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Where would the Wisconsin Badgers be in the 2015 season without its defense? It’s a question we hear often when discussing this team with other fans and pundits.
The answer to that is a scary proposition, because the 2015 defense is one of the best in the country and one of the best we’ve see in the Dave Aranda era. It’s led many to start naming him as a potential candidate for open defensive coordinator jobs and head coaching vacancies throughout the country.
Perhaps it will be hard to keep Aranda from moving to a head coaching job in the future, if that is the route that he wants to take. No amount of money or comfort level at a school is going to change that kind of ambition — at least long term.
But, Aranda doesn’t seem to be the type that will just take a job to take it. He could’ve easily left with Gary Andersen to go to Oregon State if that was the case, but he clearly felt like Madison could be a place for him to build something big and keep his family intact.
Those ties only last so long though, and with Aranda getting noticed for what is going on under his tutelage in Madison, others are going to come calling sooner rather than later.
Just how important is Aranda and his defense to what the Badgers have done in recent history — the numbers simply don’t lie. He has been vital, and so has his ability to get the most out of his players.
Let’s take a quick look at where Aranda’s defenses have stood over the time he’s been here.
Pretty impressive numbers by themselves, but a look inside those defenses and it becomes even more incredible. First off, Wisconsin’s supposed “rough transition” year of 2013 was anything but that. Instead the group did great things and along with an impressive ground attack made that team a Big Ten contender.
Last season, Wisconsin had to replace a ton of defensive starters including All-Big Ten and Mr. Badger, Chris Borland. It barely missed a beat statistically speaking, and UW got back to Indianapolis after a one-year hiatus from what has become a seemingly annual caravan from Madison to Indiana’s capital city.
Perhaps his best coaching job has come this season, with the Badgers transitioning from a team full of experienced and veteran defenders to a front seven that has started more underclassmen than at just about any point in the last 15 years.
Wisconsin’s defense is in the top 15 of every major statistical category in the country so far this season, despite all the replacements and technically speaking is having the best statistical marks of the Aranda era as well.
It’s all really remarkable, but it also speaks to the importance that Aranda has and his abilities as a pure football coach. Few would be able to turn two freshman inside linebackers in to game changers while also transitioning with a ton of youth in front of them as well. That defensive line features two sophomore starters (Connor Sheehey and Chikwe Obasih) and a junior with minimal playing time coming in to this season (Arthur Goldberg).
Wisconsin is clearly getting everything it can from Aranda and the defensive coaching staff, but you wouldn’t know it by the pay he is receiving at Wisconsin.
Aranda came in to the program with an annual salary that included a base of $300,000 and would total $480,000 after incentives and other parts of the contract were fulfilled. A reasonable total for a relatively young and unproven coordinator under a head coach whose 3-4 defensive concepts were in play.
Since then though, Aranda’s pay hasn’t dramatically increased. According to a report by Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel earlier this year, Aranda was scheduled to max out at $520,000.
That’s a whole raise of $13,300 per year or so if you’re division is as good as ours at home.
One could say Aranda has vastly outperformed his salary compared to the levels of salaries earned by those in his statistical stratosphere. Aranda’s reported 2014 salary of $480,000 ranked him just 77th amongst all assistant coaches in the country, according to the USA Today database.
It put him behind not one, but BOTH of the Ohio State co-defensive coordinators and it also put him behind the likes of both coordinators at the University of Minnesota. Yes, both defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys and offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover earned $550,000 in that last compiled list by USA Today.
Think about that for a second. Aranda is getting paid less than not one, but two guys who do the same job he does and it isn’t even close. He’s also out-paid by a defensive coordinator with results on the field that aren’t nearly as good as his.
While there’s no doubt that coaching salaries have gotten out of control as of late, no one is suggesting breaking the bank and paying the man $1 million a year. However, would it be wholly unreasonable to get him pay closer to his production level?
Perhaps even as little as $600,000 or $700,000 a year here.
Aranda has certainly earned a massive bump in pay based on what we’ve laid down here today. http://cdn1.bloguin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/148/2015/11/ncf_g_davearanda_ms_576x324.jpg
However, the question is, will the Badgers administration step up to the plate and realize they need to keep a good thing while they have it?
Aranda is really just starting to get his style of player in to the system and the recruiting efforts he and the staff have put together are really paying off. Chris Orr has come in and starred so far as a true freshman, while Olive Sagapolu, Connor Sheehey, T.J. Edwards and Jack Cichy have found success quickly within this defense.
There is promise in names like Arrington Farrar and Nick Thomas, while the Badgers are also building one hell of a class on the defensive side of the football in the 2016 recruiting cycle. Aranda’s blueprint of a player is all over that class and losing him is likely to devastate the class.
Rarely is a coordinator the lynchpin of recruiting, but Aranda is so good at identifying players that fit to his work ethic and scheming ability that he has honed his craft as a recruiter as well.
It all adds up to Aranda likely being the most important piece to Wisconsin’s success. It’s just up to Barry Alvarez and the athletic department to realize what they have and step up to the plate financially now.
Otherwise, don’t expect Aranda to be long for the University of Wisconsin defensive coordinators job. He’s just too good at what he does to not get noticed and paid way more than he is now.
The post It’s time for Badgers to open checkbook and keep Dave Aranda in the fold appeared first on Madtown Badgers.
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