Dave Aranda: proof that the common fan just looks for the flavor of the month

Also proof that stars matter.

He won with Rhule's guys. Now he's in year 3 and having to start to win with his guys. He's a good (but not great) defensive mind who's probably better suited for being a coordinator.

If you're truly cut out to be a great head coach, you get it done year in and year out for the most part, regardless of where you are. And then that's what gets you a head coaching job at an elite place like LSU.

Same.

Dude is 6-4 at fricking Baylor.

A year after winning the Big 12 title and all of a sudden he's asswater?

frick outta here

I’d still take him at AU in a Waco minute.

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Baylor wasn't expected to be very good this year. They lost a lot of talent from last year.

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I don't think Dave sucks now but they were preseason top 10 and favored to win the conference.

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Preseason rankings are worth less than the time it took me to type this.

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Sure but they are also definitive proof of preseason expectations.

We all know Dave is a great coach. We all know he will be a great culture and X and Os guy. However, the jury is still out on him as a recruiter. That’s not a knock on him, or me saying that he can’t do it. We just haven’t seen him try to even recruit as well as possible at Baylor yet. Maybe that will change in the future, but he hasn’t made a move up yet.

SFP mentioned Kelly, but that’s not a good comparison at all. He was pulling consistent top 10-15 classes at ND. Aranda isn’t doing that yet, and maybe that’s because of where he is, but we don’t know that yet. Some coaches don’t want to play the games necessary to be big time recruiters, even grading on a curve for where they are. A prime example is Dan Mullen. UF fans just assumed he would magically flip a switch and go bigger once he got there and it didn’t really happen. He just wasn’t interested in doing what it took to be a top-tier SEC recruiter.

Where Kelly might be a good analogy for Aranda is seeing how he’s adapted to focus more on recruiting here than he did at ND. The warnings that he was a “lazy recruiter” and that he wouldn’t care and hire the staff necessary were completely unfounded. If and when Aranda takes a step up to a bigger program, it is possible he does the same. But it’s not certain.

I’m sure he would have to address that with any school he interviews for and any SEC program will want up-front commitments on recruiting. Auburn would especially after the way Harsin didn’t give a shite about getting to even a base SEC level.

Well Aranda beat a good Oklahoma State team in the Championship year 2 after COVID raped the world. That’s a sign of fantastic coaching during that time when so many things are going on.
Last week they got smoked but definitely not indicative of how well they have played as a “team” most of the season minus there record which doesn’t reflect.
Look Baylor is Baylor winning consistently up there probably isn’t gonna happen often anyway.
Aranda has done a really nice job and I personally wasn’t sure he was a Head Coach based off personality.
Glad I was wrong.

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I’d still take him at AU in a Waco minute.

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Then why hasn't Auburn and others haven't mention him being one of the top targets?