New Baylor D-Line Coach Jacori Greer Drawn to Coach Under Dave Aranda

Baylor made the addition of hiring Jacori Greer as its new defensive line coach for the 2026 season, a move made back in December. Greer spent last season as the D-line coach at Coastal Carolina, and was with Louisiana Tech before that.

Appearing on 'The Sic 'Em Podcast', Greer said coaching in the Big 12 has always been a dream of his and he's excited that it's with the Baylor Bears.

"This is a conference that I've always just dreamed about coaching in," Greer said. "I mean, the style of play, the competition you play every week, it's really a defensive line dream in my opinion, right? Like the guys that can be explosive, that can get off the ball, really do well in this league. And so being with Joe [Klanderman], who's a visionary, his vision is for our defensive line to be that aggressive. I'm really excited about it."

Getting to know his players

With getting to Waco back in late December, the transfer portal in full swing, Greer is really just now getting to know his players and the coaching staff at Baylor. Greer is coming from a Coastal Carolina team that he helped transform into a team that ranked 59th in the nation, averaging 5.6 tackles for loss.

But the first priority for Greer is getting to know his new players, their families, and their backgrounds. While Greer is still learning who he has on the team, one thing that he does know — it's a hungry bunch.

"We've been getting to know each other, I would say, probably over the last month," Greer said. "I think Coach Aranda really has set the tone and tempo of he wants us to be a close team. And so with that, like it's all relationships, man. I've been spending more time, less time actually talking football, more time talking about their family. More talking about we've got a couple players that have kids.

"And so getting to know them and their kids and their situation and where they live, that's what this has been. But now we've kind of transitioned to actually on the field, and it's been awesome just to see how hungry they are. I don't know how good we're going to be right this second, but I know we've got a hungry group that wants to compete and really want to find ways to be successful."

Coaching under Dave Aranda

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda might be squarely on the hot seat entering the 2026 season, but his background and ability to coach the defense is one reason Greer wanted to come to Waco. Add in that Aranda hired Joe Klanderman to run the defense, and Greer felt like this was the right spot for him.

"Yeah, I think that was one of the allures of this job, and I think his reputation in that is, I mean, it's huge, right," Greer said of Aranda. "And so getting to hear his thoughts about certain things and how we play and our style of play is really, really important to me. At the same time, he's been awesome with just letting Joe do his deal and kind of just watching and being involved. If he has a question, he'll ask. I think that relationship is really going to set us apart from other places."