Baylor Bears Preview
1 year 3 months ago #388
by wvu4u2
Baylor Bears Preview was created by wvu4u2
Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a 12-part series previewing West Virginia’s football opponents for the 2023 season.
Expectations were sky-high for Baylor entering the 2022 season, but the Bears fell well short of reaching them.
Coming off a Big 12 Conference championship in 2021, Baylor was picked atop the league’s then-10-team preseason poll and entered 2022 as the conference favorite. What followed was a 6-7 fall, which included a loss to West Virginia and four straight defeats to end the year.
It left Dave Aranda reflecting throughout the offseason on what went wrong. Now, the Bears prepare for his fourth regular season as the Bears’ coach, which will conclude with a Nov. 25 game against WVU at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
“I wanted to start this with really hard lessons from last year,” Aranda said in his opening remarks during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in July. “I have to imagine for those of you so inclined, what happened last year, it’s one of the beautiful things about our sport is that personal comes out in the professional, and the faults of just me — it can happen there, too. Not only the positive things, but the negative things.
“I look at the last year trying to save people, maybe trying to change people, and not having hard enough boundaries, and I look at the — I don’t know if it was hubris or what it was that made me think that I could, but I think people are ready to change or improve when they’re ready to, when they’re ready to do it on their own. I think that was a big factor last year.”
Aranda also points to his reluctance to use the transfer portal ahead of last season as part of Baylor’s failures on the field, for fear of taking away opportunities from others who had previously been a part of the program.
The coach said this season the Bears have brought in “a fair amount of new players” and said they’ve been “great fits” both on the field and off.
“I think to grips with, hey, this is what needs to happen for the betterment of the team, as opposed to just looking at what’s best for that one particular player on your team,” Aranda said. “I think we all like to think that there’s going to be just a trajectory of taking off like a rocket ship, but I think we all know there’s the bumps and the pits and the downward arcing in any type of career or a young person’s career.
“To say, ‘Hey, we’ve still got you, we still believe in you, but this is what we need to do for the team right now’ has been an area of growth for me.”
Baylor allowed 26.8 points per game last season, which ranked fourth in the Big 12, but the Bears gave up a season-high 43 in a three-point loss to WVU at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Matt Powledge takes over as defensive coordinator after Ron Roberts was fired at the end of the 2022 regular season. Roberts is now the defensive coordinator at Auburn.
“Coach Powledge is a coach that players can relate to,” Aranda said. “He’s a coach that can be real in the in-between moments.
“The football stuff I think is way strong. He’s coming from Utah State, Wisconsin, LSU, then Alabama, Georgia, Oregon — two really good schools of thought; there’s a lot of similarities, some differences. Way cool kind of menu to choose from, and so I just think that he’s a special one. ... To get somebody that can really see the whole field, see it from the back to the front, relate to all of our people, were way strong requirements for it. He hits it out of the park on all those.”
Offensively, Baylor averaged 32.2 points in 2022, and the Bears return several key components on that side of the ball, starting with quarterback Blake Shapen.
“Big fan of his,” Aranda said. “The team sees that and the guys see that and they want to work hard for him. His growth off the field as a leader and just in terms of just doing all the things has been really good to see, and so I’m expecting big things. I know he is too. There’s been a lot of work into it.
“I think when you’re in a pit, to climb your way out of the pit and come out stronger because of it I think is one of the beautiful things in our sport. I want to see him rewarded for that.”
Shapen threw for 2,790 yards and 18 scores last year, and has back his top two receivers with Monaray Baldwin and Hal Presley. Leading rusher Richard Reese, who had 972 yards and 14 touchdowns on 198 attempts last year, is also back and was Baylor’s lone representative on the preseason All-Big 12 team. The Bears added Oklahoma State transfer running back Dominic Richardson, but had to rebuild the offensive line.
WVU holds a 7-4 record all-time against Baylor.
Baylor will be playing a program-record eight home games in 2023. The Bears will look to be in a better place for this year’s regular-season finale against WVU at McLane Stadium after ending the season poorly last year.
“Excited for the eight home games and excited for our schedule. Way appreciative of it,” Aranda said. “I’m looking forward to playing our best ball when we’re at home. McLane Stadium is very special when a team has earned the right for folks to come in and watch, and we’re totally aiming to do that.”
