LSU Spring Game Proves New DC Dave Aranda Was Perfect Hire

BATON ROUGE, La. — While many eyeballs inside Tiger Stadium on Saturday were fixated on LSU's quarterbacks, their teammates closing in them on defense ended up stealing a good bit of the spotlight.

The Tigers combined for eight sacks and 13 tackles for loss in LSU's spring game, which finished with a low score of 17-7—a far cry from last year's 45-6 fireworks display. They also combined to go just 3-of-17 on third downs and 0-of-3 on fourth downs.

For Dave Aranda, the star defensive coordinator who LSU snapped up from Wisconsin this offseason in a big-money move, it was the perfect showcase of what Tigers will put out this fall under him.

"If you talk about the base stuff, the base stuff is in for the defense," Aranda said. "I think the defense is always most effective [in a spring game] when there's a mix, when you're not playing the same call again and again and again."

But the Tigers were careful not to show too much of the new scheme.

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According to LSU head coach Les Miles, the defense has a little more than half of Aranda's attack-minded scheme installed at this point in the offseason. The Tigers also held back what they put out on film Saturday, too, so that they "didn't give a tremendous hint to our opponents."

"I think we're in a good position," Miles said. "I think you'll see the scheme of the defense continue to take off. You had to put some time in 15 practices to get a real quality base, and I think we did that."

Even with 60 percent of the defense installed and a reluctance to show too much to future opponents, LSU still displayed plenty of versatility on the defensive side of the ball Saturday.

Aranda, who developed a reputation for innovating and experimenting with his defenses at Wisconsin, runs three down linemen in his defense. A move to that can be a tough transition to make, especially for a program that has long been established as one that runs a 4-3 defense.

That didn't seem to slow down the Tigers defense in the spring game.

"Coach Aranda does a great job," linebacker Kendell Beckwith said. "He doesn't make things too complicated for us. He knows it's new. The terminology was different for us, but once we got a hang of that, we were rolling."

Aranda's philosophy should allow LSU to take full advantage of the athleticism it recruits all across its defense, from the physical front to the renowned secondary of "Defensive Back U." It's a perfect fit between the new coach and the talent he's inheriting, and it showed Saturday.

In this defense, LSU's defenders can attack offenses from anywhere and everywhere—and they started with their own teammates Saturday.

Aranda turned his nickel defensive backs loose all across the depth chart. Xavier Lewis led all players with 2.5 tackles for loss while lining up with the second team, and Dwayne Thomas added two of his own (both sacks) while tying for the team lead with eight tackles.

"He's got a knack for rushing," Aranda said. "Once you're in that 3-4 alignment, you've got nickels, corners, safeties, inside linebackers and outside linebackers rushing. You want to be able to identify those guys. ... I think he's one of those guys who's shown that in those drills and out here today."

Another defensive player who starred with an adjusted role Saturday was defensive lineman Davon Godchaux, who lined up at nose guard. The junior finished with four tackles and two sacks, proving hard to slow down for LSU's transitioning offensive line.

According to Aranda, Godchaux has the quickness LSU wants on the interior of the new three-down defensive line, even though he's undersized for a prototypical nose guard at 293 pounds. And Godchaux wants to make the position his in 2016.

"The adjustment is pretty good," Godchaux said. "You can get a good get-off against much slower guys at the center position. I get to use my quickness a lot and get off the ball."

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Other versatile Tigers who pushed their way into the backfield in Saturday's game included junior tackle-turned-end Frank Herron and true freshman running back-turned-linebacker Devin White.

White and fellow early enrollee Michael Divinity got key snaps at linebacker Saturday, capping their impressive improvement in their first few days at LSU.

"It's really nice to see young guys come in and play with some real skill and ability to give the coaching staff expectations that they can step on the field and help us in big games," Miles said. "Both of those guys have shown that throughout the spring."

One of Aranda's biggest stars of the day was another true freshman, cornerback Saivion Smith.

In a secondary limited by injuries—LSU's biggest pass play of the day was a 70-yard touchdown from backup quarterback Danny Etling that went right over a walk-on corner repping with the second team—Smith stood out, recording four tackles and an interception.

Like Divinity and White, Smith could find himself with some early playing time this season after what he showed Aranda both on and off the field this spring.

"He's got all the skills in the world...athletic ability, toughness, all those things," Aranda said. "But what makes him special is that he loves football and he wants to know football more. He's going to get better and better because of that."

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Aranda is expecting the same type of development from playmakers all over his defense as they continue to learn and install the system in the next few months.

"So much of the spring has been, let's get a foundation in," Aranda said. "I feel really good about our foundation. ... We're able to build off that now. Summer time is going to be big for us."

And if Saturday's spring finale was any indication, the fall is going to be big as well for the LSU defense under Aranda.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Stats courtesy of CFBStats.com.

Justin Ferguson is a National College Football Analyst at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.