Big 12 Media Days kicked off in an unexpected way for the Baylor Bears. Head coach Dave Aranda missed the mark with a strange comment on quarterback DJ Lagway's career with the Florida Gators before arriving in Waco. I mean, really strange.
Meanwhile, ahead of the 2026 American Century Championship, I got the chance to speak to LSU Tigers legend Andrew Whitworth about a recent recruiting win for the Bayou Bengals in Louisiana over an increasingly fierce blood rival in the SEC. Whitworth is one of 90 participants taking part in NBC's annual celebrity golf tournament at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada. The ACC airs on NBC, the NBC Sports Network, and Peacock from Friday to Sunday (July 10-12).
Here were Wednesday's SEC headlines from across the gridiron:
Dave Aranda says DJ Lagway's Florida career was akin to wearing a straight jacket
Aranda had a vision with what he was saying about Lagway's career in Gainesville before transferring to Baylor. It just badly missed the mark and was probably insensitive to many who struggle with their mental health.
Aranda was trying to say that Lagway was held back by Billy Napier and interim head coach Billy Gonzales's offense. Unfortunately, he used the term "straight jacket" to drive his point home. In 2026, that's a bit of a faux pas.
“He’s very driven, there is a huge chip on his shoulder. I could see on the recruiting trip, … I could see someone that just wanted to be free,” Aranda said of Lagway. “Like (he was in a) straight jacket, maybe, someone that is just all boxed in and boxed up and just wanted to be free, express himself, play free. And I think he’s felt that (freedom) … at Baylor.
“He’s smiling more, he’s open more, he’s engaging with teammates more. He’s taken the O-line out to eat, he’s taken the receivers off to (practice) seven-on-seven, or they’re at his house watching films. He’s just totally engaged, totally driven. So guys are connected to him and want to play for him, they don’t want to let him down.”
You really do understand what Aranda was going for. Lagway had stops and starts at UF, showing strides at the end of the 2024 season and the beginning of the 2025 season, only to fizzle out. Unfortunately, the imagery Aranda used did him no favors as he enters the 2026 season on the hot seat. This incident doesn't make it any hotter, but the last thing it did was improve Aranda's situation in any way. An unforced error if there ever was one.
Andrew Whitworth talks LSU landing Jayden Anding over Ole Miss
Whitworth, for personal reasons, was a major fan of LSU landing 4-star Ruston safety Jayden Anding over the Ole Miss Rebels. For one, Whitworth was one of the greatest blindside tackles Baton Rouge has ever seen. He's still a proud Tiger and will always be.
As Whitworth also revealed, though, his nephew is Anding's classmate, teammate, and one of his best friends in Ruston. That, plus Jayden's brother Aidan already wearing purple and gold, makes Whitworth excited about the commitment.
"Well, first off, Jayden, that's my nephew Hayden Clark's best friend. They go to the same high school, so I'm really excited for him to be an LSU Tiger. His brother's already there. So that's really cool," Whitworth said. "You heard Lane talk about why he wanted to go there and be a part of LSU. I think when I was there, you looked at it following the (Gerry) DiNardo years...Nick Saban said when he took over the job, 'If you could just keep the kids in Louisiana and steal a recruit here and there, they're gonna be really good for a long time.'
"I think Lane saw that, if you go to that place, you have, even in this day and era of time, with a little nudge, you could just keep Louisiana boys in Louisiana and win. I think, as you do that, and then you start to reach off the state a little bit, you build momentum. And we did that at LSU when I was there. We were Saban's first recruiting class, and that's what we did. Marcus Spears, Michael Clayton...
"We went around and told people, 'If you come here, we're going to win here,' and we were able to get guys to flip their commitments. So that momentum matters. And so I'm excited about where they are."
Whitworth has told me before that Kiffin has the means to follow the Saban blueprint to success on the Bayou. Kiffin is doing nothing but proving him right on the recruiting trail since June. We'll just see if that translates to more meaningful results on the football field than LSU had the past few years under Brian Kelly.
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