BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: BAYLOR VS OKLAHOMA STATE

December 4, 2021

Dave Aranda

AT&T Stadium

Baylor Bears

Postgame Press Conference

Baylor 21, Oklahoma State 16

DAVE ARANDA: It's good to see you guys. Proud of our team. I remember the first time we played Oklahoma State and meeting Coach Gundy there at midfield during team stretch. He came on over and first thing he said was, it is really hard to win. It's hard to win in this league.

That's something that owe I think we all know, but just coming from him, and I look up to Coach Gundy and his career and the amount of times he's won 10 or more games and just being a stalwart there at Oklahoma State and the success he's had, for him to say that, I think it showed a lot.

It has been a real treasure for me just to see the growth of our team off the field and how that relates to on the field so that we can win those hard-to-win games. I think today was an example of it.

But there's been so many. I think the off-the-field battle of this is how we believe, this is how we think, this is how we do these things, I think, really led to this because you are unified and there's no -- the inside stuff that maybe you're kind of hiding or pretending has to come out.

I appreciate all those guys in the next room for doing that. I think it led to this.

I'll take any questions you guys got.

Q. I remember at the end of last year you guys finished the season with Oklahoma State and you guys were a little shorthanded. I know it was frustrating the way that game ended. Can you contrast what you saw that day to where this team is now and how far it's come in that time?

DAVE ARANDA: No. No. (Laughter.)

I think there was times last year where I think everyone was frustrated, and I think -- and then on top of that, then you just feel eyes on you, and everyone is looking to see how is this going to be handled, is something going to break. So then I think that adds like another layer to the already mess that you're in with the team, the outside eyes add to it.

But I think it might have been around that time where I think the frustration with the players, I think some of them came in to my office and go, you know, Coach, you need to cuss us out. You need to get after us and yell at us and all this, and I think these are some of the things I just brought up in that opening statement was that -- just the far disconnect and kind of how I would very much want to win, maybe what everyone else does.

I think to be in that spot and then to be in this one is two different sides of the track.

Q. McVea has made quite a journey; what were you thinking when you saw that play considering where he came from six years ago as a walk-on?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, you know, I think with Jairon, if it's a Monday practice and we want to be able to have a full-speed practice and we don't have any helmets on or shoulder pads -- I think earlier in the year it was a struggle to get a full-speed practice. I think when you're dressed in that gear a lot of times people will look at that as a walk-through so you kind of have to coach that and fight that. We were able to get that done throughout the year. A guy who always did it the right way was Jairon.

When we wanted to have a Thursday practice and we wanted to try to get 20 miles per hour, we'd wear our GPS and we wore it on kickoff and kickoff return and kind of hit those speeds, and we felt it was a good spacing between that moment and the game we're about to play on Saturday, it was a challenge to get guys to do that. McVea was always one that did.

I think we all have people like that in our lives that no matter what it is, he's going to do it right and going to do it with a smile on his face, and it's just always there.

I think sometimes you overlook people like that, and just when you see the ball rolling out and you see him in pursuit, you feel good that it was him.

Q. That last sequence, your defense is coming off the field and they have to line up quickly on the final play as Oklahoma State tries to get a quick snap and then get a stop three inches from the goal line. What's going through your head? Is that last sequence in slow motion? Take us through the emotion for you.

DAVE ARANDA: No, there was no time-outs left, so I'm fortunate that it worked out that way. I think it was pretty -- it was pretty frantic on the sideline in terms of you couldn't hear. Just in the headset, you couldn't hear.

I think defensively we thought it was 11 personnel on the field and so there's a call that went in for that personnel, and it ended up being a tight end instead of another receiver, it was 12 personnel, so the call -- you can play it versus that call, but there's a little bit more to do with it, and generally we don't do that, and so I think Terrel noticed that right away and tried to call time out, and we didn't have one.

So then we're yelling and screaming and they're not hearing us, so they were coming on to see what they were yelling and screaming, so they come on over and said, go back out. I'm glad it all worked out.

Q. Generally speaking after a win like this, the coach gets an opportunity to sort of say, okay, here's why we deserve to be in the playoff. Now you guys are a little far out, but there are some things that could break. Here's your opportunity; do you want to make a pitch?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, I've never really done that. I don't know. I just think with this team and this year for me, so much growth, so much collective kind of coming together, I think we have struggled at times with just what's right in front of us. There's two losses on our record that we -- I look at personally my responsibility for sure in it that we could have been more focused, we could have been prepared for a fight, and we weren't. You could really almost say three.

