Dave Aranda's seat gets hotter as Baylor falls to 4-4
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Coming into the 2025 college football season, the Baylor Bears had incredibly high expectations. Although Dave Aranda and company had gotten off to a rough start in 2024, finishing the season by rattling off six back-to-back wins was a strong indicator of a bright future the following season. The only remaining piece of the puzzle was to bring back quarterback Sawyer Robertson, who was poised for a breakout season, and bring in the right pieces via the transfer portal. All of that did end up happening, which is what gave many people in Waco a lot of hope that this team could very well be special and have enough in them to make a push for the college football playoffs.
Fast-forward to today: the Baylor Bears are now sitting at 4-4 overall and are sitting at 10th in the conference, having lost their last two games. The rapid plunge from postseason hopeful to now another season of mediocrity has left a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths and has led them to question whether Dave Aranda is still the right guy for the job.
In a recent article published by On3's Pete Nakos, he listed a couple of universities to watch amid the "coaching carousel." One of the schools that Nakos listed as a potential target for a coaching change was the Baylor Bears. In his article, Nakos wrote the following regarding the Bears:
Entering the season, the temperature had cooled down around Dave Aranda. The Baylor head coach answered two losing seasons with an 8-5 record and a 6-3 mark in the Big 12. But the Bears are now 4-4, including a 41-20 loss Saturday to Cincinnati. Industry sources have told On3 to keep an eye on Baylor in the final four-game stretch of the year, with matchups against UCF, Utah, Arizona and Houston. Aranda is well-liked, however, and has a buyout north of $12 million.
In one of my most recent articles, I mentioned that if Aranda failed to come up with a win against the Bearcats in Baylor's most recent game, some would begin to question whether he is still the right guy for the job. If Aranda still wants to have a job by the end of the season, Baylor is going to need to finish out the season with at least 3 wins, requiring a win over one of the remaining top 25 teams on Baylor's schedule (Houston & Utah). Only time will tell if Aranda will be able to keep his job safe, but as it stands right now, Aranda's seat continues to heat up and will even potentially start to boil if change is not seen on the field soon.
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Josh started covering Baylor athletics in July 2025. Prior to Baylor Bears on SI, he worked as an intern for TheMichiganInsider at 247Sports. Josh graduated from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, with a bachelor’s degree in economics, where his passion for collegiate athletics continued to grow after attending his first game in The Big House. Combining his analytical background and his affinity for collegiate sports, Josh enjoys providing his unique perspective on the shifting dynamic equilibrium of the collegiate athletics landscape. When not watching sports, Josh enjoys cooking a nice meal, running, and traveling to new places with his friends and family.