Baylor fires Dave Aranda in his seventh season and names Joe Klanderman interim coach

Baylor fired football coach Dave Aranda on Sunday morning, one day after the Bears lost 25-24 at Kansas. Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, in his first season in Waco after coming over from Kansas State, takes over as interim coach. ESPN's Pete Thamel first reported the move, The Athletic confirmed it, and Baylor announced it shortly after.

Aranda finishes 40-40 over seven seasons. The best of it came early. After a 2-7 debut in the shortened 2020 season, he took the Bears to 12-2, a Big 12 championship and a Sugar Bowl win in 2021. Baylor had only one more winning season under him, an 8-5 finish in 2024, before going 5-7 last year.

The Kansas loss stung for a specific reason. It gave the Jayhawks their first Big 12 win of the season and ended a 14-game losing streak against Baylor that went back to 2007, according to ESPN. It also came a week after a 17-6 home loss to TCU.

Athletic director Doug McNamee called Aranda "a genuine and honorable person" and "a brilliant football mind" in his statement, then said "a change in leadership is necessary at this time for our program."

How he got this far

Aranda was on the hot seat a year ago and survived it. Athletic director Mack Rhoades resigned last Nov. 20, and president Linda Livingstone announced the next day that Aranda would return, citing financial stewardship during a volatile time in college athletics. He was known as slow to adapt to the NIL era. At Big 12 media days in 2024 he said of the Bears' recruiting push, "We're paying players."

This season opened with a 17-16 loss to Auburn in Atlanta, decided by a failed two-point try in the final seconds. Baylor then won four straight, including Big 12 wins over Colorado and at Arizona State, before the two straight losses.

What's next

Klanderman's first game is Friday at UCF. The schedule after that is the hardest part of the Big 12 slate, with trips to BYU and Houston and a home game against Texas Tech in the final three weeks. Baylor's opening adds to a busy coaching market that already includes Maryland and NC State among power-conference jobs.