FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Multiple Reports Say Dave Aranda Staying At Baylor

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a quiet news day.

But two respected journalists — Pete Thamel of Yahoo and Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated — are reporting Dave Aranda has told Baylor he intends to remain as head coach.

Now people can always change their minds but if Aranda stays at Baylor it will be crushing to the media fanboys who have maintained he was the favorite to land the job.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports reported Luke Fickell is staying at Cincinnati because recruits are being told that seems shakier. Recruits are always told a coach is staying.

But all of this has to be good news for Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, who would be the next logical choice.

Some of us were pushing Campbell back in 2019. Imagine how much better off USC would be today if it had hired Campbell two years ago.

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86 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Multiple Reports Say Dave Aranda Staying At Baylor”

      3. well , that’s where folt came from with her ideas…who wants that as their administrator? some one very secure in their abilities to coach and a strong stomach is the next coach…or some one who thinks they are

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      1. OMG…….COULD IT BE THAT BAD??? I am hanging in with hope for a step up from helton even a small one. Orlando would not fill that hope

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      2. If the moment arrives in which Bohn realizes he can’t do better than Todd Orlando I hope he just lets out a high pitched scream and runs away…..
        It would be SO much more dignified than trying to spin Todd as the “Answer We’ve Been Looking For!” ……

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    2. I listened to the interview –it’s a beauty and it looks like Dave Aranda is WAY too “REAL” (to draw on his Children’s Book analogy] to want any part of Folt or Bohn.
      #NoChanceInHellUSCGetsAranda

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    1. “Concrete” Reports are to the effect NONE of the aforementioned names were EVEN CONTACTED by USC. OUR “Search” committee is like one of those Congressional Panels that never interview the parties —or anybody connected to the parties —they’re supposedly investigating.
      #TheyJustTHINKAboutIt….

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    1. Please not! Detroit hasn’t won a game this season. Does admin want to keep the USC FOOTBALL record diving into the abyss then say we are shutting down the program…no more football. We’re concentrating on important issues.

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    2. I need to get off this forum….no, no, no. Riley is the reason Oregon State has been, until this season, in the cellar. He left the cupboards bare when he left. Recruiting was a mess. After the Roger brothers, he was a failure…..like helton, winning because of talent on the field despite his coaching.

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    1. Other Pac 12 schools SO ruined their brand no one wants to coach there….
      #INEVERThoughtUSCWouldJoinThem…..
      #[Haden,Swann&BohnHadToWorkHardAtIt]

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    2. Something IS deeply wrong with USC. I would never work for a bohn or folt neither has proven to be either capable or honest. Very slippery language used by both. If you are honest, you don’t need to do that.

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  8. Gee Los Angeles, get over yourself. We are not that great anymore.

    Sure, when we had more orange trees than people, this was Mecca

    But times change. And so has L.A. I like L.A. because it is the
    melting-pot of the world, it has a lot of interesting people.

    But it’s not for everyone– especially those brought up in small towns where a “traffic jam” will cost you only 5-minutes.

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      2. I am not sure how you all live in LA. I grew up there, still have family there and San Diego, and my daughter goes to school there, but about after a week of visiting I’m ready to leave. Just too many people.

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    2. As someone who lived in & loved Los Angeles for 40 years It hurts me to see what it’s turned into. I worked in the most diverse office in L. A. –& it was largely made that way by the hiring practices employed by the great Burt Pines. Burt was a liberal –but he was also a pragmatist who wanted to save the city from becoming “honkytonk.” He protected businesses and communities. He worked with the police, not against them. He didn’t walk into a room to count heads at election time…he told the truth as he saw it.
      When I look at the mess L. A. has become, I’m reminded of the great exchange between Seth Rogan and James Franco in The Interview. Franco says “The first rule of journalism (he might as well have said “politics”) is to give the people whatever they want.” Rogan replies “Isn’t that the first rule of circuses?”

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      2. born there in ’43…watched it change from a ‘golden’ to a rusted trap of politics…glad I left in time…

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  9. As I said USC is no longer one of the top jobs in the country due to the current mess, and the fact the university is in Los Angeles which is no longer a desirable place to raise a family.

    Looks like Matt Campbell is choice No. 3 now that Aranda, and Fickell are staying put.- He would be just an OK hire. My concern is he is an offensive guy, and his teams give up alot of points in big games. If he hires a top defensive coordinator it might work. Looking at his coaching staff this year all the assistants have backgrounds of coaching at very small schools in the Mid-West.

    Might be a good coach for the Pac 12, but I just don’t think he takes your program to to playoffs on a consistent basis. I think Bohn is going after the cheapest coach possible that has potential rather than a established coach like Brian Kelly.

