Strength and weakness of Baylor football's hire of DC Joe Klanderman

Looking at Klanderman's history, there are some strengths, but also a glaring weakness.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Baylor football secured its defensive coordinator after Matt Powledge left for North Texas. Dave Aranda moved quickly and landed Kansas State's long-time DC Joe Klanderman. Klanderman, who was with the Wildcats since 2019 and coordinated the defense for the last six seasons, appears to be a great hire on the surface.

But like every coach, there are strengths and weaknesses to each hire. We are going to dive in and figure out what exactly Baylor is getting out of its new DC and what might be missing.

Strengths

On-field performance has been stellar for Klanderman over at Kansas State. Playing in the Big 12, there are some high-powered offenses, but in the last six seasons, KSU has been among the top 30 defenses -- while having a couple of down years.

Let's dive into how KSU has ranked in both scoring and total defenses since he's been the DC.

Scoring defense

• 2020: 84th (32.2 PPG)
• 2021: 23rd (21 PPG)
• 2022: 29th (21.9 PPG)
• 2023: 27th (21 PPG)
• 2024: 49th (23.4 PPG)
• 2025: 80th (26.7 PPG)

Total defense

• 2020: 97th (444.7 YPG)
• 2021: 30th (344.9 YPG)
• 2022: 64th (375.1 YPG)
• 2023: 59th (372.5 YPG)
• 2024: 43rd (343.3 YPG)
• 2025: 80th (386.2 YPG)

Chris Jones-Imagn Images

While the start and end weren't the best for the KSU defense, Klanderman has had very good defenses during his time with Kansas State.

Klanderman has been able to develop players and get the most out of his units. With Aranda being a defensive-minded coach, this pairing should work -- at least on the surface.

Potential weakness

While Klanderman has done well on the field, it doesn't appear that he is a great recruiter. While Klanderman doesn't have to be the best recruiter on the staff, the Baylor defense is in need of talent and having another solid recruiter on staff is never a bad thing.

Looking at Klanderman's 247Sports' profile for all-time recruits, he hasn't landed any prospect of a four-star or five-star caliber. As the primary recruiter, Klanderman's best win is three-star safety Logan Bartley, who was ranked as the 706th-best prospect in the nation.

For more perspective, in his six seasons as the DC, he only landed 14 players as the primary recruiter. Time will tell if this can improve at Baylor, but that is the only glaring weakness with the hire.

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• Baylor set to hire Joe Klanderman as new defensive coordinator
• Baylor might not be done recruiting following the firing of Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore
• Baylor basketball assistant leaving the program