4. Dave Aranda should be thanking his lucky stars for a missed UCF FG try
The longer this goes on, it is abundantly clear that Dave Aranda won the 2021 Big 12 Championship with Matt Rhule's players. Throughout the College Football Playoff era, Baylor has been a top-three or four program in its Power Five conference, indisputably. Now, they are one missed field goal away from being 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference. The fact UCF almost beat them speaks volumes here.
With Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12, there is an undeniable power vacuum atop the league, just waiting for a new program to assert itself and rightfully take over. It may just end up being Kyle Whittingham's Utah Utes when they come over next year with the other Four Corners Universities. For a minute there, we thought Baylor might become that team because of the school's athletic prowess.
But right now, the soft-spoken defensive-minded coach is having a hard time motivating his players. He lost his ace in the hole in recruiter Joey McGuire two years ago to Texas Tech. McGuire may have his own mess of issues on hand, but he may only need to land a solid coordinator or two to right the ship in Lubbock. As for Aranda, his Baylor Bears are going to be so lucky to finish 6-6 on the season.
While their schedule does ease up a tad, the bottom half of the Big 12 is incredibly jumbled currently.