Lagway settles in as Baylor's QB1
DJ Lagway has looked the part in his first Baylor camp, a Waco courtroom cleared DL Hosea Wheeler for the season, and the Bears open 2026 as underdogs at Auburn on September 5.
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DJ Lagway arrived from Florida and by the first week of August was already impressing his new coaches — On3's Pete Nakos reported on August 6 that Baylor "has been impressed with" the transfer since he got back to Waco, and that Lagway "has been healthy and emerged as a leader for the Bears." That's the sentence Baylor fans have wanted since Sawyer Robertson left: a healthy, vocal QB1 with a live arm settling into the building.
What camp has actually been fighting over is the No. 2 job. Offensive coordinator Jake Spavital told reporters that Nate Bennett, Edward Griffin and true freshman Quinn Murphy were still splitting backup reps deep into August, according to SI.com — a battle that still hadn't resolved by the time Baylor held its "Meet the Bears" fan event on August 22.
Camp cost Baylor a receiver, too. Covers' injury table lists WR T. Williams Jr. as Out with a collarbone injury he's expected to miss extended time with, reported the week of August 21. Tight end T. Livingston is Questionable with a right knee injury, and it remains to be seen whether he's ready for the opener against Auburn on September 5.
A Waco courtroom saved a defensive lineman's season
Transfer defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler nearly didn't get to play this fall. Wheeler, who came to Baylor from Indiana in January, was first granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA in McLennan County court on July 29, per On3's Pete Nakos, buying him time while an eligibility fight played out.
That TRO became something sturdier on August 11: Nakos reported from the Waco courtroom that Wheeler had been granted a preliminary injunction, clearing him to play the entire 2026 season — a "big win for the Bears," as Nakos put it. New defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, who took over the unit after seven years at Kansas State, has already called Wheeler "dominant," per the Baylor Lariat, which makes the ruling one less hole up front for a defense trying to establish a new identity.
Last season ended on a four-game skid
Baylor's 2025 season closed the way too much of the back half of it went: with a loss. The Bears fell 24-31 at home to Houston on November 29, capping a stretch that also included a 28-55 defeat to Utah and a 17-41 loss at Arizona, sandwiched around a 30-3 blowout of UCF in Waco. One signature win and three lopsided losses is the kind of finish that leaves a program with real questions right when those questions get asked hardest — fall camp.
Those questions are why Dave Aranda went out and got Lagway, and why he pulled Klanderman off the Kansas State staff to rebuild the defense. Both projects were still being worked out in practice as August wound down, which is exactly what a program coming off a 5-7 finish should be doing with training camp.
Auburn opens a new era across from Lagway's Bears
Baylor opens the season on September 5 at Auburn, with kickoff set for the Bears' phrase — Saturday, September 5 at 2:30 PM, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Auburn finished last season having lost 20-27 to Alabama and, like Baylor, enters this one at 0-0 with a new staff and a new quarterback picture of its own.
The line opened with Auburn favored by 6.5, which makes Lagway's first start as a Bear an underdog spot — not a runaway number — and with the total opened at 59.5, a high-scoring afternoon is being priced in. For a team that finished last season on a four-game slide, an early test against a rebuilding SEC program is as good a place as any to find out what August actually built.