Fired Baylor HC Dave Aranda in Baton Rouge as LSU reportedly eyes reunion

The LSU Tigers have given up 17 points combined in their last two games, and they are still trying to bring another defensive mind into the building before Saturday’s game against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Dave Aranda, who ran LSU’s defense from 2016 to 2019 and won a national title there, has been out of work since the Baylor Bears fired him on Oct. 25.

CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reported Thursday that LSU is working to add Aranda in an “analyst-type role” and that he is already in Baton Rouge. After seven seasons of running a program in Waco, where he finished 40-40, Aranda would go back to spending his days on game plans.

Why would LSU want Dave Aranda with its defense playing this well?

The Tigers are tied for fourth nationally in total defense at 258.1 yards per game and allow 4.27 yards per play under defensive coordinator Blake Baker. LSU has held all six teams it beat to 17 points or fewer. The other two games were road losses, 32-24 to the Ole Miss Rebels and 35-34 to the Kentucky Wildcats, and a 6-2 team chasing a playoff spot has little room left for a third.

Alabama comes first at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, followed by the Texas Longhorns at home and trips to the Tennessee Volunteers and Arkansas Razorbacks. No analyst arriving this week is going to remake the plan for Alabama, but a coach with Aranda’s background would have three more game weeks to work with before the regular season ends.

Lane Kiffin has also seen Aranda’s work from the other sideline. His offenses scored 49 and 35 in their first two meetings with Aranda’s defenses, at the USC Trojans in 2010 and at Alabama in 2015. The next two produced 17 points combined: a 10-0 Alabama win over LSU in 2016 with Kiffin as offensive coordinator, and seven points for his Ole Miss team in a 21-7 Sugar Bowl loss to Baylor to close the 2021 season.
LSU is now trying to put the coach behind those defenses on Kiffin’s staff.

LSU is working to try and add former Baylor head coach Dave Aranda in an analyst-type role and he’s currently in Baton Rouge, sources tell me and @AYSSPORTS for @CBSSports.

Before Baylor, was LSU’s defensive coordinator from 2016-19. https://t.co/0bP3bVTLHH

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) November 5, 2026

What Aranda could mean for LSU if Blake Baker leaves

Baker turned down head coaching offers from the Tulane Green Wave and Memphis Tigers last December and stayed on a three-year, $9.3 million contract.

“There’s not a better defensive coordinator job, and so let’s just make sure that when the time is right, I leave for the right head job,” Baker told The Advocate that month.

Baker has said he wants to follow the path Kirby Smart took, going from defensive coordinator to head coach at a power-conference program that can win a national title. With LSU’s defense among the five best in the country, more head coaching offers could come in December.

If Baker takes one, LSU will need a new defensive coordinator, and Aranda has already held that job at LSU and won a national title in it. Chris Kiffin, Lane Kiffin’s brother, would also have a claim to the job as LSU’s co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

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