By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            ARLINGTON, Texas – For Dave Aranda, last year's 6-7 season was a "hard lesson" in coming to grips with doing what's best for the team "as opposed to just looking at what's best for that one particular player on your team."
            That was Aranda's struggle with the transfer portal. Even though the 2021 Big 12 championship team was boosted by transfers in both the offensive and defensive line, the fourth-year Baylor coach has always had a strong conviction that if you say yes to someone in the portal, "you're saying no to a player on the team that maybe is struggling" in some area.
            Even though last year's team had some gaping needs, the Bears stayed out of the transfer portal for the most part and paid the price.
            Speaking at Wednesday's Big 12 Football Media Day at AT&T Stadium, Aranda said the moment was just "so big for some guys."
            "I think it was faulty for me to think, 'Hey, we can get them right,''' he said. "We all think that there's just going to be 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 young person's career. For me to say, 'Hey, we've still got you, we believe in you, but this is what we need to do for the team right now' has been an area of growth for me."
            Pivot to 2023, and Baylor has no less than a dozen transfers on the roster, including running back Dominic Richardson (Oklahoma State), quarterback Sawyer Robertson (Mississippi State), wide receiver Ketron Jackson Jr. (Arkansas), offensive linemen Clark and Campbell Barrington (BYU), cornerback Isaiah Dunson (Miami) and linebacker Mike Smith Jr. (Liberty).
            "To manage that, and for me to come to grips with that, speak the hard truths and really work to get the team better is kind of where we ended up," Aranda said. "I wish it wasn't so rocky of a road to get there, but I feel good where we're at."
            The leading tackler for a Liberty bowl team, Smith said he picked Baylor because of "the people that I was going to be around day-in and day-out."
            "Coaches, staff, players, they're always asking how you're doing mentally," Smith said. "It's not just about what you're doing on the field, it's about what you're doing off the field, just asking how I'm doing on a day-to-day basis. I feel like that's rare."
            Smith is part of a revamped defense that returns five starters and is now led by first-year coordinator Matt Powledge. The Bears' former special teams coordinator and safeties coach came back to Baylor to replace Ron Roberts after one year as the co-defensive coordinator at Oregon.
            "Powledge brings great energy and is a guy that players can relate to," Aranda said. "He's going to be a great coach. He already is, but he's going to be a great coach because he's selfless, there's no real ego there. And he can learn and take his hits and keep on coming. . . . One of his greatest strengths is just being so authentic. That's allowed us to have real strong talks."
            TJ Franklin, a fifth-year senior defensive end from Temple, said Powledge "allows the players to be who they are . . . to pretty much play free."
            "That allows us to be better for each other," Franklin said, "and better for ourselves."
            Offensively, quarterback Blake Shapen had an up-and-down sophomore season, throwing for 2,790 yards and 18 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. But this spring, he won a QB battle with Robertson, a sophomore transfer who saw limited action in two years at Mississippi State.
            "I'm really pulling for Blake," Aranda said. "I think we all can relate to Blake to where, when things go well, they go well and you don't know what you don't know. And then, all of a sudden, there's a huge blind spot that you didn't know was there. To not run away from it, but to deal with it  . . . and then to be down in a pit and climb your way out of the pit, and not be like, 'I'm going to show you.' Not looking for approval but looking for improvement. That is way cool. When Blake's at his best, he's a hard-core competitor."
            Robertson also handled the competition well, saying "Coach, I'm going to be the best teammate, I'm going to be there ready. I'm going to keep pushing. It's not over for me. I'm still competing."
            "I would want my son to say that," Aranda said. "I think competition makes us better."
            With the conference expansion this year, Baylor will play at UCF and Cincinnati while hosting Houston after splitting a home-and-home non-conference series with BYU over the previous two seasons.
            "It's a challenge for all of us," Aranda said. "Every week matters. I've been in some leagues before where there is great competition and then you've got the one week or two weeks where it's like . . . that's not the case with the Big 12. It's going to take everything you've got every week. It's one of (the league's) greatest strengths."
            On Wednesday, Aranda was still dealing with the recent death of his father, Paul, from pancreatic cancer. He and his family are returning to Redlands, Calif., for a celebration of life on Sunday.
            "There's going to be just so many people that are going to be there that my dad touched," Dave said. "Family members that didn't know they were a part of the family, relatives that needed help that my dad was there for. I'm just way proud to be his son."
            Playing its first four games and eight of 12 regular-season games at home, Baylor will open against Texas State at 6 p.m. Sept. 2 at McLane Stadium. The Bears open fall camp on Aug. 3.
            Ticket information is available at the 2023 Baylor Football link.