On the surface, new LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda would fall under the old saying, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
After all, Dave Aranda’s playing career as a Wing-T pulling guard seemingly stopped after high school because his injuries were too severe to go much further. According to him, he wasn’t a very good student, so he attempted to enlist in the Navy, but even the Navy wouldn’t take him because of his football ailments.
So Aranda started coaching junior varsity football at his alma mater, Redlands High School in Redlands, California, before eventually getting his bachelor’s degree at California Lutheran and his master’s degree at Texas Tech.
But those days coaching in his hometown were when Aranda figured out teaching football is what he could do well.
“Once you’re into coaching, you just love being a part of a team,” Aranda said. “There’s nothing better than having a bunch of guys that are all on the same page; that have all blood, sweat and tears and put it out there.”
In fact, he coaches so well now that LSU coach Les Miles called him “an absolute star” when he introduced him as the new leader of the Tiger defense at a news conference on Tuesday morning.
“When you check his credentials, you find out that he started coaching as a player, and really has done nothing but live and sleep football for his time,” Miles said. “There’s no surprise that his defenses are nationally-ranked year-in and year-out, and we look forward to adding him and his skills to our staff. We feel like it gives us a great edge on defense.”
As Miles pointed out, the former Wisconsin defensive coordinator has built quite reputation for himself, establishing the No. 1 total defense over a three-year period with the Badgers. Prior to Wisconsin, the 39-year-old coach had practically no experience coaching for a Power Five conference team, but worked his way up through productive defenses at multiple stops.
However, Aranda soaked in every bit of football he possibly could as he built his résumé, including relationships he’s built with current members of the LSU defensive staff.
While at coaching at California Lutheran, he sat in meetings with LSU defensive line coach Ed Orgeron in Orgeron’s first stint at Southern California. He met LSU linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto when Aranda was joining the Houston coaching staff and Peveto was on his way elsewhere. He even coached LSU defensive back coach Corey Raymond’s recruits at Utah State after Raymond took another job.
Over almost 20 years of coaching, Aranda has developed his style of defense, which he would call “smart aggression.”
“I think you want to be aggressive on defense,” Aranda said. “I think you want to play with an offensive mindset, but you want to be able to do it in a way that’s intelligent. You want to try to flip the mats as best you can but keep the big plays to a minimum.
“So I think the details of your answer is to find your best players, get them matched up on their worst players and do it over and over and over again.”
Miles actually had Aranda, who Miles coached against in the LSU’s 2014 season opener against Wisconsin, among his top two candidate when trying to replace former LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis last season.
Miles’ reasoning, he said, for hiring now Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele last year was Steele’s experience in the Southeastern Conference. But once it became clear Steele would be leaving LSU, there was no doubt in Miles’ mind of who would replace him.
For Aranda, getting a job in the SEC was a personal accomplishment.
“I’ve always looked at this conference as an elite conference,” Aranda said. “I’ll look at this school and I see the skill level of the players. I see the intelligence of the players. I know they have great football smarts. I know they have been coached well.”
Aranda has already started watching film and plans to start making introductions to draft-eligible underclassmen and guaranteed returners. He’s not sure if he’ll coach a position group, and he’s also not sure if he’ll coach games from the field or the press box.
Aranda, though, sees himself as flexible – not stuck in ways that would limit his fellow defensive coaches or his players.
“I think it’s very much about the best ideas, the best players,” Aranda said. “I think I’ve always saw myself as a conduit that way. What you want to be able to do is take the best ideas that come out that have room, no matter whose ideas they are. I know I’ll have ideas and I imagine all the other coaches in there will, too.
“So what fits best for LSU, that’s what we’ll do. Same goes with the players. And so if there’s certain players that are best being in a certain spot, be able to get to that place as soon as possible and let’s get them working there. It is not or it has not been about, this is what the book says what we need to do, this is what we’ve done the last three years; it’s what the best for this place.”
LSU football coach Les Miles and defensive coordinator Dave Aranda pose for pictures following Aranda's introduction as the new defensive coordinator on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2015 at the Athletic Administration Building.
