He did what no other Baylor Football coach did before. After only two seasons at the helm (remember when he was named to the position in 2020?), Baylor head coach Dave Aranda led the Bears to a historic season and rightfully earned the 2022 George Munger Coach of the Year award by the Maxwell Football Club! Aranda was given the Munger Coach of the Year honor instead of fellow finalists Jeff Traylor of UTSA, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, and Mel Tucker from Michigan State. According to the Maxwell Football Club’s website, the George Munger award “is presented to the College Coach of The Year. The award is named for former University of Pennsylvania coach George Munger.” The honor was rightfully given to Aranda as he took Baylor to the highest of heights in year two of his tenure. Under Aranda’s leadership, the Bears went from 2-7 in 2020-21 to 12-2 in the 2021-22 season. The team secured a program-high 12 wins, recorded their first-ever Big 12 Championship title game victory, had first and only New Years 6 bowl win in the CFP era, and notched 5 wins over Top 25 opponents for their most top-25 wins in a season since at least 1974!
Maxwell Football Club Executive Director Mark Wolpert said, “Coach Aranda has engineered an amazing turnaround for the Baylor program. The team’s 12-2 mark is a great testament to the hard work of Coach and his staff, and also to the dedication shown by the student-athletes involved in the program. The fact that this was all accomplished under the cloud of the Covid-19 pandemic makes this achievement all the more impressive.”
The Bears didn’t make it to the College Football Playoff this year, but they had a historic run thanks to Dave Aranda and a team of athletes who refused to give up. After being projected to finish 8th in the Big 12 Conference, Baylor defied all odds and ended the 2022 season with their highest final ranking ever at 5th in the country. We have lots to celebrate from this past season and even more to look forward to as long as Aranda is our guy (hopefully forever and ever)!
