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Bo Pelini (remember
him?) is set to be the next LSU defensive coordinator, according to multiple reports on Monday,
though FootballScoop was the first to report on the
possibility a full week ago.
Pelini
will return to a job he held from 2005-07, when he served as Les Miles’ first defensive coordinator in Baton Rouge and
helped LSU win the 2007 national championship. From there, he became the head
coach at Nebraska, where he went 66-27 in seven seasons.
Though
he never brought a Big 12 or Big Ten title to Lincoln, Pelini’s Huskers teams joined only Alabama and
Oregon in winning at least nine games each year from 2008-14. After
being pushed out following the 2014 campaign, Pelini has spent the past five
seasons as the head coach at Youngstown State, where he is 33-28.
The
volcanic Pelini represents a stark departure from the stoic Dave Aranda, who left earlier this month to become
the head coach at Baylor.
According
to Sports
Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger, Pelini will make
around $2 million a year, which represents a massive raise from his salary as
an FCS head coach but a major savings for LSU, who paid Aranda a
best-in-the-nation salary of $2.5 million. (Update: CFT has
learned Pelini’s salary is likely to be closer to Aranda’s deal than previously
reported.)
Though
he’s spent the past 30 seasons in coaching, Pelini does not have a ton of
experience as a coordinator. Aside from the three seasons in his first stint at
LSU, Pelini spent just one season as the defensive coordinator at Nebraska
(2003) and one as a co-coordinator at Oklahoma (2004).
Nevertheless,
he takes over a defense that’s fresh off a national championship that both
loses and returns a ton of talent. The Tigers will look to replace all four
starting linebackers plus defensive ends Rashard
Lawrence and Breiden Fehoko,
safety Grant Delpit and
cornerback Kristian Fulton, but the 2020
defense will be led by perhaps college football’s best defender in sophomore
corner Derek Stingley plus
safeties JaCoby Stevens and Kary Vincent, Jr.
