is my team and to lead it that way is way special for us. And I think we'll transform into what you see.
Because he's that way. There's countless clips of him being dependable. If you were to tell me on a fourth and whatever he'd make an amazing catch to move the chains, I would not hesitate to believe you because he's done that countless times."
If his performance in this game is any level of indication as to how good his hands are going to be for the rest of this season, Gavin Freeman is going to put up some entertaining numbers. The "5th year transfer from Oklahoma State" led by example in a manner befitting of Baylor athletics and is a true Bear, finishing with a dozen catches for 154 yards and a touchdown. Freeman can safely say that he was able to do his 1/11th this week.
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Brad is a writer and contributes to the Baylor Bears on SI, with aspirations to share his own unique thoughts and perspectives with fans. Whether through the facts and figures of the past or the untold potential and triumphs of the future, sports have always been a large influence on Brad's storytelling and life overall. His inspiration to write began while watching sports when he first noticed the highs and lows of each game, each quarter, each play; there's a story in each of them worth telling, and he wanted to tell them.
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