The highest-paid and one of the most well-respected assistant coaches in college football, Dave Aranda, will be replacing Matt Rhule as Baylor’s next head football coach.
The news comes just over a month after Aranda’s name was linked to the UNLV head coaching vacancy, a position Aranda reportedly turned down. After all, Aranda’s situation at LSU was hard to beat at the time — he was the nation’s highest-paid assistant coach, at $2.5 million per year, and LSU was on its way to an undefeated season and winning the National Championship.
But Baylor offers something UNLV couldn’t: it’s a Power 5 school on the rise, a football team that just went 11-3 and played for the Big 12 Conference championship game.
Texas A&M is also another school that came chasing after Aranda, when last January they offered him their DC position, however, LSU countered with a new four-year contract that made Aranda the first coordinator ever in college football to make more than $2 million.
Coach O has said he believed Aranda would be a head coach one day, and made hints all season that it would be hard to retain people on his staff like Aranda and passing game coordinator Joe Brady, whom Matt Rhule hired less than 24 hours after the National Championship to be his offensive coordinator in Carolina.
Bottom line, it’s a HUGE get for the Baylor Bears. Although I do have some Baylor friends who were honestly holding out hope they would bring back Art Briles. SMH.
Add Comment