The Baylor Bears have reportedly fired head football coach Dave Aranda, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The report also says defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman will serve as interim head coach for the rest of the regular season.
Baylor hired Aranda ahead of the 2020 season. It was his first time as head coach, and he came from LSU after serving as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for four years, including on the Tigers’ national championship-winning squad in 2019.
The Bears went 2-7 in the COVID-19 shortened season in Aranda’s first year, but bounced back in a big way, going 12-2 in 2021, including a Sugar Bowl win. It remains the most single-season wins in school history.
Aranda couldn’t sustain that success, as the Bears went 6-7 and 3-9 over the next two seasons. Baylor has been to just three bowl games in the last six years and lost two.
The Bears started this season 4-1 but lost to TCU two weeks ago. Then Baylor lost this weekend to Kansas, as the Jayhawks scored the game-winning touchdown with just 1:13 left.
This loss dropped the Bears to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big 12.
This is Klanderman’s first season at Baylor. He spent the last seven seasons at Kansas State as safeties coach and then defensive coordinator. Klanderman has never been a head coach, and how he fares over Baylor’s remaining five games will dictate if he is considered for the opening this offseason.
The Bears will go on the road to face UCF this week. Then, Baylor ends the season against Iowa State, BYU, Texas Tech, and Houston. The Bears need to win at least two of those games to become bowl-eligible.
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