Youngstown State really, really likes the Pelini family. Doubly so after this week.
Early on Saturday afternoon, Bowling Green announced that defensive coordinator Carl Pelini was leaving the program for another opportunity. That’s not too surprising considering he originally joined the Falcons under former coach Mike Jinks and was actually retained by new head coach Scot Loeffler this past month.
“We are thrilled for Coach Pelini and wish him great success,” a BGSU statement said. “A new defensive coordinator will be announced as soon as possible.”
While the departure of Pelini is interesting, it’s where he’s headed that might be even more eyebrow-raising. Per FootballScoop, Carl is headed back to Youngstown State to be defensive coordinator for brother Bo Pelini and, get this, be essentially a coach-in-waiting at the school whenever the elder brother steps down or leaves.
So yeah.
The strangest thing about all this is that Bo is only 51 years old so you would think the former Nebraska head coach would have at least another decade of coaching left in him. The Youngstown native has been in charge of the program since 2015 and has led the team to the FCS title game with an overall 27-22 record. His name has popped up for the occasional FBS job though so perhaps the move to bring in Carl is a hedge against that but it’s still a very unique dynamic for school president Jim Tressel.