Breaking: Dave Aranda Fired Midway Through Year 7 Leading the Baylor Bears

It turns out that Dave Aranda doesn’t have nine lives.

The Baylor head coach was relieved of his duties midway through Year 7 leading the Bears following a road loss as a favorite at Kansas on Saturday. It was the second straight week that his team lost as a favorite.

Aranda making it to Year 7 was a miracle in itself. His teams posted losing seasons in four of his six full seasons in charge, including three of the last four. His tenure looked over at the end of the 2025 season before then athletic director Mack Rhodes resigned for personal reasons last November. Baylor made the decision to not hold simultaneous searches for an AD and a head coach and that gave Aranda the 2026 season to turn the ship around.

And there were signs that he might pull it off through the first six weeks of the season. His Bears were 5-1 with a one-point loss to Auburn in Atlanta to start the year. And with a favorable schedule coming out of the open date, the idea that Baylor could be 8-1 heading into a tough three-game stretch to end the season wasn’t insane.

Those notions were dashed last week in the home loss to TCU. They were buried in the road loss to Kansas.

Aranda leaves Waco with a 40-40 record overall and a 26-32 mark against the Big 12. The high mark came in 2021, his second in charge, when he led the Bears to a program record 12 wins and claimed the Big 12 championship and beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. The momentum didn’t last, however, as Baylor went 9-16 over the next two seasons.

Aranda’s era will be remembered as one that was always a year behind the times. He was slow to evolve to the transfer portal and NIL. He overspent on prep recruits heading into 2025 and had his money on the sideline next to him. He cycled through coordinators, including himself at defensive coordinator for two years.

Baylor is one of the first schools in the FBS to jump on the coaching carousel and that gives the Bears a first mover advantage. Only Maryland and NC State are in the market as of this publish date. Buy-in will be the on the forefront of any potential candidate’s mind. Revenue sharing is now the engine that makes programs go and any hire will want assurances that the Bears are willing, and able, to keep up with the top of the Big 12.

Making the situation even more interesting for Baylor is that rival TCU might also enter the coaching market this cycle and the two rival schools will likely swim in the same waters for candidates. Baylor moving first gives them an advantage if they take advantage of the time and work back channels as the season plays out.

Two candidates on every program’s list are Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert and New Mexico’s Jason Eck. UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor and Texas State’s G.J. Kinne are G6 coaches with high stocks within the state. Boise State's Spencer Danielson will also get a call. We haven’t seen current AD Doug McNamee make a major college football hire, though, so the names to know will be fluid.

We’ll post a coaching board separately soon.