The head coaching carousel may be complete, for now, but the assistant carousel continues to be functioning at full power. On Friday night, LSU announced the hiring of new defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, formerly of Wisconsin.
“This is a great hire for us,” LSU head coach Les Miles said in a released statement. “Dave has an outstanding track record of producing some of the best defenses in college football. We’ve seen him up close and understand how difficult it is to have success against him.”
Wisconsin had the nation’s third-ranked defense in the 2015 season, trailing only Boston College and Alabama. The Badgers, who have been sneaky good in the Big Ten, allowed just 268.5 yards per game this season, including the Holiday Bowl victory over USC. The Trojans managed just 286 yards of offense against the Badgers. Just four teams were able to muster at least 300 yards of offense against Wisconsin in the 2015 season, but one of them was LSU’s top obstacle in the SEC West, Alabama. The Crimson Tide rolled up 502 yards of offense in the season opener, including 238 on the ground. Only Nebraska and Maryland reached the 300-yard mark against Wisconsin the rest of the season. Wisconsin also gave LSU a good defensive battle in the 2014 season opener in Houston, limiting the Tigers to 365 yards, but most of that damage came late in the game as Wisconsin let the game slip away. Coincidently, LSU’s first game of the 2016 season will be played against Wisconsin in Lambeau Field.
Aranda will replace Kevin Steele, who accepted a job offer from Auburn to fill its vacant defensive coordinator role that was left open by Will Muschamp, who was named South Carolina’s head coach. Steele became LSU’s defensive coordinator nearly one year ago after John Chavis left LSU for Texas A&M.
Now, once again, Wisconsin is left trying to figure out a way to keep assistant coaches financially happy in Madison. One of the reasons Brett Bielema left Wisconsin for Arkansas was the opportunity to assemble a more stable coaching staff with more financial flexibility that was rarely available at Wisconsin. While the financial terms may not be known at this time, Aranda was being paid $280,000 less than Steele was at LSU for the same job responsibilities.