So I think we struggle enough with things that we can control, and I think you look at just the dynamic just in young people of when the next tweet is coming through or have I checked my phone in the last two minutes and just all of that, I think plays a part.

I think for me, getting across kind of how we do things and pound the rock and none of that really matters and keep the outside on the outside and let's focus on the inside, I think that is probably in its infancy, as much as I hate to say that, with us. I think it takes a lot of work.

So I think per your question, I think all that on stuff that we can control. I'm sure it will all work out the way it's supposed to.

Q. Dave, last play of the game that Oklahoma State ran, camera catches you on the sideline and you're just looking like you are 90 percent of the time, stone-faced. Did you cut loose at all in the postgame celebration, and how much did you enjoy seeing those guys in there celebrating?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, I did not in the postgame. But I mean, I think our game with Oklahoma State was a week after this I want to say. I think it was last year. I just remember after that game, I think the very next day I met with our quarterback at the time and then met with all of our seniors and some of our vets on what their plans were, and it was just very -- and their parents. It was all on Zoom. We couldn't have them together. So it was Zoom meetings. It was just very difficult. You try to build a team where everyone is tight and they trust you and they can be themselves around you and never could ever really get that.

I think we've talked about feeling like a stepdad, and then when you go 2-7 after however many wins they had the year before and then you're talking about trying to stay a team when it's FaceTime or Zoom and they're with their family and it's critical questions which are for sure warranted, that's just hard.

So for the guys that stayed, it's just way -- it's very strong, and it means a lot to me. For the staff that came, I think from the outside, I'm sure it looked really bad, and so for them to come -- I think of those guys. I think of the opportunities for the vets that came back. I think of the opportunities for our coaches. So I'm happy for them.

Q. Can you talk about your defense making three goal-line stands prior to the game-saving play, the two others where you held them to field goals, equally if not more important than the last play?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, you look at like a Jalen Pitre and just his focus throughout the week and he's sitting in the front row, he's taking notes, and a lot of the stuff we talk about is the same stuff, but he's still taking notes. He's there late at night after practices.

You look at Terrel Bernard and he's right there with him. You're looking at guys who run to the football every time they're on the field. You look at the competitions that we have, the one-on-ones versus the offense, and sometimes you gear to the offense because we're not tackling those guys or we're not doing all this. It may be a tag here but the ball is spotted here because the momentum went because we have a manager that's a freshman in college that's spotting the ball.

So like their ability to -- with all of that, just attack it in those moments, no matter if it was hard or it was unfair or if I'm tired or I was up studying for this test or if I was running around and I couldn't grab something to eat, when it came to football they were all in 100 miles an hour.

I think those daily interactions trained them for opportunities like today. I don't think you make those -- I don't think you make the most of those opportunities if you're not maximizing the daily trials, tribulations that come with just being a student-athlete.

Q. Can you talk about when you knew Shapen would have to start, and talk about how it is you took two quarterbacks this year that had never played before and won 11 games with those two guys.

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, I think around Thursday -- I guess really after Wednesday's practice you could kind of sense it. I think up until then, I think there was still some uncertainty. There was improvement with Gerry, but I think there was some deeper throws where he could not transfer the weight like he normally does and get the ball there, and then I think there was movement that was well enough in the pocket but our stuff broke down and you could see that he was going to protect himself. It wasn't safe.

Then as far as it goes with Blake, I think a lot of credit goes to Blake, and I think just his mindset and his ability to attack stuff. I think on the bus ride here from Waco, he got on the first bus. I think we had like six buses roll out or whatever it was. He got on the first bus and he's sitting and he realizes that he's on the third bus. I was standing outside and he came out, and he goes, they've got me on the third bus. I go, get your butt in there, let's go. Come on, bro.

So Blake, his ability to, regardless of the situation, whatever is asked of him, whether it's go win this game, this conference championship, or go win this game on the road, or it's first bus, third bus, I think his personality is such that he sets his mind to it and he does it, and stuff doesn't seep in.

He won't let it affect him, and I think that's way strong. I think that's uncommon.

The other thing I'd say is Jeff Grimes and his leadership at the OC position, I think he has a real fatherly approach, and I think Blake benefitted from that, and then I think Shawn has done an unbelievable job, Shawn Bell. I think Shawn is a rising star, and I think Shawn's relationships with his players and his love for them strengthens them. They don't want to let him down.

Q. You were coming through the tunnel there off the field, your players were mobbing you and they were yelling, I know you don't like attention, I know you don't like attention. Do you like attention --

DAVE ARANDA: No.

