Baylor confirms Dave Aranda to return for 2025 season, per report

Baylor is retaining head football coach Dave Aranda for another season, according to a report from SicEm365, which added a Baylor spokesperson confirmed the news. Aranda is in his fifth season coaching Baylor.

Aranda’s seat was already hot at the end of the 2023 season, and many expected Baylor could make a move then. When he was granted a fifth year to coach into 2024, there were no illusions that Aranda had a slim margin for error with this Baylor team.

And it all seemed close to unravelling when a then 2-1 Baylor team traveled to Boulder and gave up a lead in the final seconds of regulation on a stunning Hail Mary before losing in overtime. Sitting at 2-2 and in an early hole in conference play, it was a hard loss to stomach, and then Baylor lost the next two.

But from there, Aranda and Co. turned it around, now on a four-game win streak to get above .500 in conference play and bowl eligible with a win over West Virginia on Saturday.

Aranda’s run in Waco is also not far removed from some early success. He’d arrived in Waco after a sterling turn as the defensive coordinator on LSU’s 2019 national championship team. After a 2-7 campaign during his first season, altered by the Covid pandemic, Aranda led Baylor to a 12-2 campaign that featured a Big 12 title, won on an iconic defensive stand in the final seconds against Oklahoma State.

After that early peak, Aranda struggled to keep Baylor at a top-of-conference level. In 2022, the Bears went 6-7 and then a 3-9 campaign in 2023 had many doubting that Baylor would keep Aranda around.

Though Baylor did, hoping 2024 could portend something better with patience and some renewed NIL investment in the roster. And now Aranda has done enough to stay around another year.