BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 13, 2022

Dave Aranda

Baylor Bears

Press Conference

DAVE ARANDA: Tell you what, I'm so humbled and I'm blessed to be here representing Baylor and here with some of our team and here with you guys.

I go back to last season, just being in this very building and the continuum of faith on one side, to belief on the other, and just kind of how that season progressed. And so appreciative of last year's team, of our players that are about to enter training camp, that have left us, some players that are on new teams, and to the coaches maybe that have moved on and support staff that's moved on, just way appreciative of them.

Obviously the guys that are returning, both players and staff, very thankful for them. We look at like this is a brand-new team. I was talking earlier, every Sunday during the season, we would meet as a staff and talk about we have ourselves a brand-new team today.

With football being a game of random events and setbacks, our ability to address what's real and to not take into reality preconceived notions or maybe wishes or any of that I think is just so important. To get where you're going, you have to start where you are.

Since January, that's been our task, is to do that.

I think it starts with our brand-new team. It starts with making everybody available, which is way difficult to do. We were talking about that earlier. I think it just seems that -- and I'm way included in this, just that people in general have a way of getting in their own way.

And so to make everybody available is just very -- is a daily thing. Just the strengths and the power that comes with living fully who you are and not trying to be anybody else and knowing that you're enough, I think that's such a strong thing, and I think football is a great vehicle for that.

I think weekly and daily we talk about the task within a task. In whatever we're doing, what are we really doing when we're doing what we're doing. So to get the motivation really honest, to get the intention really clear so that we can live daily with integrity. I think if we hold ourselves to that standard and we attack it day after day after day after day, then we can transform.

I think for our staff, it's been a challenge to incorporate and include and to forgive maybe things that have been looked at as disadvantages. Maybe it's a player or it's a skill set or it's a building, it's a meeting room, whatever it is. I think to include and say yes to it all is our secret sauce. And I think it's difficult to do, and I think the challenge is to always be open minded and have your heart wide open for all of it.

Excited for this coming season. I think the schedule bears out a bunch of road games, and so we've been preparing for that as the off-season has kind of gone on.

I think trying to be at our best when it is the hardest is going to be a common theme for us, and so I think that's something that we will continue to talk about and work towards.

But I think with the returning depth on our O-line and D-line, we're looking to be led by big men. I feel the skill is very talented. It has to emerge under the lights and all of it, and we're training in the dark right now for all of that to happen.

Excited for this team and for the season.

With that, I'll take any questions you guys have got.

Q. I hear that you are an avid reader, and I need to ask you, what are you reading right now?

DAVE ARANDA: There's a book by Sean Ginwright that's called The Four Pivots. It's about social change. It's really good. I think there's some points in there where he talks about going from transactional to transformational, and he talks about going from a lens to a mirror, where we're all kind of trained to critique and label and look out, but the hardest look is looking in the mirror. As they say, the mirror doesn't lie. So that's a really good one.

There's a bunch of books by Richard Rohr that I love. Brené Brown is another author that I love.

Q. I think you knew this question was coming. What led to the decision to switch quarterbacks this season and go with Blake Shapen under center?

DAVE ARANDA: Well, I appreciate the question. There was throughout the spring -- I appreciate both Shawn Bell and our offensive staff for really being intentional and very open and honest about kind of where things were and what the expectations were and all of it. I felt really good about how that was laid out.

Then I think the competition between Blake and Gerry I thought was really strong, and the communication was, like I say, always wide open and ongoing.

Just at the end of it, it just became apparent, especially with the spring game, I think that was a factor in it, but at the end of it, it just became apparent that Blake was our better passer.

Just very difficult for me because I think -- I always look at people before I look at players, and I think in this one we had to look at who could be the better player for us and not really incorporate the person, which is just kind of the opposite of what I usually do. So it just became a very difficult thing.

I think with Gerry, there is no me without Gerry, there is no last year without Gerry, there's none of that. You walk in my house, I've got pictures of my kids posing next to Gerry. It's just kind of a crazy thing. So it was very difficult to do.

I think we talk quite a bit about person over player and just that to create a culture where you're coming from value and you're going out in the world and it's a win or a loss or whatever it is, but you can come back knowing that you're still loved, man. You're still -- it's okay. How different that is than trying to do stuff for value.

So I just think looking at Gerry and his predicament and wanting the best for him, I think it was -- the fair thing to do was to make that move early.

Q. This is a different position for Baylor being picked first in the preseason media poll. Last year you guys were eighth. Is this a lot more pressure? Do you like being in this position? How are you kind of handling it with the team?

DAVE ARANDA: I appreciate the question. We continue to focus on what we're doing daily, how we're doing it. I think it goes back to just the task within a task.

Today, for example, they'll be running -- let's just say throughout the week, they'll be running and lifting. And so are we bringing a life energy to that, or are we in the -- we're running, we're lifting, we're in it, but we're not bringing any energy, we're actually taking away energy? Or is there more weight I could have put on the bar, or maybe there's a few reps you didn't take? Or maybe there's a guy sitting at breakfast in the cafeteria that just got here this summer, you don't really know yet, you could have had a chance to go see him and talk to him and you didn't, or maybe you did.

