BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 7, 2026

Dave Aranda

Ford Center at The Star

Baylor Bears

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Our next press conference this afternoon features Baylor head coach Dave Aranda. Coach, welcome, and we'll start with your opening statement.

DAVE ARANDA: It's good to see everybody. I'm blessed to be here. I'm humbled to represent Baylor. I really have three things. The first is ownership. Last year was not up to our standard. I take accountability for that, which leads to the second thing of what are we doing now, what's the plan. There's been strong change. There's been me moving out of defense and bringing in Joe Klanderman and a brand-new scheme and new excitement and new methods.

It's bringing in DJ Lagway and his energy and his passion to play football and achieve at a really high level.

There's building the team inside-out as opposed to outside-in. A mistake I made a year ago was spending too much money on the outside, our skill positions, and not enough on the inside. The line of scrimmage is where our attention and our monies have gone this year.

Then just the overall investment into this team. Our athletic director, Doug McNamee, has done a great job of being an advocate and fighting for the football program and supporting me and the rest of the guys to be competitive in a way competitive market.

All that leads to the third thing, which is belief. The group that we've got here today are our captains. They believe. Our team is hungry, has a chip on its shoulder, and believes that we can win.

We've got a really strong staff alignment, and we've got really good administrative support, and we're ready and excited for the challenge to come this season.

I'll take any questions you guys have.

Q. I wanted to ask you about DJ and what exactly did you see in him that you felt like was a great fit for your program? Ultimately, what is your vision for him when it's all said and done with this season? Where would you like to see him expand upon and maybe correct some shortcomings?

DAVE ARANDA: I've known DJ since his high school days and recruiting him since that time, so there's a good relationship kind of built already. The communication prior to his visit and then for sure on his visit to Baylor, it felt to me like kind of straightjacketed, kind of tight, kind of closed up, and felt like he wanted to be free.

I feel like he felt Baylor is a place that he could play free and really kind of be free. I'm all about that, man. So the opportunity to really kind of get to know him on a more personal level and get somewhere there's trust and where we got his back and he's got ours. And to really build that relationship I think allows us to really impact the player that he can be, and excited for what's to come.

He has a huge chip on his shoulder. I will say that's pretty true of our team. To keep it to where it's, like, man, I'm doing all this stuff because I want to prove me right more than I'm trying to prove other people wrong is really what we're trying to get.

Q. Speaking of DJ, we spoke to some of the players in the break-out sessions earlier. They praised his leadership skills and his ability to bring guys along with him. What's been the biggest thing for you as a coach to see him throughout this process and journey at Baylor so far?

DAVE ARANDA: He communicates through football. There's guys that communicate sometimes off the field, they'll connect, whether it's in the locker room or it's at an apartment or kind of in the hallways of the facility. Then there's guys that connect through football, through the language of football and on the field. DJ is that way.

He's the best I've seen that way. Whether it's taking the O-linemen out to eat or it's taking all the receivers out to throw more or taking them to Florida to throw more, he's been very driven to connect and to build this team.

So I appreciate that about him. I think just the self-determination and the strength that he has and his efforts to achieve a successful season is going to pay dividends.

Q. You mentioned earlier it's more about proving yourself right instead of proving the doubters wrong. In your case specifically, entering year seven, how do you feel about proving yourself right to maybe the Baylor fans and also Baylor fan base as you guys look to get back to that Big 12 Championship consideration?

DAVE ARANDA: I'm always taken back from just the interaction I have with our fans of just their love for Baylor and just their kind of heartfelt appreciation of the program and just everything else.

I was on a plane. The family was on vacation, and they're still on vacation right now. I came back off of it. So on the plane to here was a Dallas-Fort Worth crew, and there were a bunch of Baylor fans on the plane. There wasn't much sleep on that flight. There was a lot of just talking to them and taking pictures and all of it. A lot of my interaction with fans have been that way, and I'm so appreciative of it.

I know of what you are talking about, and so I think for us to kind of stack some wins this summer: I had a really good Monday; let's make sure we have a really good Tuesday. Let's build on it with a really good Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, and keep building and stacking wins. I think we'll be able to get everybody. I'm pretty confident that that's the course we're on.