Q. And you just won the Big 12 and might soon be one of the heralded best coaches in America. How do you handle the attention that's going to come to you?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, that's a good question. I think some of this was -- you know, the only comparison really I have is when I was a coordinator, I think there's so much to learn, so you're always learning. I think when you really don't know what you should know, there's probably greater gains. But you're always learning.

I think stuff is changing so fast on the outside, you have to evolve. But I think as a coordinator, once there was like success, and on the outside it was attention which is not always so great, but on the inside, you were afforded some -- I hate to say this because it's not real. It's real in the world we live in, I guess, but it's respect, I guess.

I would like to say respect is kind of earned from how you treat people, so I'm not probably finding the right word. But a great example of there would be college coaches to visit at LSU or Wisconsin or whatever and they would be thinking they're going to learn all this stuff and then they get to meet me and I'm asking them more questions than they're asking me, and they're seeing how the staff meetings are held, everyone has input, everyone is kind of adding their piece to it, and it's not a dictatorship, but it's everyone pulling the weight. I think that's not what they envisioned.

But I think it's easily acceptable when you win. I think I struggle sometimes with winning because you'd like it to be where people just see you and know you and they don't need that piece of it, but I think this winning probably helps with that, and just as a head coach now, I don't think respect is the right word, but it's -- I think it will probably help with that.

Q. You've talked so much about how you feel like you can be yourself at Baylor and that Baylor is a fit. Going through what you guys went through this year, being an 11-2 team, being a top-10 team in the country, being Big 12 champion, how does that help validate, I guess, what you think you can accomplish here?

DAVE ARANDA: Well, I think -- that's another good question. I think it helps with you don't have to say stuff in front of the cameras and be one way and then be entirely another way when there ain't no cameras. You don't have to take all of your angst or frustration and throw it out on whoever is near the vicinity of you and say that that's like hard coaching.

I think it validates that it doesn't have to be like that, and I think it's -- well, I think that's still a process, though, because I think we have coaches that are still adjusting to all of that. Our recruiting in summer I thought was really good, and we're still trying to close in on a fair amount of folks, but you could feel the parents -- I think some had the confidence and the comfortableness to say it. Otherwise you could read their faces that all this is great, but are you going to win. So I think it helps with that. I think there are other ways to do it.

Q. In terms of you talked about Blake and how he's not fazed by a whole lot of things, how tough is that kid? It seems like he took that hit against Texas Tech last week, didn't miss time, and then he's clearly dealing with some sort of injury and was nicked up a little bit and only missed a play. How tough is he and how is he able to get through those moments?

DAVE ARANDA: Extremely tough. I go back -- it happened here again today, but there's been multiple games to where a play will break down and Blake will escape through a B-gap or through a C-gap. I could see it from just the sideline. The boy closes his eyes and just runs straight ahead. I'm going, Blake, no. No, it helps to see, man. But he'll turn, his eyes will shut, and he will just run full speed. So I know it means a whole lot to him, and I know that there's no fear in him.

Q. Kind of ironic since we started the year at a lot of press conferences talking about you being very aggressive going for it on 4th. With that mindset, how was Isaac Power ready to meet the moment today and how does a punter improve so much from one year to the next?

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, I think Isaac has -- I think in the summertime, his improvement has been just feeling comfortable with himself. I don't want to go too far ahead of all of it for him, but I think a lot of the battle with him was up in his head.

I think real honest conversations there and just feeling comfortable with who he is and how he does things and what is -- things aren't always going to be perfect, man. There's going to be days to where you don't have your best stuff, but making the effort and showing up and not protecting and just showing up is the important thing.

I think that's been a huge lesson for Isaac, and I think that has allowed him to kind of continue moving and making gains to where you get some of those booms that he had today.

Q. Blake, I don't know if you saw, had an actual game record, in-stadium record by having 17 straight completions to start the game. Just your thoughts on his composure during that stretch and getting the job done.

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, doesn't surprise me. I think he's got that moxie about him, man. I think we've talked about it, like a gunslinger, prior. There's totally that confidence. Blake is sitting in his mind in the front seat on the first bus, like that's him. So you love that about him.

I think his -- he attacks things. He doesn't kind of wait and see. We talk about playing green, about being authentically you in the hardest most competitive spots and not kind of shying away and kind of pumping the brakes. We would call that playing yellow. I think one of his greatest strengths is playing green, putting it out there. I think in baseball and football in his high school career that was certainly the case.