'Pissed off a whole lot more' — Aranda's vibe shift at center of changing attitude of Baylor program

Hunched down in an active stance during a scrimmage earlier this spring at McLane Stadium, Baylor head coach Dave Aranda wasn’t shy to say how he really felt about a drill the linebackers had just run.

“Frick.”

Only he didn’t say Frick, but rather a common refrain that also starts with F and rhymes with “truck” that is uttered when something goes wrong on a football field.

For Aranda, the stoic and philosophical fourth-year coach of the Bears, to have such an outburst in a setting unprotected by locker room walls or a headset on the sidelines, represents a clear shift.

After Baylor finished last season with an underwhelming 3-9 record, lost seven of its program-record eight home games and ended the year on a five-game losing streak, something had to change.

When the season ended, Aranda presented athletic director Mack Rhoades with a big-picture plan on why he was the right guy to continue leading the football program.

“My biggest question: Coach, great plan, can you execute it? If you can’t execute it, then we’re wasting each other’s time,” Rhoades said in a one-on-one interview with the Tribune-Herald in February.

“That’s when I think I knew, like, yeah, this guy, he knows. He looked at me confidently, straight in the eyes, and said, ‘Yeah, absolutely. I can execute this, and I will execute it.’”

The first step was a change in responsibility for Aranda, who will take over as defensive play caller and have a more hands-on role with coaching linebackers, a role he was elite at in his time at Wisconsin and LSU.

Step two was bringing in more coaches with head coaching experience to ease the burden on Aranda.

The end result has been an overall vibe shift since spring practice began last month.

“I feel pissed off a whole lot more,” Aranda said. “I feel like I get mad more than I normally would. I think the intensity of everything is way risen up.”

Shifting responsibilities

This season will be year two for Matt Powledge as defensive coordinator at Baylor.

Powledge, however, might have that title in name only, as Aranda will be calling plays, and has fully put his stamp on that side of the ball throughout the spring, while Powledge is focused on the safeties.

“I think the roles are set, they’re very clear,” Powledge said. “Everybody kind of knows what it takes on how to win a championship in this league and what it looks like. We know the work that needs to be done.

“Personally… it’s not a lighter load, it’s not a heavier load. It takes what it takes.”

Powledge previously coached safeties for Baylor in 2020 and 2021 before spending the 2022 season as a co-defensive coordinator at Oregon.

“I think it’s always hard when you were something and then you’re now you’re something else,” Aranda said. “I think if there’s one guy that can go through all that and grow and really take all of it to a whole other level, it’s (Powledge).”

To add even more experience to the defensive coaches’ room, former TCU head coach Gary Patterson, who turned the Horned Frogs into an elite defensive team in his tenure of more than 20 years, was hired as a senior consultant.

Sometimes when all the elite defensive coaching minds come together in one room it can look more like calculus than football.

“When you get into the room, it can be hard to pick up on what (Aranda is) talking about,” sixth-year linebacker Matt Jones said. “Especially when he brings a pencil out and the cards with all the players on it, it’s like, ‘Here we go, time to lock in.’”

Powledge got a lot of praise from coaches and players alike last season that he brought a youthful exuberance to the field even as a chance at the postseason was seemingly slipping away.

He continued to stay positive and aims to learn from the wealth of coaching experience that’s around him this season.

“If you were going to formulate a list of (the) best defensive minds in college football over the last 10 years you would definitely have both (Patterson and Aranda) on the list,” he said. “It’s been amazing for me. I always feel like I’ve had a learning mentality, no matter what my role is.”

The Bears had one of the worst defenses in the Big 12 last season, allowing a conference-most 33.3 points per game, while finishing with the second-most rushing yards allowed per game (184.9) and third-most total yards allowed per game(421.3).

Baylor finished the year 110th of 130 FBS teams in total defense.

The last time Aranda called a defense with LSU in 2019, he won a national championship.

“There’s nowhere to go but up with us and improve,” Aranda said “For sure, that’s recognized, but we wanna be damn good, so we’re trying.”