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    1. Parts of LA are pits, but I think every USC coach in the last 20 years has lived somewhere in the Palos Verdes/Manhattan Beach area.

      Give it to Aranda, he loves what he is doing at Baylor.

      I don’t see this so much as an LA problem, but as a university that has completely lost its way.

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      1. No, it’s an LA problem as well as a WOKE USC problem.

        The traffic, taxes and the change in demographics makes it hard for a coach to get good assistants to work there and the demographic change is making it harder to recruit lineman.

        You want to drive from Santa Clarita to LA everyday ? How about recruiting in Riverside and making that drive home on a Friday night ? You’ve got the OC to recruit, you can’t live there unless you make good money, and think of that fucking drive everyday.

        USC is NOT going to pay most of their assistants $300,000+

        I was born and raised in So Cal, left OC in 1996, went back a couple of times for weddings and such, haven’t set foot in Cali since 2007 and I’ll never go back.

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    2. Matt is NOT the answer our team needs — but he’s a huge step up ….and probably the best we can do under the inept leadership now in place.

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      3. Very funny. You know what’s funnier? No one in leadership at USC is asking themselves THAT very question….
        #…KindaSezItAll,Don’tIt?

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    3. Campbell would be a great hire for sc…he knows how to coach and develop players…he gets 2-3 star players at Iowa st, in the middle of no where and competes with the best.

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    1. As much of a compromise as Matt would represent I’m not sure Bohn even could land him….
      #USCIsPerceivedAsToxixRightNow…
      #MostPeopleAvoidToxicity

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      1. Reality sucks. Fickell would be great but I don’t think he’s coming either, with or without the recruit story entering the picture. My hopes were Aranda due to his coaching ability and roots in the LA area. Trying to be an optimist here, nobody was excited about Carroll when he got hired either. Silver lining I guess.

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  11. You know, on second thought, it is probably best SC did not get Aranda.

    He is always so fierce looking, I am afraid he would have scared the Helton out of our team.

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  12. This will likely be an unpopular comment, but since we all seem to agree that Pat Haden is largely responsible for destroying this Program, we should directly undo his damage. Hire Kiffin back with the Contract Signing on the LAX Tarmac and since Coach O may be a Toxic Head Coach Candidate right now, add him as DC and Recruiting Coordinator. Keep Donte for recruiting. Send all the Texas clowns back to where they belong. Kiffin at USC with the full 85 Scholarships in this weak conference would have this turned around in 2023 or sooner. For all of the Kiffin haters, he has a Top 10 Team playing in Alabama’s Division recruiting in fricking Mississippi.

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    1. Anyone who wouldn’t be happy with the 2021 version of Kiffin doesn’t understand football.
      #ButIDon’tThinkThere’sAnyChanceBohnCouldLandHimEither…

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    2. Kiffin has matured “some.” I do think he is a smart guy and would have the incentive to succeed. Not sure he’d want the deadly due of bohn and folt as bosses. He still has a quick temper. I still , however, remember when he left the podium and said “I’m outta here” when he got irritated with the press pushing for player injury status. He can be entertaining. I’m fine with him as a choice. He’s had success wherever he goes.

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      1. Carra,
        There was a time when USC could say “we don’t want Kiffin”….but the worm has turned…
        #….NowKiffinDoesn’tWantUSC

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    3. interesting…I doubt he would leave,or Ed O would come either…sc is a bridge burner and an insult to common decency at least for me…

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  13. Look, Carol Folt is not “into” football for reasons I do not want to go into here. Neither is the LA Times that put her in her job. In fact, the Folt administration may desire a dismantling of the football program for all we know.

    If USC wants a competitive football program at the highest level, Chairman of the Board Rick Caruso is going to have to make himself visible that the school is supporting program and the hiring of a new coach. That should include the in-person visibility of some of the wealthy benefactors and supporting corporations of the school. That is what is needed at this historic juncture as to whether SC has a football team at all the way things are going now. The unraveling of the football program is an institutional and cultural problem not just a team culture problem.

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  14. What’s that corny sales saying? They can’t say y.e.s. if you don’t a.s.k., and an a.s.k. only counts if you’ve quoted real u.s.d’s.
    I’m sure Aranda loves his current gig, why wouldn’t he? It’s his first as HC, the team is playing their ass off for him, crowds are big and loud, and the pay ain’t shabby. Aranda is smart guy who knows there is nothing to gain, everything to lose by answering anyway other than how he did. Klatt is a smart guy and he knows there’s no chance in hell that 2wks out from potentially playing for a conf championship Aranda muddies the waters with some ambiguous answer. Why then does a Klatt ask? Cause it’s the low hanging fruit method for media members to bump their vid views… nothing more, nothing less. Promise babies a sack of candy and they’ll follow you to heck and back. Same goes for football loving Trojan fans… Promise a sack of coaching news and they’ll follow you to click and back. As far staying put & settin’ roots in Waco, I don’t buy it. His climb up thru the ranks wasn’t by accident, and it wasn’t shy about pulling up the stakes in search of higher ground… prior to Baylor, talks of sharing a religious ideology have taken a back seat to a well planned professional philosophy, and I don’t see that changing now. Why? Because even if the day-to-day spiritual aspects have caused him to set aside a life of football ambitions, and the money is right, Aranda knows Jesus prefers the efficiency big media markets provide when it’s preaching time.

