Dave Aranda Provides Updates on Two Key Baylor Football Contributors

The NCAA is in an odd place. One of the biggest things to follow in the news cycle surrounding college football is what happens in a court room.

Players are actively suing the NCAA for their eligibility in hopes to remain in school for one more season.

Eventually, this is something that should get worked out with the new five for five rule that was recently passed, but there are still some players hoping to be grandfathered in under the previous rules.

Two of them happen to be big parts of what Baylor football was hoping to do this season.

One For Two?

Yakiri Walker and Hosea Wheeler were both looking to be key contributors on the line of scrimmage.

Last week, Walker went from a potential starting offensive lineman to a coach on the staff. His case is over and in the books, which put him and the team in a difficult position that head coach Dave Aranda lamented on Wednesday.

“Yeah, Yakiri, that was something in the kind of the planning of, hey, this was going to be the next step with, you know, getting a lawyer and and taking this to making this a court case and taking it to a judge,” Aranda said.

“The talk then was, hey, if it didn't work out, what's our plan? Because at that point, the supplemental draft or the talk of the supplemental draft had come and gone. And he brought up coaching that he wanted to coach. And so that was something that we agreed to and wanted to do if we didn't get the verdict that we wanted.”

Since Walker did not get the verdict he wanted, he’s now on the coaching staff as an analyst, potentially working toward entering his name in the 2027 NFL Draft.

Baylor is back to the drawing board on the offensive line and trying to find someone to be their pivot man in the middle.

Hosea Wheeler update

On defense, they’re in a similar situation. The biggest addition to their defense this offseason was defensive tackle Hosea Wheeler. Wheeler gives the Bears’ defense a big presence in the middle along with championship pedigree as he spent last season with the Indiana Hoosiers.

The Bears are hoping they can bat .500 in court cases, because as of now Wheeler’s status with the team is in doubt.

He has a hearing on August 11 to determine his eligibility for the 2026 season.

The Bears need him to improve on their putrid defense from a season ago. For now, Aranda and the rest of the team are just like the rest of us.

In a holding pattern.

“And then with all of it, you know, with Hosea, we're still it's difficult with all of it because you can't really you can't assert yourself. You can't be in the middle to kind of stay updates. And so there's not a lot of truthfully, just not a lot of input coming to me,” Aranda said.

“And it's not really a place where I can go and ask about it either. So it's very, you know, we very much want Hosea to be on this team and contribute. And so it's just a weird space thing as a weird space for him, you know, to lead and to bring the energy and do all of it, not knowing if this is the last day or the whatever else, you know.”

Ultimately, it appears that both Wheeler and Walker are finding ways to contribute off the field in the event neither is ultimately able to be on it when the season begins in a month.

“And so, yeah, they're right now. This is where we're at. And I credit both Yakiri and Hosea and their families for going at it in a real kind of class way, because it's we're right up to the to starting everything off and to get stuff that's really late like this is a big mental lift,” Aranda said.

Following #Baylor's first fall practice, Dave Aranda and a trio of players met with the media.

There was one keyword used today and it was 'focus'.

Aranda channeled his inner Batman, speaking about the climb following the 2025 season.

STORY: https://t.co/DRt99iAc6w pic.twitter.com/in9lqwux4j
— Baylor Bears On SI (@BaylorBearsOnSI) August 5, 2026

Add us as a preferred source on Google