I think all of those things are the thing. I think to be real honest about your motivation and to be real clear about your intention, and that is -- it's not about necessarily perfection. It's any form of -- I don't know. It's kind of you have to move with imperfection, continue to move and continue to get better. I think that's the goal for us.

So to keep your eyes on that and to focus on what's real, because I think this is way cool with the lights and all the people and being asked questions can feel cool. But I think that's really not real. What's real is what's happening day-to-day in your locker room, in your weight room, in your cafeteria, how the team is handling each other or how they're handling situations and all of it; are we becoming a player-led team? Do we still need to be a coach-led team?

I think to put the focus where the focus needs to be I guess would be my answer to that.

Q. Coach, in your time in the conference in the Big 12, how have you seen the defensive identities change and evolve? It seems like the defense are continuing to get better every year.

DAVE ARANDA: I appreciate that question. I think when I first got in the league, there was a bunch of stunts and movements and pressures, and really in a way, high risk, high reward. Safeties at eight yards, kind of the -- not really a belief or a want to try to disguise. I think that was kind of -- entering into the league was that, it was kind of -- maybe a strong hand was being played by the defense.

I think that was also in the advent of a lot of spread offenses and maybe at times maybe finesse offenses maybe. I think Iowa State was probably the leader in all of it, was bringing in tight ends and wide zone and physicality, and we've certainly kind of jumped on to all that, as well.

I think that is an answer to some of those pressures and those twists and those stunts when there's all that stuff happening inside, and your stuff is going like this or like that. Their stuff can get caught up, and there can be seams. Then the safeties come down even further, and then there's play action pass.

I think that's where it was at least last year. I think there's going to be more spread offenses into the league with some coaching changes this year. And so I think some of those twists and stunts and pressures are going to be more of the rage, and so you're going to very much have one week it's this, the next week it's the exact opposite, the following week it's a complete other thing.

Whereas I felt last year there would be some continuity with week after week after week, and I don't think that's the case this year.

Q. You guys won the Big 12 for the first time since 2014, beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. What could you say you're focusing on the most this off-season and going into the season, if anything, to try to get to that finish line, make a playoff appearance and maybe a championship run?

DAVE ARANDA: I appreciate the question. I think it's continuing to make -- for there to be enough trust and enough love, really, where guys make themselves available to each other, where you're not pretending or performing or trying to be what you think a coach wants you to be or what you think a position group wants you to be, but for you to really be yourself.

And then to -- when you do have that feeling, to kind of put it out there under the lights and all of it and take the praise and the criticism and know that that's what you did, that's not who you are.

So all of that right there is a lot. There's a lot of ways that can get screwed up. We spend most of our time with that.

Q. Joey McGuire served under you for five seasons. I want to get your thoughts on your relationship with him now and kind of the buzz that he's been able to at cultivate so quickly in Lubbock.

DAVE ARANDA: Yeah, appreciate the question. I have a lot of respect and administration for Joey. I think, as an assistant coach, was very hardworking, was a great teammate to all the rest of the coaches, was a hard worker, is very well respected, especially in the state of Texas. I think was someone that I would lean on for advice and for guidance at times.

I have a lot of respect for him. I wish him all the best at Tech. There's some folks there on that staff that were with us a year ago, and they're friends of mine. With the exception of one game, man, I want them to get them all.

Q. Yours is one of the greatest turnarounds in league history, and now Baylor is favored, and basketball is a national power. With its new face of the Big 12 coming soon, how confident are you that Baylor can be at the forefront of that movement?

DAVE ARANDA: I appreciate the question. I think it starts with the focus, with more focus on things that are outside of the sport, more focus on academics. Hey, we had this GPA this semester, right, and that was a record; let's do better the next semester. You had your personal best this semester; let's get a new personal best this coming semester. The focus on spiritual growth.

I think it's easy sometimes to get caught up in like moralism and I've got to do something because it's right or this is wrong and all this other thing. But to do something because you feel at union with -- you feel like there's a oneness and you feel the love of Christ, I think that's a whole other thing.

So I think the focus on those things opens people up and lets them really be seen, and I think that makes a difference.

Q. You're at the end zone where you were last year. You were right there. The four consecutive plays to stop OSU to win the Big 12 title, walk us through that moment and what it was like for your team.

DAVE ARANDA: I appreciate the question. I want to say we called a time-out and we didn't have a time-out. I think that's probably the first thing. I don't know if I should be saying that.

I think we called a defense that was for a certain personnel group, and they came out not in that personnel group, and there was some confusion. There was a fair amount of chaos on the sidelines. You could feel it.

That whole drive, I have to imagine, if it felt like that where we're at, I can only imagine some Baylor alumni and Baylor fans sitting at home watching it on TV, kind of what it felt like in the living room. So you could kind of feel something like this was coming, and we'd been in some games last year that were like that.

But you know, Jairon McVea, if there was a door to be opened, Jairon would open it. If there was trash on the ground, he would pick it up. If a meeting started at 8:00, he was there at 7:50. If it was -- if a meeting started at 8:00, he's there with his pencil and his paper open. He's always been that guy.

So it's kind of illuminating, really, that when maybe stuff is kind of going crazy in all of it, the one guy that's always kind of been that guy was that guy. So I'm thankful for that.