Dave Aranda Named As a Coach on the Hot Seat Going Into 2026
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College football and the NFL season are both in the books. With the Seattle Seahawks and Indiana Hoosiers both winning their respective championships, there is proof that almost anything is possible if a team finds the right coach and puts together the right program.
The Baylor Bears may be in a situation where they have not been able to do that.
Dave Aranda was hired six years ago, and hope was renewed that he could bring a dominant defense that often followed him in his stints in both Madison and Baton Rouge when he was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin and LSU, respectively.
Looking Ahead
That has not been the case, and now, the Bears are entering a make-or-break type of campaign and Aranda could find himself on the hot seat.
It seems strange to already be looking ahead to the 2026 season, but football is a year-round sport, and we’re only weeks away from spring football.
Recently, CBS Sports put together a watch list of coaches who could be on the move going into 2026.
That could mean guys getting promotions, or those who could find different jobs based on openings in other programs.
First on the list was USC’s Lincoln Riley, who has been disappointing since bolting to USC from Oklahoma. Riley has yet to take the Trojans to the playoffs, and lost badly to Utah in his only opportunity to make the playoff as the Pac-12 champion when Caleb Williams was his starting quarterback.
Other interesting names of guys that could be on the move included Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, and Kansas’ Lance Leipold.
At the bottom of the list of sitting head coaches, was Aranda. CBS wrote:
Continuing the trend of coaches within the Lone Star State, Aranda joins Wisconsin's Luke Fickell, Shane Beamer and a few others on college football's hottest seats next fall as his tenure torpedoed further south with the Bears in 2025. Since that 12-win campaign in 2021, has just one winning season and is 15-21 overall against Big 12 competition. Aranda's 36-37 at Baylor ahead of Year 7 in Waco.
Troubling Trends
36-37 is not what the masses in Waco had in mind when Baylor took over, and they are behind the Jones’s in the Big 12 after finishing in the bottom half a season ago with a 5-7 record, which included 3-6 in conference play.
Combine that with the fact they’ve only beaten rival TCU once since this decade, there are too many troubling trends that are starting to pile up in Waco.
Aranda will get an opportunity this season to right the ship. He has the transfer portal quarterback in DJ Lagway, which prevents Baylor from having any excuses as to why they’re not performing to the expectations.
If they do not find their way more toward the nine or 10 win mark, Aranda will likely be looking elsewhere for employment in 2027.
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Jacob Westendorf is a contributing writer for Baylor Bears on SI. He is also a writer covering the Green Bay Packers for Packers on SI. Westendorf graduated from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay where he earned a degree in communication with an emphasis in journalism and mass media. He worked in newspapers in Green Bay and Rockford, Illinois. He also interned at Packer Report for Bill Huber while earning his degree. In 2018, he became a staff writer for PackerReport.com, and a regular contributor on Packer Report's "Pack A Day Podcast." In 2020, he founded the media company Game On Wisconsin. In 2023, he rejoined Packer Central, which is part of Sports Illustrated Media Group.