Jared MacDonald covers WVU athletics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow @JMacDonaldSport on Twitter.
Expectations were sky-high for Baylor entering the 2022 season, but the Bears fell well short of reaching them.
Coming off a Big 12 Conference championship in 2021, Baylor was picked atop the league’s then-10-team preseason poll and entered 2022 as the conference favorite. What followed was a 6-7 fall, which included a loss to West Virginia and four straight defeats to end the year.
It left Dave Aranda reflecting throughout the offseason on what went wrong. Now, the Bears prepare for his fourth regular season as the Bears’ coach, which will conclude with a Nov. 25 game against WVU at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
“I wanted to start this with really hard lessons from last year,” Aranda said in his opening remarks during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in July. “I have to imagine for those of you so inclined, what happened last year, it’s one of the beautiful things about our sport is that personal comes out in the professional, and the faults of just me — it can happen there, too. Not only the positive things, but the negative things.
“I look at the last year trying to save people, maybe trying to change people, and not having hard enough boundaries, and I look at the — I don’t know if it was hubris or what it was that made me think that I could, but I think people are ready to change or improve when they’re ready to, when they’re ready to do it on their own. I think that was a big factor last year.”
Aranda also points to his reluctance to use the transfer portal ahead of last season as part of Baylor’s failures on the field, for fear of taking away opportunities from others who had previously been a part of the program.
The coach said this season the Bears have brought in “a fair amount of new players” and said they’ve been “great fits” both on the field and off.
“I think to grips with, hey, this is what needs to happen for the betterment of the team, as opposed to just looking at what’s best for that one particular player on your team,” Aranda said. “I think we all like to think that there’s going to be just a trajectory of taking off like a rocket ship, but I think we all know there’s the bumps and the pits and the downward arcing in any type of career or a young person’s career.
“To say, ‘Hey, we’ve still got you, we still believe in you, but this is what we need to do for the team right now’ has been an area of growth for me.”
Baylor allowed 26.8 points per game last season, which ranked fourth in the Big 12, but the Bears gave up a season-high 43 in a three-point loss to WVU at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Matt Powledge takes over as defensive coordinator after Ron Roberts was fired at the end of the 2022 regular season. Roberts is now the defensive coordinator at Auburn.
“Coach Powledge is a coach that players can relate to,” Aranda said. “He’s a coach that can be real in the in-between moments.
“The football stuff I think is way strong. He’s coming from Utah State, Wisconsin, LSU, then Alabama, Georgia, Oregon — two really good schools of thought; there’s a lot of similarities, some differences. Way cool kind of menu to choose from, and so I just think that he’s a special one. ... To get somebody that can really see the whole field, see it from the back to the front, relate to all of our people, were way strong requirements for it. He hits it out of the park on all those.”
Offensively, Baylor averaged 32.2 points in 2022, and the Bears return several key components on that side of the ball, starting with quarterback Blake Shapen.
“Big fan of his,” Aranda said. “The team sees that and the guys see that and they want to work hard for him. His growth off the field as a leader and just in terms of just doing all the things has been really good to see, and so I’m expecting big things. I know he is too. There’s been a lot of work into it.
“I think when you’re in a pit, to climb your way out of the pit and come out stronger because of it I think is one of the beautiful things in our sport. I want to see him rewarded for that.”
Shapen threw for 2,790 yards and 18 scores last year, and has back his top two receivers with Monaray Baldwin and Hal Presley. Leading rusher Richard Reese, who had 972 yards and 14 touchdowns on 198 attempts last year, is also back and was Baylor’s lone representative on the preseason All-Big 12 team. The Bears added Oklahoma State transfer running back Dominic Richardson, but had to rebuild the offensive line.
WVU holds a 7-4 record all-time against Baylor.
Baylor will be playing a program-record eight home games in 2023. The Bears will look to be in a better place for this year’s regular-season finale against WVU at McLane Stadium after ending the season poorly last year.
“Excited for the eight home games and excited for our schedule. Way appreciative of it,” Aranda said. “I’m looking forward to playing our best ball when we’re at home. McLane Stadium is very special when a team has earned the right for folks to come in and watch, and we’re totally aiming to do that.”
Jared MacDonald covers WVU athletics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow @JMacDonaldSport on Twitter.
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