How Dave Aranda Is Handling 'Complacent' Baylor Bears
Baylor Bears fans knew there would be a learning curve with this year's football team, with several veterans from the 2021 squad going to the next level. After a convincing road win in the Big 12 conference opener 16 days ago, however, it looked like the Bears had settled in nicely.
Coach Dave Aranda said this week that isn't the case.
“I think there is a level of immaturity or just youth that we are working on,” Aranda said. “With our vets, I think there is some complacency we’re working on getting rid of and waking up from.”
The offense, in particular, has four first-year starters no matter the lineup they roll out week to week. Aranda credited youth as one of the reasons the Bears were intimidated by the sellout crowd in Week 2 in a loss at BYU.
While the talk of complacency and immaturity may alarm fans to hear more than a month into the season, Aranda feels it is the only way to be honest with his team.
“If you were a coach and you said your team was being complacent, that sounds like a way negative thing,” Aranda said. “I think talking about what is real is way important.”
While he did mention he wants his veteran players to step up in game preparation, he also admitted that he and his staff need to take some blame whenever the program's standard isn't being reached.
“When we’re not hitting the mark or not growing the way we should or we are thinking we’ve arrived when we haven’t done anything yet, it’s using those moments to teach, not to weaponize,” Aranda said. “That whole thing is easier to admit when it’s being talked to by someone you trust and they know that they care about you more as a person than a player.”
Ahead of a tough road test at West Virginia, a place the Baylor Bears have never won, Aranda thinks they need to do everything with a purpose, rather than just talk about what has gone wrong so far.
“The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better,” Aranda said.“It takes some intentionality to do that and we are trying our best.”
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You can follow Cameron Stuart on Twitter @RealCamStuart
Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.