Everything Dave Aranda said following Baylor's crushing home loss to Auburn

The Bears didn't start the season as they hoped.

Chris Jones-Imagn Images

It wasn't how it was supposed to go for Baylor on Friday night against Auburn. The Bears were bullied up front on both sides of the ball and the Baylor defense allowed Jackson Arnold to kill it with his legs. Baylor attempted to make a run late, but it was too little, too late.

The Baylor Bears fell to 0-1 following a 38-24 loss to Auburn. Here is everything Dave Aranda said following the loss.

Opening statement

It's good to see you guys, really disappointed with tonight. It's a tough locker room to leave. Guys were upset and frustrated. And I think it's tough to go through a game like that. I felt that there's a bunch of effort in that game. I thought there was a bunch of try hard and want to. The execution, just so much to be desired. There's too many times where we would make a move and try to get in the thing to only get in our own way. Whether it was the return, or it was a penalty, or it was a bust.

And so just way disappointed in that, and so much to correct. I think in talking to the team, there's been some opportunities that we've had and we've fallen short. We have to be able to use the reasons that are showing up on tape and correct them that we're falling up short. We've got to fix it. And we've got to be in a better position, because we've got a great opportunity here coming up next week. And we want to be an improved team in all of this that we're going through now. We want it to be for good, and we want to be improved because of it. And not let the discouragement weigh us down. That's really the challenge that's ahead of us right now.

Was Auburn rushing for over 300 yards the most disappointing thing?

I knew, he knew they were gonna run the quarterback. And there was design quarterback runs that we really should have fit up better than what we did. Then there was also, and this happened a couple times, we're in match coverages where we're really kind of matching them pretty tight. Quarterback was instructed to see that and just take off running. So he would abort whatever play he had and just run.

And we would be a guy under and a guy over the top. And so we weren't playing man throughout the game because of some of the matchups. So that match coverage was a way to play kind of tight coverage on them. And when that went away, we're really kind of playing zone throughout of it. And so there was an adjustment that had to be made there.I think the biggest disappointment in all of it, I thought, was just the tackling. I wish the tackling would have been so much better. And that's something we really have to address. A lot of these plays that hurt us tonight, we are gonna see here in a week. And the team we're playing already runs them. And so we got a lot of work to do.

Update on Jackie Marshall

So high sprain for him, and so he's day-to-day. That was a hit for us. He's one of our better players on defense. And we went to more four down fronts with him. I think he can play a three down and two gap and play inside to outside. Not having him, we don't really have that ability to do that. So we have to play more just in your gap and one man, one gap, which becomes an issue with the quarterback a little bit. But tried to blitz a little bit more too when he was gone. So we're hoping that we get Jackie back. We've got some players that have been with us now for about two, three weeks that we gotta bring along. We added them for depth, and the depth is needed right now.

Not getting rushing game going and offensive linemen having holding penalties

Yeah, it was, yeah. I thought that run game wise, we were able to have a few hits here and there. And then the score kind of got in the way of really kind of establishing the run. And I thought that Bryson really hadn't really scrimmaged or practiced quite a bit. We've really tried to protect Bryson all throughout. So there's some rust that came out with him. And then I thought Caden, there's some runs that happened in fall camp where Caden would be an A-gap hit and he'd bounce it out and get a bunch of yards and be effective. And that's always the thing with him is that while that is something that can be a positive, too many times you look for that and you're not following the line of your blocking and everything. And so I think there's some improvement to be made there. And I know Caden coming out the next time will be better for it.

But yeah, you'd like to get the run game started. When our run game is going, it opens up everything else. I think it almost really makes that what Sawyer and the receiving corps did that much more impressive when there wasn't a run game. And really the Auburn was teeing off on him the entire time.

On WRs having so many yards after catch

I'd say yes to both. I think that there was always belief that we're gonna come back and win this game. And no matter, even after that return, there was belief that we're gonna get us the ball back. And we're gonna go score and give us a chance to stop them. We're gonna stop them. And so I think I can attribute that to the leaders on this team. And there's so many guys that wanna fight for them. And that's a strength of our team.

But then I think the receivers, collectively, are very talented. And Sawyer was able to hit them in stride a lot of times. And if they're playing off, we're able to see it. And they were able to sit down in zones. And then if it's man, they're able to win on some slants and some in-breaking routes. A couple of them were batted down, but we're able to sneak some through there and get some runs after the catch.

How this game makes Baylor better going forward

I think anytime you play people that are very talented, it pushes you beyond. It forces you to kind of stretch. And the things that you would normally do to make a play, now that's not happening. So now what? You gotta be creative and find ways to go make that play. And then when you don't, you have to learn from it. And what could I have done? Or what could we do better? How could we avoid this? So just in all of these games, we wanna learn and get better and apply the things that are holding us back right now. And learn from them and apply the lessons. And so that come conference play or come next week, we're better for it.

What lacked on defense

I think it was the tackling.I think there's times that we would fit something upright and it's four yard gain. And there's times where we wouldn't fit something upright. And it was an eight to ten yard gain. And so first of all, we gotta fit everything upright. And second of all, when we do that, it can't be a four yard game. There needs to be a violence and intentionality where that thing is two yards or less. So there's a lot to be desired in that phase of it. And like I say, all the plays that we saw, SMU already runs. And so we got a lot of work to do.

On aggressive fourth-down calls

I felt the same. I thought that specifically, I thought that we had a good beat on what they're in and what they were gonna give us. And so it gave us a really kinda clear view of what we had to dial up to get that down. And then two, I thought that defensively, we were struggling to stop them. And we needed to create some momentum and keep the ball with the hot hands, so to speak. And so I think both of those things kind of made up all the fourth downs.

Is the tackling issues fixable

Yeah, I think you have to identify kind of the situations where they say, hey, there's this mistackle or there's this misfit. We overran a lot of stuff, which is disappointing. The position that I work with overran way too much. And yeah, I'm frustrated with myself on that. And so I feel like crap because of that. I let the team down that way. So there's drills I'm already thinking of that we need to emphasize more. And then we've gotta be able to find a way to tackle more live people and bring those people to the ground. And we'll do that.

On Kole Wilson

You know, I think Kole has been playing this way since he's been with us. And I think there's a real bright light inside of that guy. And it's contagious with him. And so the best for him is yet to come. I think we've got some other guys that are very talented as well that maybe need to catch that fire that he has, because they've got that ability to.

Message to fanbase after the loss

Yeah, it's the biggest disappointment, is that. I know the fans came out, supported, and the guys could feel that right from the very beginning. And what a difference that makes when McLane is filled, and it's loud, and everything else. And so that's, of all of it, that's the biggest and the most painful thing. But we have to get back to work, and we gotta win, and we know what we have to do. I have a good idea of how we have to go about doing it. And so we win, we'll get some more fans back in here and build McLane to what it needs to be.

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