Baylor’s Dave Aranda will return for a sixth season as the Bears head coach, a school spokesman confirmed to The Athletic on Saturday.
Aranda entered the 2024 season on the hot seat after going 9-16 combined in the 2022 and 2023 seasons and posting only one winning season in his first four at the school. His job security seemed to be on even shakier ground at midseason, when Baylor sat at 2-4 on the heels of a three-game losing streak.
But the Bears have won four in a row over the last month, including a 49-35 win at West Virginia on Saturday. Baylor has averaged 45.7 points per game during their winning streak and has won three of those games by double digits.
Last November, at the end of a 3-9 season, Aranda campaigned to keep his job to athletic director Mack Rhoades by pledging to make wholesale changes to the program. That included investing heavier into name, image and likeness, tapping the transfer portal more often to upgrade the roster and making multiple staff changes, including bringing in an offensive coordinator (Jake Spavital) who had head coaching experience. Aranda also made the decision to call the defense for the first time since he was LSU’s defensive coordinator in 2019.
After recovering from their rocky first half, the Bears have played at a level not seen in Waco in nearly two years. Baylor is bowl eligible for the third time in the last four seasons, and Aranda’s record at the school is back up to .500, at 29-29.
(Photo: David Purdy / Getty Images)
