Q - Cloned site not finding paths

It was time to recreate my staging site from the live site again (I know, backwards...)
So I followed the steps I always used:
- dump live db to a sql file
- tar the live webroot directory
- translate the db sql file to change references (i.e.: s/www./staging./g)
- untar the extracted files into the staging webroot directory
- load the DB sql file into the staging db.
- modify the settings.php file to reference the staging site
- run drush updb
access the staging. site! The front page is displayed just as expected.

BUT - this time any link clicked on the front page results in the infamous 404 message. So, if a link is relative and references "/department" under normal circumstances the link would be found because it is relative to the current site's webroot.

As a result I can't even login as admin 'cause the login page cannot be found.\

I haven't run into this before on any clone I've performed (dozens of times) so what might I have forgotten to address this time?
If I hover of the same link on the live site my status bar shows the same url/path as does the staging site. But the live works and the staging doesn't.

Thinking how each of you may have cloned a site or two, was there any item not covered above that you share?

I hate to spend the weekend pondering...

Thanks all :-{