photo by: AP Photo/Jerry Larson

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, left, and Kansas head coach Lance Leipold, right, shake hands after an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, in Waco, Texas.

The Kansas football program has come a long way from what it was in 2016, when Texas fired Charlie Strong after an overtime loss to the Jayhawks, or in 2010, when Colorado blew a 28-point fourth-quarter lead in Lawrence and then decided it had had enough of head coach Dan Hawkins.

But in a move that harkened back to those days, Baylor fired its coach Dave Aranda on Sunday, less than a day after KU defensive tackle Blake Herold got his hand on a last-minute field goal attempt and consigned the Bears to a 25-24 loss at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman will take over as interim head coach for the Bears, who are still 4-3 on the season.

“Anyone who knows Dave Aranda understands what a genuine and honorable person he is and how much he deeply cares for his players, staff and this University,” Baylor athletic director Doug McNamee said in a press release. “He is a gifted coach and a brilliant football mind whose leadership brought some of our best Baylor football memories. While this is a difficult moment, we believe a change in leadership is necessary at this time for our program. We will forever be thankful to Dave and his family for their time here at Baylor, and we wish them well.”

Aranda, a former LSU defensive coordinator, took over as the Bears’ head coach in 2020 and in his second season led Baylor to a Big 12 title and Sugar Bowl victory. But he never won another postseason game and suffered several losing seasons.

KU coach Lance Leipold on Monday said he felt bad for Aranda and had exchanged texts with him that morning.

“Dave Aranda’s one of the true real people in this profession, a genuinely great human being, and anyone that comes across that would say the same,” Leipold said. “An excellent football mind. It’s unfortunate when these business decisions are made that we don’t control. As we know, it’s a game of inches. And if the game would have gone the other way, who knows what happens.”

Leipold and Aranda aren’t incredibly close, Leipold said, but they do go back a ways. Aranda was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin from 2013 to 2015, a period that overlapped with Leipold’s final seasons as the head coach at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. They met at a state clinic, where Aranda shared his own experiences at the D-III level from two stints at Cal Lutheran.

“And ever since then, just kind of reflected on that, about the going up and the great things about lower-level football, but also all the things there,” Leipold said.

They also spoke when KU chose to hire Jeff Grimes as its offensive coordinator in December 2023 after he spent three seasons in the same role with the Bears (including the memorable 2021 campaign). Grimes left KU after one year for Wisconsin.

Aranda finishes his Baylor career with an even record of 40-40. He is the first Big 12 coach fired this cycle and third at the power-conference level after Maryland’s Mike Locksley and N.C. State’s Dave Doeren (a former KU assistant).

“He’s a really good man, and I wish him and his family the best,” Leipold said of Aranda. “He’ll have plenty of opportunities in the next chapter.”

KU’s next opponent is TCU (3-4, 1-3 Big 12), Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Its head coach Sonny Dykes has taken some heat himself after consecutive 9-4 seasons. The Horned Frogs reportedly fired their co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach A.J. Ricker (another former KU assistant) on Sunday.