The Baylor Bears struggled in Year 1 under Dave Aranda.
Complications with COVID derailed the Bears, making what is a hard transition to a new coach that much harder.
But Aranda is known for defense, and his Baylor team played excellent on that side of the football against the Oklahoma Sooners in early December.
Losing 27-21, the Bears held Oklahoma to their lowest in-conference point total since the Sooners were upset by Texas 24-17 in 2015.
“There’s a lot of pride on defense. We’ve got guys on that side of the ball that recognize what great play is and have an ownership of that and really work hard to elevate that. It’s personal to them,” Aranda said during his Big 12 Media Days press conference. “I think it came out that night particularly.”
Though the Bears caught Oklahoma at a good time as the Sooners were coming off a COVID-related postponement of their contest against West Virginia, Aranda’s defense still held OU to 269 total yards.
Aranda, who helped dismantle the OU offense while he was the defensive coordinator at LSU in the College Football Playoff Semifinal beat down, acknowledged how hard it is to coach against Lincoln Riley’s high powered offenses.
“One of the things when playing OU is that they’re so multiple and the game can go in so many different directions,” he said. “I think coach (Riley) is such an adept play caller, and (you think) is this kind of where the game’s going, is he just setting me up here? Is this what’s really happening or is this because it’s a ploy to try to get me to move where I really don’t want to move. All those things go in your head when you’re calling against (Riley).”
While Riley can stretch a defense all over the field, Aranda said the key to playing Oklahoma is to try and master the fundamentals, and let great play take care of the rest.
“To combat some of that, to be really sound, to be simple, to take great ownership of alignment and technique I think is a big ask,” he said. “To take this to a pitching metaphor, if I can take my fastball in the high 90’s, then my changeup or my curve is that much better. So I think doing simple better came in that game.”
Baylor will have to replace the production of last year's sack leader in William Bradley-King, but they'll return their top seven tacklers and do-it-all defensive back Jalen Pitre this upcoming season.
Finally with a normal offseason to work with his team, Aranda said the Bears, particularly on defense, are hoping to play at that high level in 2021.
“We’re trying to build off of that game particularly just in terms of the base and the structure of the defense,” he said.
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