The head coach firings have begun in college football. The latest is one that tangentially involves Auburn: the Tigers' first opponent of the season, Baylor, has fired Dave Aranda after a 4-3 start to the 2026 season.
Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman takes over as the Bears' interim head coach for the rest of the year. Baylor has lost two straight to TCU and Kansas. Both programs have losing records and sit in the bottom rung of the Big 12.
Had the Bears beaten Auburn in Week 1, Aranda would've had some cushion. There'd be different conversations happening right now on the Plains had the Aflac Kickoff Game from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta gone differently.
The Tigers emerged as winners 17-16, though, holding on to stop a Baylor two-point conversion on the last offensive play because of a clutch tackle from AU safety Eric Winters on Bears tight end Matthew Kloppenstein.
Aranda's program took losses both years in its series with Auburn, even losing to Hugh Freeze's underperforming 2025 team in Waco. Then-Tigers quarterback Jackson Arnold had 108 passing yards and 137 rushing yards with two rushing touchdowns in his finest outing he ever had for Auburn in the 38-24 win last August.
The writing was on the wall for Baylor since, frankly.
Auburn didn't help Dave Aranda's cause in loss to LSU in Week 8
Perhaps the final straw for Baylor's administration on Aranda was seeing that none of the Bears' losses on the gridiron this season were to an elite program.
Auburn's 38-17 loss to LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Week 8 was the final nail in the Tigers' CFP hopes' coffin in 2026. That beatdown, which looked worse than the score reads, made it clear that Alex Golesh knew better when he preached patience following the Georgia upset.
Baylor once beat Lane Kiffin's team in a Sugar Bowl. The Bears have fallen hard since the 2021 season, though, and losing to Auburn twice proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that Aranda was never going to get Baylor back to those heights.
Not in time for him to keep his job, at least.
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