OPINION: This is What Baylor Football was Supposed to be all Season

Baylor wasn't supposed to be 5-3 right now, though I suppose that all depends on who you ask. Then again, depending on who you ask, the Bears were supposed to have Dave Aranda as their head coach throughout the entirety of the season as well. Needless to say, this season hasn't exactly been a normal one by most metrics.

That's where the Bears are this season though, trying to make the best of a less than ideal situation. Let's face it, there are four games left in the season, and the last three of them are against possibly Baylor's toughest opponents. It's an uphill climb ahead of them after already being tripped up on a few fronts. But, judging by just this week after the Bears beat UCF 41-9, Baylor could still finish the season strong, and even the Big 12 Championship isn't entirely out of reach.

Joe Klanderman is a Defensive Wizard

W for Coach K! pic.twitter.com/52udVfCrPS
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) October 31, 2026

Joe Klanderman said during his Media Availabilty that he wasn't auditioning for the Baylor head coaching job this week against UCF. However, if we were to take just this one game as his audition, it was one heck of an audition. Winning 41-9 as head coach, still calling the defense as he also mentioned that he would, and having that defense perform as dominantly as Baylor's did against the Knights are all quite difficult to argue against.

A Healthy DJ Lagway is a Baller

No tricks, just treats. 🎃#SicEm | @TheGavinFreeman pic.twitter.com/9iAemo5zuX
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) October 31, 2026

A performance of 16-25 for 319 yards and 4 touchdowns; the last time DJ Lagway had a game like this, he was the Big 12 player of the week. Whether that's true again this week is honestly irrelevant as what matters is that Lagway was the better quarterback in the win against UCF.

Crisp speed and tight spirals on his passes, safe decision-making throughout most of the game, and actually showing a willingness to run the ball as well? All of these were what Baylor fans were hoping to get from the former 5-star recruit. The ankle injury that kept Lagway out effectively for a majority of the season so far no longer seems to be an issue, but the "what if Lagway had been healthy all season?" question will certainly hang heavy over the season once the dust finally settles.

Penalties are Still a Problem

A dozen penalties for 85 yards, with most of them being pre-snap penalties or holding penalties by the offensive line is just unacceptable and inexcusable. It's not a new problem though, unfortunately, as penalties have plagued Baylor the entire season up to this point.

On at least a couple of occasions throughout the game, potential points were taken off the board due to some laundry on the field. At one point, it looked like DJ Lagway was going to be credited with a touchdown as a runner, but the holding penalty called Sieracki saw a big play turn into backwards movement for the offense. Watching a touchdown nullified because of a penalty that didn't need to be committed is always a bit of a letdown, after all.

When a Team Works Towards a Common Goal, Great Things can be Achieved

All glory to Him pic.twitter.com/rjCTuBaNS7
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) October 31, 2026

The phrase "complementary football" gets thrown around a lot. It's general coach-speak for "the whole team playing in unison" and to be fair, there's a lot of obvious merit to that. In his Media Availability on Monday though, Coach Klanderman had this to say about "complementary football":

"I think the definition of complementary football around here has been misinterpreted in my mind. We kind of always define complementary football as the defense is going to play really good, and the offense is going to play really good, and we're going to kick the ball really good. It doesn't work like that. Sometimes one of those phases is struggling, and complementary football is how can the other phases pick that phase up.

"And the measure of a great team is that it's not the absence of pressure. It's that no one person or one unit or one anything has to bear that pressure alone. It's how can we balance that out through everybody and throughout the organization, and how can I take on as much of that through myself so that the players can go out there and play free, and that's my goal."

That goal was met on Friday.

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