Bears Coach Dave Aranda is Looking For More Than a Win in Week 1

With so many roles up for grabs, the Bears' performance is just as important as the result.

When the Baylor Bears take the field Saturday against the Albany Great Danes, just about everyone in green and gold will expect a lopsided victory.

Bears coach Dave Aranda likely expects the same, but there is something else his team is chasing in Week 1. When asked what he was looking for, Aranda boiled it down to one word...identity.

"The number one thing for us is to put our identity out, to play with some great competitive maturity, to have really strong energy and doing those things to hopefully get the result we want," Aranda said. "Whatever it takes for that would be the ideal."

Playing against another team for the first time with this new group, Aranda and his staff will focus on the little things and the habits that will make them successful farther down the line.

"There is a jazz musician who said 'jazz is simple, but simple ain't easy,' and it would really be great to be good at the 'simple ain't easy' part," Aranda said. "For us to really make an impact in that area would be ideal."

You might need to take a philosophy class to translate that answer, but Aranda wants his Bears to find out who they are as a team and to stick to it, rather than be all the things they can be somewhere down the line or consciously trying to be a top 10 team in the country.

It doesn't take a jazz musician or Confucius to tell us the Bears' identity is likely to change from 2021. That just takes one look at the roster. They lost all their playmakers in the second and third level of a vaunted defense as well as replacing all their skill position starters on offense besides tight end Ben Sims.

"After every day you have a brand new team," Aranda said. "There's been a good focus and a good connection with the team to not get outside the lines with [the preseason #10 ranking.]"

After a three-touchdown performance from linebacker turned running back Abram Smith in Week 1 of the 2021 season, the Bears established their identity early on. They were a power-running team that owned the trenches on both sides of the ball and were highlighted by a tenacious defense.

With a new crop of running backs and a quarterback who seems to fit the mold of Jeff Grimes' more pass-heavy offense in Blake Shapen, we could well see a much different Bears squad in 2022.

Bears fans could see a lot of player rotation in Saturday's game, especially in the skill positions.

While Aranda wants to get several guys in there who earned playing time, he realizes this team needs to make their own mark, not just ride off their success from a season ago.

"Any opportunity we have to give guys work who deserve work is always strong," Aranda said. "But this is a brand new team, we have ideals, we have values that we would love for this team to identify with, but this team ain't done anything yet."

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