Getting down and dirty

On the first day of winter workouts, transfer linebacker Keaton Thomas could feel his head starting to spin as Aranda was diagramming some plays on a whiteboard during a meeting.

“You think you know a lot about football, (but) when he gets on the board, Coach Aranda, he’s on a totally different level,” Thomas said. “I’ve learned so much, and it’s only been two to three months.”

No group figures to benefit more from a more focused Aranda than the linebackers, the position Aranda not only played but has coached at an elite level for most of his nearly 30-year coaching career.

Wisconsin allowed the fewest yards per game in the nation during his two-year stint as defensive coordinator/linebackers coach.

In his first year at LSU, one of his linebackers broke the school record for single-season sacks. The defense ranked in the top three in the SEC in rushing defense and sacks in three of his four seasons with the Tigers.

In six seasons as a defensive coordinator at the Power 5 level, his defenses have ranked in the Top 12 nationally in total yards five times.

This season, he’s putting a lot of that energy into the Baylor linebacker room.

“It’s requiring all of us to coach better,” outside linebackers coach Caleb Collins said. “The level of detail… has brought in a level of accountability. If you step foot in our defensive staff room, there’s not a wall in there that’s not covered.”

It hasn’t taken long for Aranda to really put his stamp on the Baylor defense.

The Bears have been working on some new linebacker looks throughout the spring, including a ‘cinco’ package that puts two Jacks — outside linebackers that rush the quarterback — on the field at once.

“That’s a Coach Aranda specialty,” Collins said.

The opportunity to be coached by Aranda is the main reason Jones, who led the Bears in tackles last season, decided to come back.

“When he said he was taking over as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, I knew it was a great opportunity just looking at the past and all the other linebackers he’s put in the league,” Jones said.

To see the level of commitment from their head coach has given all the linebackers a renewed sense of optimism.

“(It means) everything,” sixth-year senior linebacker Garmon Randolph said. “If you know who Dave Aranda is, you know that you should listen to Dave Aranda, because he’s not going to steer you the wrong way, at all.”

Upping the energy

Jack Stone can sense the shift.

As someone who spends a lot of time on the sideline watching football or even on a different practice field, the junior kicker has a unique perspective when it comes to judging Baylor’s vigor.

“There’s definitely more energy,” Stone said. “The record last year was disappointing. We’re a much better team than that. Guys just want to get back out there and show people what we can do.”

It’s not just the record and how the year ended that weighs heavily on the minds of the players and coaches that were on the team last year, it’s the way some of those losses went down.

Baylor’s offense came alive in the second half to force overtime against Houston, only for the Bears to lose on a two-point conversion in overtime.

The Bears got off to a hot start for one of the only times all season on the road against Kansas State, only to see the defense fall apart in a lopsided loss.

Baylor played its best all-around football in the second half of the season finale against West Virginia, but the Mountaineers scored in the final minute of the game to end the Bears’ season on a sour note.

There’s plenty more adversity to look back upon, but this year’s team is trying to turn that negativity into a positive.

“I feel like there’s a new kind of vibe on the team,” receiver Josh Cameron said. “I feel like there is a real, true hunger and a belief that we can do something next year if we all stick together and be about our business.”

On the field, the boost in energy is easy to spot.

First-year offensive coordinator Jake Spavital’s new offense is up-tempo, and an early period of nearly every practice this spring involved the entire offense sprinting to the line each play during a quick series.

That’s forced the defense to play faster, which has been an adjustment throughout the spring and will continue until the season opener at home against Tarleton State on Aug. 31.

Off the field, the shift starts at the top.

“Being involved with defense the way that I am, the first thing I’m doing when I wake up in the morning is film and ball and studying and all of it,” Aranda said. “There’s a sense of urgency. There is a real push to get it right.

“I think when you are built that way, and that’s kind of flowing through you, that’s addictive, and that catches fire. My hope is that that’s the case with us.”