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  15. All of these head coach candidates know a helluva lot more than we do about the rampant disinterest and dysfunction in regards to the football program at USC. That’s why there is lukewarm interest in the job. Maybe Campbell takes the job and saves USC’s ass, but if he passes then that says everything about the perception of Folt/Bohn.

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    1. I’m looking forward to Folt & Bohn spinning the appointment of Donte Williams if he beats BYU —-
      #”WeDidn’tWantFickellOrArandaOrCampbell—WeWantedDonte!”

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    1. What they’ve done falls way beneath the ‘naughty’ level, PT….
      #It’sMoreAlongTheLinesOfCulpableNegligence…..
      #[….LikeNotCheckingThePropGunOnAMovieSet]

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  18. Matt Campbell wouldn’t be bad but I was hoping for better. But he has done a good job in a place where is hard to get players to want to go there. I still think that if they can’t find a bigger name coach, they should look at Kalen DeBoers from Fresno State. Look at his past record. It’s phenomenal. I can’t see why SC can’t get a real great coach. I look at Fresno State’s recent coaches……Jim Sweeney, Pat Hill, Tim DeRuyter, Jeff Tedford and now Kalen DeBoers……All outstanding coaches…..At about the same time SC gets Sark and Helton? Something is wrong

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  19. Matt Campbell is Helton 2.0. In a recent interview he said, “it’s not about winning the conference title, it’s about seeing these young men grow.” Another losing touchy feely coach isn’t going to solve anything . He’s a hard NO

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    2. I’ll admit….that statement troubles me. But Campbell is head and shoulder above Helton. If Helton had been coaching at ISU the last couple of years, he’d have won 2 to 3 games a year.

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    3. well those 2 star players have to grow physically,fundamentally and be competent,etc…before they can win…WHICH THEY DO under his coaching

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      1. Helton quote from article: “Our players are much closer than people think they are!”
        #Oh,You&YourTeamWereExactlyWhereWeThoughtYouWere

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      2. I didn’t read it again, but what about the whole Clay dentist appointment thing at the beginning!? This may have been the best of all the Mike Bohn-solicited puff pieces.

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      3. This is a Bill Plaschke-type of headline. Virtue-signaling and attempts to shame the reader for having any sort of issue with Clay Helton. Mike Bohn bought-and-paid-for gaslighting and propaganda. I can’t imagine Joseph Goebbels doing it any better.

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      1. An unexpected consequence of Ryan Kartje being so good at his job is that he has one forearm noticeably larger than the other.

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  21. Why would anyone continue to live on a blog run by a USC hater? No love for BB, and all negativity for FB. Someone definitely has a problem. Now back to my wife slapping me around, “yes dear I’ll shut up now”.

    #lockdownloserhahaha!!!

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    1. Are you saying that the Wolfman is a USC hater. I don’t know why that would be true. After all, he is a USC grad. But even if it is true, at least Wolff lets you speak your mind without censoring you…….a rarity today in “woke” america. That’s why I come on this blog.

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    2. If being a hater is telling the truth then count me in. Over the last ten years there’s been two people who’ve held not only the football program but the university to account, and that’s been Wolf and Petros Papadakis. They’ve been right on the money in their assessments of USC.

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      1. Would the following be better?
        USC looks poised to win it’s last 2 contests. The attitude of the players is sky high after UCLA’s 62 point drubbing. And the coaches are more locked in than ever. Not one of them is thinking about the job their about to lose in 2 weeks. Donte is improv…..
        #…..OhShit,ICan’tDoIt….It’sTooEasy….

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  22. WHY 2 YRS AGO???
    Mickey Mouse would have been better 2 yrs ago…sc had goofey as head coach,the last 5-6 yrs.
    there is probably a high school coach better than hellton, or JC coach…so get one from the pros, or a college coach with a great record and his staff that can teach fundamentals and improve the sc players…somebody wants a BIG pay raise out there.

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  23. Dan Lanning. Great defensive coach. Much better to hire a great assistant than a mediocre head coach. Pair him with a great OC

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    1. You are taking a chance with a guy like that. He’s got limited experience as a DC and has never been a HC. If you are going to go that route, you might try the DC at Wisconsin

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