Everything Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said ahead of Auburn football game

Dave Aranda spoke about both Baylor and his Week 1 opponent Auburn Tigers.

Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda met with the media on Monday for his weekly press conference. Here is everything he had to say about Auburn and his Baylor Bears.

Opening statement

It's good to see everybody. Excited for this moment. Good practice today. The focus and intensity in our guys and the staff is where you'd want it to be. Everyone's looking forward to this one. A lot of respect for Auburn and Coach Freeze and I know a lot of the coaches there and know a lot of those players.

And so a lot of respect for them and what they can do and what they're capable of. And really want them to achieve all of that. Just not here in this first game. And so looking forward to kicking the season off and I know that our guys are trying not to count the days but work during these days in the lead up to.

On the excitement of playing a Power Four school to start the season

I try to not focus on that. The emphasis is still the same as you mentioned. I think it's very much heavy on the outside of our building. Very heavy not that. And so I try to if they're colored by all of it outside the building when they come in the building, I try to turn it the other way. And so that's always a hard thing, especially when there's no school.

School is today. Even now where there is school, when you don't have them the entire time, I think it's always difficult.

On how big this game is

No. You know, I think the game is big. And hey, they got us in a negative first down and a second down, right? They know we're going to pass. Can we protect? Can we get separation on the receivers? You know, hey, we have a one-on-one tackle. Can we make it?Y ou know, hey, we have an edge set. Can we fill and beat the crack block? And can we play the crack and go that's coming later? You know, I just, those are the moments I think about.

On the Baylor secondary against the Auburn WRs

It's a challenge. I think it's a challenge. I think it's going to take the front people doing their part to help the people that are in the back. I think it's going to, I think we're going to have to be able to get calls in. We're going to have to have cleats in the ground. You know, I think if you're looking at it as a one-on-one or one versus one proposition, I can see where maybe from the Auburn side you feel confident about all of it.

I think we have to look at it as, hey, this is where my help is. This is where I'm playing to my help. This is my part in the thing .I'm going to do my part so that the overall team can execute. And so I think pass rush is a big part of that too.

I think it's going to come down to stopping the run and getting them into when we feel like they've got to throw it. I think if they're running the ball and they can play action pass and four-by-one RPO kind of at will, then I think we're not kind of in control of anything, and then that's when those matchups become an issue. I think if we're able to get it to where it's a one-sided thing, at least partly, I think we can play some of that better.

Update on Carl Williams

I don't think he's going to be back. I just passed him in the indoor, and they're repping him right now kind of post-practice on trying to loosen him up and that. But it doesn't look like he's going to make it.

On blitzing more to help the secondary

It's interesting because a lot of respect for the QB that they have, and we've watched a lot of film of him, whether it's OU or even high school, and got a big arm, so he's a big shot guy, and then is confident and collected enough to get checkdowns. But the scrambles are worrisome, and so I think more games are lost rather than won early in the season.

You look at the games that were played in Week 0 here, just all the turnovers and just all of it, and I think our game is probably going to be lost before it's won by somebody .So I just think being aggressive in all these things are things that you want to do, and you've got to be sound. You've got to keep the quarterback contained. You've got to make him earn it, and so those are things we're focusing on.

Change of philosophy calling the defense in Year 2

Yeah, there was a lot.I think in this league, I think the tempo, the offensive skill. I think the Big 12 favors offensive skill players, talent and everything, to defensive skill players. I think that there's a bunch of creativity and tempo. I think in the past in other leagues, there would be plays that could hit or they probably would hit, but there would be, man, I'm not going to call this in this game because if it doesn't hit, man, I'm going to get criticized.

There's none of that in this league. That will be one of the first three plays, and so there's kind of a go for the juggler thing.I think to combat that, you have to know how they're seeing you. They want the information of what coverage you're in, what front you're in, and how it works. A lot of them have the playbook pages to all of it, and so then I think if you start from that, there's a fair amount of kind of overhauling from the ground up work you've got to do. It's been cool to do that with this group. I'm excited to see how it looks.

On the concern of playing a Friday night game in Texas

Yeah, when there was another game that was being talked about for being played on Friday, too, possibly, and had calls to the Texas High School Coach Association and that kind of thing went away. I think this was possibly talked about as a Thursday prior, and once the one Friday game with the other point went away, the very next week this game came up as a Friday game. So at that point you're kind of going, this is what it is. And, you know, just the talks with just everyone involved, kind of being honest, and everyone understands why we're doing it. And so I just think, you know, you have to build and have those honest talks, and I'm thankful for everyone involved that we did that.

What makes Louis Brown special

I'm excited for him. I think he's got good size, speed, and, you know, there is a, I think this game could be, there's some dog in him. I'm trying to find the right words. I kind of don't want to say it that way. I don't know what else to say. I think he can very much take over a game. He can very much take over a series.

I think he has those qualities. And so there's been practices, scrimmages, that he's done that, you know. And right from the beginning, we've got a fair amount of quality transfers that are in here. We feel the quality, guys. And they've all achieved, to some degree, none as fast or as quick as him, none that were just as immediate as him, and none that have continued to take off as him. And so whatever he's got, I'm buying it.

On Auburn's LBs

Yeah, I think there's talent there. I think very similar in, you know, you look at the beginning of the year last year, and, you know, those first couple games, the Utah game comes to mind, and then you look at the end of the year, any of those last six or seven games, and the difference was in the beginning of the year, man, we would lose a block. We'd lose a one-on-one, you know.

