Dave Aranda chimes in on LSU, USC coaching vacancies

Dave Aranda has done an excellent job in just two seasons with the Baylor Bears, as he’s turned a 2-7 debut season in 2020 into a 6-1 performance in 2021, leading to speculation that Aranda could look into the USC and LSU head coaching vacancies.

Aranda has the Bears ranked No. 16 in the AP polls, something Baylor has not achieved since the Matt Rhule era, and the top-25 program is favored this weekend against Texas, an in-state rival.

“First I would say, with both LSU and USC — but LSU in particular — any time there’s change like that, I have great friends at USC and great friends at LSU, so you hate to see that,” Aranda said. “I think I look at Coach O and how much I’ve learned from him, the time that he’s spent and really invested in me when he didn’t have to or didn’t need me there — I recognize that and appreciate that. It’s sad when those days, like last week, when those days come. You don’t ever want to see that. I want to see [LSU] have success at the end of the year.”

Aranda made reference to last week, which saw LSU part ways with head coach Ed Orgeron. Though LSU announced that Orgeron would finish the 2021 season as head coach, his time at LSU will then officially come to a close just 21 months after a 15-0, national championship-winning campaign. Orgeron has gone just 9-9 since the national championship campaign and has a 46-17 overall record at LSU. While LSU searches for a new coach, so too does USC, as the Trojans fired Clay Helton after a Week 2 loss to Stanford. Helton had a 46-24 record while coaching USC.

Although USC and LSU will certainly consider the possibility of hiring — or at least interviewing — what seems to be a promising, young candidate in Aranda, the Baylor head coach expressed his appreciation for his current situation.

“I love it here [at Baylor]. My family loves it here, and I think Baylor has been everything that I thought it would be,” Aranda continued. “Coming [to Baylor] was an opportunity to grow and to be better, and I think a lot of times that looks awkward. I told our team that. … I feel like everything that Baylor stands for, the people that are here, the hearts of the people that are here, I think it’s bigger than football, so I appreciate that. I think our team is built that way, and I think it’s special.”

Aranda has a particularly close association with LSU, as he alluded to while discussing Orgeron’s dismissal. That’s because in 2016, shortly after Orgeron saw the interim label removed from his head coaching title, Aranda was hired to replace Kevin Steele as LSU’s defensive coordinator. In Baton Rogue, Aranda served as the defensive coordinator, assistant head coach and linebackers coach; he was there in 2019 when the Tigers won the College Football Playoff national title, leading to speculation that he may explore the program’s current vacancy.

Aranda, 45, chose his words carefully. He acknowledged that he never likes seeing a fellow head coach dismissed from the role, and he confessed his love for the Baylor football program. But he never quite said that he wouldn’t look into the openings at USC and LSU.