Dave Aranda Updates Status of Three Baylor Players Who Suffered Injuries in 2025

As spring practice is underway in Waco, will the Bears get some key players back?

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Spring practice is underway in Waco and after coming off a 5-7 campaign, Baylor is looking to make some big improvements this season. The Bears utilized the transfer portal well and brought in several players who should be able to step right in and make a difference in 2026.

While Baylor added some fresh faces, the Bears are also getting back some veterans who weren't able to make an impact in 2025 due to injuries.

At running back, Bryson Washington is gone after he opted to transfer to Auburn, but Baylor returns former starter Dawson Pendergrass, who didn't see a down in 2025. The redshirt junior suffered a season-ending injury in the spring last year, but he is rearing to go, along with a running back room that is looking to make a name for itself.

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"I'm feeling great, man," Pendergrass told the media on Tuesday. "Great medical team we have. They got me back. I'm feeling 100%. I feel very confident with the room we have, too. A bunch of dogs, a bunch of hard workers. Some people had to make some names for themselves last year and took full advantage of that opportunity to do that. So I'm feeling very confident about the room next year."

At running back, Pendergrass is the veteran. Behind him are sophomores Michael Turner and Caden Knighten, along with incoming freshmen Ryelan Morris and HD Davis.

"Oh, yeah. It's definitely a little different being like one of the older guys in the room, not used to that," admitted Pendergrass. "But, you know, God put me in this place for a certain reason, and, you know, it's just up to me to do what I need to do."

Getting playmakers back on defense

Baylor's defense certainly disappointed last season, but the Bears were plagued with the injury bug. Heading into the 2025 season, the Bears landed one of the most coveted linebackers out there after they landed FAU's Travion Barnes.

Barnes was the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year in 2024 after finishing fifth in the nation in tackles. But between learning a new system and suffering a season-ending injury after the fourth game, things didn't go the way Barnes had hoped for.

But the 6', 252-pound linebacker is back and better than ever. Dave Aranda spoke about Barnes and what he brings to the table.

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"He's a natural linebacker," Aranda said. "I think to play inside backer, you have to have an instinct and a feel for things. I think there's so many things happening at once that it's not really a linear deal. It's very much you have to – you're driving your car 80 miles an hour, and you're watching a movie on the screen, and you're looking at your phone all at the same time.

"So you have to have that ability to kind of take in all these things and still get the car from A to B. And inside linebackers are blessed with the ability to do that. He has that pretty strong."

However, Barnes isn't the only player Baylor gets back on the defensive side of the ball who suffered a season-ending injury. After starting 11 games for Northwestern in 2024, safety Devin Turner looked to make an instant impact in the Bears' secondary last year, but suffered a season-ending injury in Baylor's spring game in 2025.

Turner is back and is looking to add that veteran presence in Baylor's safety room.

"He's been a great leader for us so far, I think," Aranda said of Turner. "He is blessed with that gene, and then he works really hard at it too. And so when he got hurt last year, that was impactful. His ability to communicate, his recall on just things that he gets installed the day of and then to go to the field is very special.

"And then he's got such command of it, and then he'll hold you way accountable for it. And so all of it makes just a really, really positive leader. So to have that now on our side, and then to have someone that's in the corner of doing right off the field and on really helps us be a better team."