Coming back from 35-7 down on the road to stun UCF 36-35 last week was, they hoped, a rebirth for Baylor's football season. Instead, it was a reprieve.
Baylor came home Saturday and lost to Texas Tech 39-14, dropping the Bears to 2-4 on the season, and to 1-8 against FBS competition since Nov. 12, 2022.
The loss for Baylor was especially dispiriting considering Texas Tech has struggled on the road under Joey McGuire, and that McGuire and several other Tech assistants were on a Baylor staff, led by Dave Aranda, that won the Big 12 in 2021.
After going 6-7 a year ago, Baylor now faces an uphill battle to reach a bowl game this winter.
"Let me be really, really clear: No one is okay with Saturday's performance. I was certainly completely disappointed, as were others. And certainly no one's okay with 2-4 halfway through the season. I'm not, and I know our fan base isn't. Dave (Aranda) isn't, our coaches aren't, nor are our student-athletes," Baylor AD Mack Rhoades said on 365 Sports, a Baylor-focused streaming show, on Monday.
Rhoades spoke at length to open his interview. I don't know this to be true, but it sounded as if Rhoades invited himself on the show specifically to address the grumbling he's heard from the fan base.
"Quite frankly, we need to make some changes, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. I believe we've got really good staff, I believe we've got really good football minds. They didn't all of a sudden get less smart from 2021. Nobody's working harder than them and nobody's more disappointed than them," Rhoad said. "Obviously right now we're struggling to run the ball and our offense is built for the run to set up the pass, and so that's not obviously working well, particularly when we get into the red zone. And we're struggling to stop the run."
Baylor is 105th in the nation in rushing offense, averaging 121.5 yards per game and 3.42 per carry. Two years ago, Baylor ranked 10th at 219.7 yards per game and 5.38 per carry.
Listening between the lines, it sounded to me as if Rhoades is frustrated by the offensive staff's inability to adapt the offense as it's drawn up on the chalk board to the on-the-ground reality of the players the Bears have available at this time.
"I never have in the past, and I can assure you Coach Aranda and I have spent several conversations -- minutes, hours -- talking about how it needs change, it needs to be tweaked," Rhoades said when asked if he would dictate who should call the plays moving forward. "Probably where our personnel is right now, it needs to fit our personnel better. We've had those very honest and direct and candid conversations."
While it certainly sounded as if Grimes and, in all likelihood, several other assistants would not be back next season if the next six games go like the previous six, Rhoades professed total faith in Aranda to lead the program.
After taking the job in 2020, Aranda replaced offensive coordinator Larry Fedora with Jeff Grimes, and the result paid off with an immediate Big 12 championship.
"My job during this time is not to be emotional, but to really be constructive and factual," said Rhoades. "Certainly ongoing conversations with Coach Aranda. I think those have been very, very constructive, and I believe in his ability to fix these problems."
The Bears are off this week before beginning their second half at Cincinnati on Oct. 21.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.