Q. What did this offseason reveal about the team's identity that we may not see until September?

DAVE ARANDA: They crave winning. They need to win, and they're very -- they're hungry to win. I think that would probably be the term... hungry. There's a lot of confrontation. There's probably been more confrontation this year than the past couple of years.

There's been a higher level of keeping up, keeping people to the standard to the things that we say we are and the things that we say we're going to do. So that's been coaches involved with that for sure, but that's been more player-led than it's been in the last couple of years.

Q. I wanted you to speak a little bit about Wheeler's eligibility and him coming from Indiana and how that looks.

DAVE ARANDA: Big fans of Hosea and just his leadership and his confidence. He walks into a room, man, you feel it. When he speaks, everybody listens.

He's on our leadership council. He's got a spot that he always sits. We'll talk about a subject. We'll go around the room, and when it gets to him, everyone kind of quiets down to hear what he says. He says it with such confidence.

The guys believe him, and they want to play for him. He's been a great connector and someone that has seen the lows and the highs. We're fighting for him.

I think right now all of that's going to be in the courts, and we're hoping that we get a quick resolution because the time is running down that we have before we start the season.

Q. I just wanted to ask what does your vision look like for fall camp? How do you plan to really build this team with the new additions so that Baylor can exceed their expectations and succeed during this season?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, I'm kind of triggered a little bit when you say vision. When I think of vision, I think of McLane Stadium that's full. It's got green and gold all the way. The top levels are green and gold. The people that have tickets, they're using their tickets. People that want to go to the game that are Baylor fans are trying to find tickets to go and support Baylor.

That there are logjams in the front to get in. That on the river there's people partying and there's boats up and down. And that when the opponent is in a third down, you can't hear anything in the stadium. That's the vision. To get the whole city of Waco and central Texas and Baylor fans engaged is the vision.

To do that is, like, every squat that we take, every power clean that we do, every run that we do, we're working with that in mind. That's our goal. That's what we want. We can achieve that, man, and we can say we're doing that right here right now. That's been a big triggering thing for me. I've talked a lot about it.

I think what happens when you think that way and you believe that way, you take ownership of it. So now you own what you are doing, and you own how you're going to be. That's happening right now in our team. I'm excited to see it happen.

Q. Quick question about your losses verse Houston, TCU, and Arizona State, all one-score losses. Talk about what you're going to have to do in the fourth quarter in the Big 12 this upcoming year versus those losses last year.

DAVE ARANDA: We got to close the deal. You look at any workout that's happening today, there's going to be a start to it. We've got to start fast.

In the middle of it, there's got to be the scoreboard is a distraction. I'm not looking to see how much time is left in the period. I'm not looking to see what the score is, can I take it easy, do I need to turn it up? I'm not looking to see, hey, there's only a couple of minutes left and then I'm done or there's only a couple of minutes until the break. The scoreboard is a distraction. I'm focused on the present. I'm focused on what I'm doing right now.

Then at the end of it is close the deal. Hey, man, you've gone through all the things and have done all the things, and now you're in a position to close this game. This is what we're here for. This is what you do. This is who we are.

That's been a huge emphasis throughout. That's played out in all the workouts we do. That's played out in all the meetings we have that are in the evenings. That's played out in anything that we do. There's a start, there's a middle, and there's a finish. We've got to be really strong with finishes.

I think every day you've got to be able to stack up wins in this league because there's a lot of fourth quarter changes, like you just talked about. Something that is happening in April on a Tuesday has a direct effect to the games you're talking about in November.

Q. You've had a strong series back and forth with BYU, and I know you're familiar with the state of Utah as a whole. How excited are you to have the Cougars back on the schedule this fall?

DAVE ARANDA: I have a lot of respect for BYU. Kalani, I would consider him a friend. Kalani is the type where I imagine he's got a lot of friends, but he's someone that I've known for a while. Whether I've been up or down or all around, he's treated me with total respect. So I have a lot of respect for him.

I know his team is a team that's going to fight tough, and you talk about four-quarter games. They're going to play a four-quarter game. What a test for us, especially in a real tough environment. It's going to take our best, but we're excited for that challenge.

Thank you, guys.