Wagner: Carl Pelini to be Falcon DC UPDATED

BREAKING: #BGSU football will name Carl Pelini as #Falcons new defensive coordinator. Story to come ASAP.@FootballScoop

— John Wagner (@jwagnerblade) December 19, 2017

So you wanted a new defensive coordinator?  How do you feel about Carl Pelini?  A guy who never, in his life, has worked in the state of Texas.  In fact, who is from Ohio.  Well, that's who it is going to be.

Carl Pelini ticks a lot of the boxes that people have been looking for.  Unlike the rest of the staff, he's been a D1 assistant for 13 years.  He was DC at Nebraska for his brother, was a head coach at FAU and then has been the DC at Youngstown State, also for his brother.  So, you know, he has actually held the job that he is taking at BG, I believe the only coach on our staff who can say such a thing.  He also coached at Ohio U (for Solich), which gives the staff badly needed MAC coaching experience as well.

So what have the results been like?   Well, they were #20 in FCS in scoring defense this year (19 ppg), were #12 the year before that and #45 the year before that.  This year, they were #9 in pass defense, #1 in passing yards allowed and #20 in total defense.

In short, this is a guy who has shown that he has the ability to create effective defenses, again, more so than anyone else on the BG staff.

I have to say, when I first saw this on twitter a few minutes ago, I was very pleased.  Seems like the perfect guy to me and represents a serious effort to shore the staff up.  I think our offense is on the right track and even an incremental improvement in defensive play significantly changes the team's outlook, even as talent continues to be rebuilt.

UPDATE:  The Blade's story is out, including that BG has not confirmed the hire.  To that point, both Jordan Strack and Thomas Schmeltz reported on twitter that the deal is not done.  Their reports say that there have been talks and a decision could come soon....that Pelini is the first choice but that he hasn't made a decision yet.

We shall see.   We have seen.  The deal is officially announced.

Also, it is worth noting that when Pelini left FAU there were allegations of drug use against him.  According to The Blade, he has passed drug tests at Youngstown State.