Winning time in waco: baylor season preview

After coming off of a subpar 5-7 2025, the Baylor Bears look to bounce back in a reasonably weak Big XII. The group comes into the year hoping to get back to bowl eligibility and get back to the top of the Big 12.

In preparation for this bounce-back season, the Bears brought in a few transfers to spearhead the change. The most notable of these transfers for the Bears this offseason was Florida QB transfer DJ Lagway, who looks to achieve somewhat of a career resurgence in Waco after throwing for 4000 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 23 interceptions in his first two seasons in Gainesville. Lagway threw for 333 yards on a whopping 54 passing attempts against Auburn in the team's season opener in week one. The fact that HC Dave Aranda trusts Lagway enough to drop him back 54 times in one game speaks to the trust the young quarterback has already gained from his coaching staff in Waco.

Fun Fact: Baylor was just 6 inches short of beating Auburn in the teams season opener in week one, how close TE Matthew Klopfenstein will be pictured below

Transfers on the Outside:

Surrounding Lagway on offense for the Bears this season are transfer wide receivers, Gavin Freeman and Dre’lon Miller. Freeman spent two seasons at Oklahoma State after transferring from Oklahoma, and comes into Baylor for his fifth year in college as a graduate transfer. Freeman tallied a whopping 12 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown against Auburn, and seemingly has a large portion of the offense made for him to get open out of the slot. If Freeman can come to close to duplicating his week one performance in future weeks, expect him to break out as this teams WR1. During Freeman's time in Stillwater in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, he accrued 53 pass completions for 481 yards and four touchdowns. 

The other key offensive transfer to keep an eye for the Bears is Miller. Miller is coming in from Colorado, where he tallied 52 receptions for 435 yards over the past two seasons.  Miller was ranked as a high 4-star recruit in the class of 2024 as the #17 WR in the country. Miller holds the athletic potential to replace Kobe Prentice; Baylors WR2 from a year ago, who left for the NFL this offseason.

Defensive Line Overhaul:

On the defensive side of the ball, it was almost a complete overhaul on the front for the Bears. However, the overhaul is quite necessary. Baylor recorded just 12 sacks throughout the entire season a year ago, a mark that ranked #132 nationally, leaving the group with much to be desired. In response, HC Dave Aranda brought in CCU transfer Jordan Mack, Texas State transfer Kamren Washington, Indiana transfer Hosea Wheeler, Marshall transfer Jaamal Whyce, So Miss transfer Garrick Ponder, and many more. The most notable of these transfers are undoubtedly Wheeler and Ponder. Wheeler appeared in all 16 games for Indiana’s national championship team a year ago and tallied 31 tackles, four tackles for loss, and two fumble recoveries while doing so. Ponder on the other end tallied a whopping 11.5 tackles for loss off the edge a season ago to go along with 37 tackles at Southern Miss. Ponder and Wheeler are going to need to be an elite duo if this Bears defensive line wants to see any improvement. These defensive transfers hope to have a massive impact on the defense to propel the Bears to a winning season. 

While Lagway, Freeman, and a revamped defensive line should give Baylor fans hope, it will likely be a few years before the rebuild is complete in Waco. A heart-breaking 1 point loss to Auburn to open the year should leave Bears fans disappointed, but the performance shows the group can compete with the SEC. Expect the Bears to compete for bowl eligibility, but dont expect this group to win anything more than eight games. Baylor is a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team.

Schedule Prediction: 6-6 (L: Auburn, ASU, TCU, BYU, Texas Tech, Houston)