LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda's "senior" year excites him

Dave Aranda is finally a senior, so to speak.

As LSU’s defensive coordinator starts his 17th season as a full-time college assistant spread among eight schools, you can do the math and see he has stayed at each stop about two years.

The 2019 season marks the first time in the 42-year-old Aranda’s fast-track career that he’s stayed at a school four years as a D-coordinator.

He’s going into unchartered waters, which he finds fascinating and challenging.

Aranda is intrigued by something Louisiana Tech’s Bob Diaco told him when the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator visited Baton Rouge recently to talk ball with college football’s highest paid assistant.

“He said something like, ‘Dave, there's a lot of tape on you',” Aranda said earlier this week at the LSU coaches caravan stop in Metairie at Walk-Ons.

Translated: SEC teams have certainly seen enough of Aranda to know his tendencies.

The solution: Having schemes that look the same but play out differently.

Aranda certainly appreciates his $4-year, $10 million fully guaranteed contact. But what drives him is continually expanding his football knowledge, which was an unexpected bonus when he was hired away from Wisconsin of the Big Ten after the 2015 season by former LSU coach Les Miles.

It didn’t long for Arnada to learn the biggest difference between preparing for SEC opponents as opposed to Big Ten foes.

“If you defended Iowa, Iowa's running the stretch, they're running the boot off the stretch,” Aranda said. “Everybody knew what they were going to run, and it was a matter of defending them. Anybody who played Wisconsin, they're going to run power, or they're going to run power-pass.

“That is so not like the SEC. The SEC is so much `If you are in this defense, we are calling this play for that defense.' In the Big Ten it was 'We don't care what you're in. Our guy is going to block your guy.' Or 'We're going to out execute you.'

“I've always been a believer in 'You’ve got to beat us. You may know what we're in, but we're going to out execute you.' I still believe that, but I’m bending to having more adjustments and more checks that are possible. It stems from what our players can do.”

The Tigers have eight returning defensive starters, the most since Aranda’s first season with the Tigers in 2016 when his unit ranked fifth nationally in points allowed per game (15.8). It certainly helped the ’16 defense had five starters who were selected in the 2017 NFL Draft, including first-round draft picks cornerback Tre’Davious White and safety Jamal Adams.

Arnanda’s current puzzle to solve – creating a defense that basically erases all past tendencies – is one he figures to solve through the versatility of his four best returning proven commodities.

Grant Delpit, JaCoby Stevens, K’Lavon Chaisson and Michael Divinity will be Aranda’s primary pawns in his football Saturdays this fall.

“Whether it's K'Lavon or it's Mike Divinity or it's JaCoby Stevens or it's Grant Delpit, there's a bunch of guys that do a lot of things individually really well,” Aranda said. “It's our task to take those things and blend that into a defense. The challenge in the offseason, is to try and find roles for all these guys and build it where it can be a collective group.”

Here’s what Aranda said on how he sees their roles:

Strong safety Delpit: “Put him in critical spots when we're expecting run is the smart thing to do. He has the ability to instinctively make plays when there's edges set. He has shown the ability to play the deep middle and have great range, so we want to be selective when it comes to those times. The question always with Grant is he does everything well.”

Quarters safety Stevens: “Jacoby is very intelligent, he understands football, he knows all our adjustments, the ins and outs of the defense. His ability to call out plays and increase awareness is very high.

“It (quarters) is a glorified linebacker. You take a safety and it gives him (Stevens) the ability to play low, gives him the ability to play man-to-man on tight ends, it gives him the ability to rush off the edge. All of those things he does very well. We want to build off that, so he’s going to be playing some dimes, some stacked linebacker when he can blitz and play some zone coverage.”

Outside linebacker Chaisson: “Ka’Lavon is very smart and he loves football. It’s obvious he’s very talented. There’s a fair amount of quick twitch in him and explosiveness. The more we can free him to rushing and not having him drop (in pass coverage), the better we’ll be.”

Inside/middle linebacker Divinity: “Mike's a smart kid, he gets football. He's a great communicator, he's confident. He is able to take charge. When things are going tough, he's able to be tough. I appreciate that about him, and I think the guys have really responded to him well.

“We've got him at inside linebacker now. But from the middle linebacker spot, we'll have him on the line of scrimmage at times, whether it's over the guard, over the center, or on the edge of the tackle.”

The prospect of having four defenders with such versatility has Aranda feeling like he did in his first season in Tigertown.

“We've got guys on the perimeter that can make plays sideline to sideline, can blitz, can cover, and guys that need to be isolated pass rush one-on-ones that can win on running backs, that can win on O-linemen on the interior as well as offensive tackle pass sets,” Aranda said.

“The talent that's inherit there, we can move around and use. I’m excited. It's been a while since (he's had) that.”