Lightning delays may only delay the end of the Dave Aranda era at Baylor | Opinion
Between the wind, rain and lightning, “The Revivalry” delivered the Biblical elements that a football game between TCU and Baylor should include.
It also delivered a chaotic finale that was nearly worthy of a book, but instead it was another finish that is painfully familiar to Baylor and its fans under head coach Dave Aranda.
After three fourth-quarter lightning delays, TCU defeated Baylor 42-36 on Saturday morning/afternoon to drop Aranda’s record against BU’s biggest conference rival to 1-5.
The delay had no bearing on the final outcome. TCU led 35-21 at the time of the first delay, which came with 13:46 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Put some respect on those 67 loyal fans who remained to the end of a game that started at 11:05 a.m. and ended at 4:52 p.m. The lightning delays totaled more than two hours, and the game took so long to finish that ESPN carried the final 6:44 of action on its app.
The final 6:44 was an odd sight, a barrage of big plays in front of mostly player’s family members, the school bands, husbands who didn’t want to go home, gamblers and a head coach who is a good man stuck fighting for his job in another average season.
Baylor endures ‘self-inflicted wounds’
On the first play after the final delay ended, TCU scored a touchdown to take a 42-21 lead with 6:04 remaining. Baylor then scored two touchdowns and recovered an onside kick to give it a chance at what would have been its third miracle comeback of the season. Unlike its wins over SMU and Kansas State, this one didn’t happen.
Both TCU and Baylor needed to win Saturday, and one team was clearly better. And the team that played better isn’t a threat to the top 10 any time soon.
“Self-inflicted wounds,” Baylor receiver Josh Cameron said after the game.
Despite a promising recruiting class, Baylor officials and select members of its board of regents must start to have “discussions” about the future of its football program under Aranda, who is under contract through the 2029 season.
Baylor is 4-3, 2-2 in the Big 12, and convinced it is better than the record.
“I’d say so,” Cameron said. “You can say one thing, but you have to do it at the end of the day. We’re a lot better than our record, but we have to show what we’re about.”
The 2025 Baylor Bears are a team that is heading straight into the Brazos River at a time when private schools not named Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and USC can’t afford to be anything other than competitive in football.
Aranda is now 35-33 in his tenure at Baylor that started in 2020. Since the start of the 2022 season, the Bears are 21-24. Aranda’s spectacular 2021 season appears not an omen for Baylor football but rather one of those magical one-off years.
BU is 7-11 against Top 25 teams under Aranda, but five of those wins came in 2021.
Starting with its Week 1 home loss to an ish Auburn team, Baylor is currently in another “one of those” years under Aranda. The “bounce-back” season Baylor enjoyed in 2024 didn’t have a carry-over to 2025, even with the return of quarterback Sawyer Robertson.
Baylor needed two fourth-quarter touchdowns to force overtime in a win at SMU. It needed two fourth-quarter touchdowns to come back to beat Kansas State. BU won the games, but neither inspired a lot of confidence.
The combination of Robertson and tight end Michael Trigg has not yielded the type of necessary results and production, and the defense lacks playmakers.
Baylor’s frustrated team, and fan base
Bowl eligibility only requires six wins, and with remaining games against Houston, Utah and Cincinnati, Baylor is trending to only barely make it to that mediocre 6-6 plateau.
“Still a lot to play for,” Aranda said. “We find ourselves in some adversity, and we need to fight.”
Baylor is now at the dreaded point where every detail about the team is about the state, and the future, of the head coach. That’s a terrible spot to be in because reversing it requires so much momentum, evidence and patience to change the narrative.
Aranda is not a man Baylor wants to dump. He is well-liked, respected, the players play for him, and there is always the matter of that buyout.
“They’re hurt right now. They wanted to win this game,” Aranda said of his team. “We have the ability to win games like this. Probably ‘frustrated’ is the best way to say it.”
The same can be said of its fan base.
This story was originally published October 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM.
