Brady Quinn praises Dave Aranda, sets expectations for Baylor

The media voted the Baylor Bears as the favorites to repeat and win the Big 12 championship again for the first time in school history. On CBS HQ, former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn spoke on how he believes Baylor’s head coach Dave Aranda is the reason why they are favored going into the 2022 season.

When asked if the Bears where the team to beat in the conference again Quinn said, “I don’t necessarily see it that way, but I think one of the reasons why they were voted to be the favorite to win it this year has everything to do with their head coach Dave Aranda and what you just heard him talking about. He has a great as far as how to lead, meaning that you have times where you’ve got veteran teams like what he had last year with a bunch of players and guys that can hold each other accountable and step up and make plays when they needed to and then you’ve got time where its gotta be a coach led team, a time like this year.”

Quinn went on to discuss how much different this year’s Baylor roster will be compared to last season, losing their leading rusher in Abram Smith, their leading receiver Tyquan Thornton, their leading tackler Terrel Bernard, and many other high volume production players. The Bears also lost their starting quarterback Gerry Bohanon, but Aranda has already named sophomore Brady Shapen the starter for this season.

“Blake Shapen their quarterback, who Dave Aranda made the starter this past spring only has a couple of starts, where he’s played well in those instances in particular the Big 12 championship game,” Quinn said. “Played extremely well, but only 2-0 as a starter so a lot yet to be determined.”

Quinn added that that Baylor will have to replace a lot of last seasons production and grow up quick if they want to live up to the hype created for them, but Quinn is confident in Aranda’s coaching ability being the key to the Bear’s success.

“There’s a lot faith and trust in the culture that Dave Aranda has built there at Baylor building back up that program,” Quinn said.