Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
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W 30 hen Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda sleeps on something, there's a very good chance that he really won't sleep through to the morning. So, he has a legal pad and a small white board in his bedroom just in case he comes up with a new blitz or coverage; or tweaks to existing ones. Does it happen a lot? "A lot," he said, not apologizing for his footballinduced insomnia. Aranda's wife, Dione, has grown so accustomed to his Xs and Os brainstorming at all times of the day that she has a chalk board in the den of their home just for that reason. "But I'm always in competition with our kids," he said, chuckling. "They're always writing on it." There is a method to Aranda's thought process. "You've got to get out of it to get back in it," he said. "That's how a lot of ideas come, whether it's a workout in the middle of the day; or you're walking across the street to grab something to eat." Or whether it's the middle of the night, and you're jotting down notes and not sleeping. "When you're just grinding," Aranda said, "it just hasn't happened as easily." It's the break in routine, or the pause that refreshes and kick-starts the creative juices. There have been some inevitable false starts along the way, too. "A lot of that is knowing who you are," he said, "and knowing what your team is like." Last Saturday, the picture began to crystallize. The Badgers had most of the answers for Northwestern's offense, which was limited to 241 total yards and a couple of field goals in a 35-6 loss. It marked the first time the Wildcats, who were 2-of-17 on third down, had not scored a touchdown since 2006. Aranda was then the defensive coordinator at Cal Lutheran, his alma mater. Have the Badgers mastered the 3-4 defensive alignment? Are they turning the corner at least? "We'll see these next couple of games, I think time will tell," Aranda said with caution. "But I feel like we know who we are now and how to best use our people and how to best call a game. "We know our individual strengths and weak- // VARSITY October 17, 2013 nesses and our collective strengths and weaknesses. That has taken however many games to get that down. "That's after all of winter, all of spring, all of summer and all of fall camp to ― and I don't want to say reinvent yourself ― but to kind of come to grips with everything. "It's easier said than done when you're new and trying to define what each guy is best at and then putting them in those spots. I want to believe that's what we have now. But time will tell." • • • • "You've got to get out of it to get back in it," Aranda said. "That's how a lot of ideas come, whether it's a workout in the middle of the day; or you're walking across the street to grab something to eat."