5 Alex Grinch replacements USC football needs to finally fix the defense

2. If Dave Aranda is let go at Baylor, hire him immediately, Jennifer Cohen

As with Tom Allen at Indiana, if Baylor were to somehow let go of its head coach Dave Aranda, just figure it out and bring The Samurai back to Los Angeles, please. It is starting to be abundantly clear that Aranda won with Matt Rhule's players in 2021. He was certainly ready to be a head coach after being LSU's defensive coordinator on Ed Orgeron's 2019 LSU staff. A lot has changed since then...

While Baylor is not the worst program in the Big 12, the Bears are probably the worst of the 10 teams who played in that league in 2022. They are better than teams like Cincinnati and UCF, right around where BYU and Houston are at. Keep in mind those are programs moving up from the Group of Five to Power Five competition. Baylor is a private school, but Aranda is looking like such a one-year wonder.

So why would USC want to hire him? Well, because Aranda is a massive improvement at defensive coordinator over Grinch. He is a great teacher, but maybe not the best motivator. Conversely, he is the type of head-coaching candidate new athletic director Jennifer Cohen would want if Riley bolted for the NFL. That is coming, so be ready for that. Aranda did play his college ball at Cal Lutheran, too.

He may be the next Clay Helton if he replaced Riley on the sidelines, but the fit here seems decent.