Baylor football's defensive report card after 9 games
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Nine games into this 2025 college football season, the Baylor Bears have posted a 5-4 record. Three games remain, two of which will be played within the friendly confines of McLane Stadium. Head coach Dave Aranda, considered by many in the coaching profession to be a defensive genius, has failed to impart his wisdom onto his defense.
So, how have the three levels of the Bears’ defense performed up to this point of the season? Let’s take a look.
Defensive Line: F
One statistic that is a good measure of productive defensive line play is tackles for loss. This unit for Baylor ranks in the bottom third of the FBS in that category. Specifically, the Bears rank 124th in tackles for loss with a total of 33 on the season.
Safety DJ Coleman leads Baylor with just five TFLs, which tells you all you need to know about the lack of penetration the Bears' defensive linemen have produced at the line of scrimmage. In the win over UCF, Baylor posted just two tackles for loss and only one sack.
Linebackers: C-
Linebacker Keaton Thomas ranks third in the Big 12 in tackles with 79, which leads Baylor. The linebacker with the next highest total of tackles is Kyland Reed with 32 stops. Thomas has posted four games of double-digit tackles, but is coming off the win over UCF in which Thomas recorded just four tackles.
Secondary: C
The Bears rank 49th nationally in interceptions with seven. Leading the team in that category is Jacob Redding with three. Against UCF, Baylor picked off two passes, including one by Redding. Redding has returned one interception for a score and has recorded 41 tackles. Safety Devyn Bobby is second on the team in tackles with 58.
stay where u at💯 Just keep goin https://t.co/RfhZ8jrjcB
— caldra williford (@CaldraW_) November 2, 2025
The Bears have three opportunities to prove to the college football world that Aranda is what everybody thought he was-an ace at stopping opposing offenses in their tracks. This defense will face an immense obstacle in that regard on November 15 when the 13th ranked Utah Utes come to McLane Stadium.
Utah rolls into Waco, TX as the No. 3 team in the country when it comes to running the football. They are rushing the football for an average of 267 yards per game. It will be an all-hands-on-deck approach to stop the Utes at the line of scrimmage and force some much-needed negative plays.
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Tony comes to On SI with six years of experience writing about sports online. His work has been published on such sites as The Gridiron News, Mike Farrell Sports, YardBarker, Athlon Sports and College Football Backers. Tony is a U.S. Air Force veteran and is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA).
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