On3's J.D. PicKell reveals Baylor as Oklahoma's biggest threat for the College Football Playoff spot

The Baylor Bears football team wrapped up their 2021 season with a 21-7 Sugar Bowl victory over the Ole Miss Rebels and in doing so, finished No. 5 in the AP Poll. Their top-five finish was the best finish in program history and the team’s head coach, Dave Aranda, hasn’t taken very long at all to establish himself as one of the game’s very best. It was just the third top 10 finish for the program — joining squads from 1951 (No. 9) and 2014 (No. 7). The Bears also won the Big 12 title last year — their third in program history.

Recently, On3’s J.D. PicKell talked about how he believes the Baylor Bears will once again establish themselves among college football’s elite programs this year in what will be Dave Aranda’s third season of running the ship in Waco, Texas. PicKell has them as one of his first teams left out of the 2022 College Football Playoff. He explained his reasoning below.

“I also have Baylor. Similar logic to what Oklahoma’s doing. The Big 12 is asking for a team to be dominant. Baylor, regardless of what they lost production-wise on offense and defense. They still return the trenches. Offensive and defensive line. The majority of those big-time pieces come back on both sides of that line. And so, for that reason, I think Baylor’s gonna be able to kind of get it figured out earlier,” PicKell said.

He also had high praise for Bears’ head coach Dave Aranda — who is among the hottest rising stars in the game today.

“Dave Aranda is a phenomenon in college football right now. He is a solar flare of a rising star in the sport. So, he’s gonna be able to get that defense figured out. I don’t think they end up beating Oklahoma. I think Baylor finishes with two or three losses. But they still play for the conference and end up being one of the first two out–which is a big, big W for everybody in Waco,” PicKell said.

The Bears return some serious beef in the trenches on both sides of the ball, like PicKell mentioned above. One of those players is Connor Galvin — a 6-foot-7, 310-pound behemoth of a left tackle that earned first-team All-Big 12 honors last year. They also return Siaki Ika, a mammoth 6-foot-4, 350-pound defensive tackle that earned second-team All-Big 12 honors last year. The former LSU Tiger racked up 24 tackles last season for Baylor, while tallying 3.5 sacks and six tackles for loss. Dillon Doyle racked up 89 tackles and nine tackles for loss last year at linebacker for the Bears. He’s back in order to make sure the Baylor defensive unit is once again, among the nation’s very best.

Baylor kicks off their 2022 season with the Albany Great Danes on Saturday, Sept. 3rd. Kickoff for that one is slated for 7:00 p.m. EST on ESPN+.