The LSU Tigers made a big hire on New Year’s Day with the hire of Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda to the same position.
Les Miles lost defensive coordinator Kevin Steele to the same job with the Auburn Tigers earlier in the week but got an upgrade in the form of Dave Aranda who leaves Wisconsin to take the LSU job, according to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.
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Aranda came to Wisconsin three seasons ago from Utah State where he followed Gary Andersen to Madison. He’s also been the defensive coordinator at Hawaii and Southern Utah and an assistant at California Lutheran, Houston and Texas Tech.
He was mentioned as a possible candidate to join Clay Helton’s staff with the USC Trojans and NOLA.com listed Aranda as a sleeper candidate to get the LSU gig with Clancy Pendergast, Clemson’s Brent Venables and former LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini mentioned as candidates to replace Steele.
This a tremendous hire for Miles who gets Aranda after he had the No. 2 scoring defense, No. 3 total defense, No. 4 rush defense and No. 7 pass defense last year with the Badgers.
Les Miles on new #LSU DC Dave Aranda: “He’s everything that we were looking for in a defensive coordinator."
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 2, 2016
Aranda ran a 3-4 defense at Wisconsin and was able to generate pressure from his outside linebackers. LSU ran a 4-3 under Steele and under his predecessor John Chavis, so I wonder if he’ll run that system at LSU or if he’ll stick with the 4-3 considering that’s how what their personnel is fit to do.
Either way, he should be able to use some 3-4 and 4-3 principles to give LSU a versatile defense that can play against teams with a version of a spread offense like Texas A&M, Auburn, Ole Miss or Mississippi State or with a power run game like Alabama or Arkansas.
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LSU has a lot of talent and potential with its roster, including potential All-American safety Jamal Adams, and depending on how many of the underclassmen bypass the NFL Draft, this defense could be among the best in the SEC next year and help Miles get back another SEC championship and quiet the hot seat talk.