A lot of what we do is block out, and so there's some man blocking going on, and we block out, and we'd be cross-faced, or a guy would slip underneath us, or towards the end of the season, you never really saw that at all. You saw, you know, pounding knees, and leverage, and lift, and finish, and all this thing, and so I think that is gonna be at a premium for this game because of the, you know, the talent that's assembled over there. I think that, along with tempo, and I think that along with the more, you know, the more that it's spread out, and if we're able to get loaded boxes, our ability to win on the perimeter, and to get those guys that are inside to run this way, and then run that way, and run back and forth, back and forth, and then hit them with a run is all part of it.

Update on Michael Turner

I don't know if he's gonna make it either. I thought that he would. I think he, you know, he was out there today. If I were to bet, he probably wouldn't make it. I'm hoping that he does, though. We'll see. I think that could be closer to game time.

On Josh Cameron from being a walk-on to now

I think there's always people, I think there's, you're always so thankful and grateful to have people that can be in any, and just, they can drop, they can be dropped off in a room, read the room, and they get it. They understand, they get it. They don't have to be told who's who, or they don't have to be told, hey, this is that agenda, or this is what these people are trying to do, or these people are for it, these people are not. Here's the dynamics, they get it, they read it. And then also on top of that, they can stay above the fray of everything. They can say, hey man, all this is going on, I'm just going to do my work, I'm going to put my head down, I'm going to do what I've got to do.

I just think that that is so rare. Oh my goodness. That's like, you know, what that allows you to do is to continually get better. Like, you never die. Everything that comes at you is for your own good, and you improve, and there you go. And Josh is very much that way. And you can see that right from the beginning. You know, there's guys, to me, when we cross over into football talk, it would be, hey, you tell them one time, they get it. Or someone makes that mistake, and they're across the room, they see it, they got it. Josh is very much that way.

On the kicking and snapping battles

They were rotating again today, yeah. We had competition periods today. We had a bunch of guys, so we break. We're in the indoor, and we're breaking outside to kick. We're outside for O&D, but then prior, we set up a little, like, a scrum, I guess, and we got guys over there, and they're yelling in the holders' ear hole, and they're trying to scream at the kicker, and we're trying to get them to kick, you know, 45-yard field goals and all that, and so we're keeping track of all that. We're going to do that again tomorrow, and then I think finally kind of finalize the deal. But, yeah, still going on.

On Auburn's run game

Yeah, that's the best thing they do. They're physical. You know, they move people. They're bump combos, and so, you know, if this is a three technique, there'll be a guard that'll post up a three technique, and there'll be a tackle that'll just come, and there's countless examples of where that three technique's ejected. I mean, just it's like watching a car crash. There it goes.

And so we can't allow that to be us. There's a bunch of people that have, you know, put that on film. Our challenge is to not do that. You know, I think their run game is a downhill run game. They run power without pullers. They'll run counter, and then, you know, they have their beaters. If they see, like, an odd front, there's things they like. If there's a four-down front, there's things they like. So they are a physical run game, and they've got talent running back.

On having veterans for a big primetime game

Very much so, yeah. It's very – it is. I think, you know, you want to start fast in a game like this. I think, you know, so much of what's different is coming out here and talking to you all because I can get the sense of it. I go back into – we go back into our little rooms in that building over there. We're kind of in the dark, and it's kind of like, hey, we're doing all this work in the dark. Pretty soon we're going to be stepping out into the light, and it can be bright sometimes for people, you know. And so I just think we've got guys that have been in the light before and have shown brightly in the light. And so that's helpful for some of the guys that haven't yet and are wanting to do that.

Challenges of having a game one day early

We're trying to move up the schedule. This is the second week of it. Or this would be – yeah, this is the third week of it, of just, you know, everything's a day ahead. And so, you know, we would start on our Sundays and then go through Monday, and then you'd end on Friday. So you kind of got on that schedule a couple weeks ago to kind of just have that rhythm of how that goes. And so I think it is – there's countless days I forget what day it is, you know, because we're doing that. And we're saying, hey, this is a practice day this, but really this is the actual day some other day. But we've been on that schedule here for a couple weeks.

On Sawyer Robertson's prep

He takes his preparation and he takes his responsibility on the team and in the offense very seriously. And he's been way detailed in his approach and, you know, with him and Spav, and in terms of the work they've done looking at film and getting on the same page. And what's neat is around this – coming around this year, right, Sawyer giving, hey, I like this, I like that. There's a bunch of that going on, which is cool to see. But I think his ability to kind of stay focused amongst all of the attention is something we've really been talking about since the start of summer whenever they kind of ramp up.

On who might take Carl Williams' spot

We've got a couple guys right now that are working there. And so I think, you know, there's 11 personnel. When it's a little bit more – when there's one tight end, three receivers, a little bit more spread out. And, you know, we want to be able to get a little bit more of a blitzer there. And then there's times when it's 12 personnel and we want, like, a bigger safety. Somebody that can possibly man up a tight end if need be and set edges and all that.

So I think we've got both guys – we've got both body types working there. I think one of the biggest differences with the defense, at least our plan is going into this first game, is to rotate quite a bit. You know, whether it's the linebacker position or the nickel slash safety position, I think that certainly, as always, the defensive line position will do that. But we want to rotate a fair amount and get multiple guys playing. We feel that we have the depth to do that.

Benefit of playing Power Four teams early

I think what it does is it forces you to be at your best when it matters most. I think it channels your focus. And then I think it helps to kind of get a brand and a name and gives you an opportunity to win a big game. And I think all those things are good. And I think all those things need to happen. And so, yeah, I'm excited about the opportunities that we have. I'm really looking forward to trying to capitalize on them.

On both NIL and recruiting

No.I mean, you get used to just the every day of, like, what it is. And when you do have time, it kind of messes you up, you know. But you're used to just kind of rolling and routine, I guess, when your routine is always such that whether you're looking at this or you're studying that or you're planning ahead for this next thing, you're just kind of always on it. And so I have not felt any negative stuff from that. I've always looked forward to the next thing that's coming.

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