Three Baylor Football Defensive Players to Watch for 2025 Season

The Baylor Bears football team is hoping to improve on a defense that was not up to coach Dave Aranda’s standards last season. 

Here was how the Baylor defense ranked last season in FBS:

Points allowed per game: 26.2 (tied for No. 79)

Rushing yards allowed per game: 152.0 (No. 72)

Passing yards allowed per game: 234.2 (No. 94)

Total yards allowed per game: 386.2 (No. 87).

Aranda took over play-calling last year, and it’s clear there is still ground for the unit to make up if it wants to contend for its first Big 12 title since 2021.

Here are three defensive players to keep an eye on for the Baylor Bears.

LB Keaton Thomas

If one is looking for a candidate for Big 12 defensive player of the year, Thomas, a redshirt junior, should be on the short list. He was named all-Big 12 first team by Big 12 coaches, the Associated Press, and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football last season. The former Northeast Mississippi CC star was a Big 12 defensive newcomer of the year honorable mention.

Why? Well, all he did was put together perhaps the best defensive season in Baylor history. Finished with 114 tackles, seven for a loss, with 2.5 sacks, three quarterback hurries, and an interception returned 35 yards for a touchdown.

Oh, and he did much of that wearing a cast. Imagine how dangerous he’ll be now that it’s off?

LB Emar’rion Winston

Winston spent three seasons with Oregon and pitched in to help the Ducks win the Big Ten title in their first season in the conference. But he never really got a chance to be a full-time starter with the Ducks.

The Bears will give him that chance. He’s a projected starter in the linebacking corps, and, at 6-foot-4, 255 pounds, he’s envisioned as an edge rusher in Aranda’s defensive set.

He was considered the top outside linebacker and edge rusher in the country by several recruiting services when he graduated from Central Catholic in Portland, Oregon. The Bears are going to give him a chance to finally prove it. When he records his first Baylor sack, he will record his first career sack.

He’s the wild card that can push this defense to a new level, if he can do the same for himself.

CB Calvin Simpson-Hunt

The Bears imported Simpson-Hunt from Ohio State in the hopes that he could bolster a pass defense that was not up to his standard. He comes to Waco with a national championship ring, won last year with the Buckeyes.

He redshirted in 2023 and played in nine games in 2024, as he finished with two tackles as a reserve.

There is untapped potential there, and Aranda is familiar with it. Simpson-Hunt was a four-star recruit and Top 50 prospect out of Waxahachie High School, which is about an hour north of Waco. The Bears hope he uses the opportunity to take a huge step as a collegiate.