Former Husker Assistant Carl Pelini joins his brother, Bo at Youngstown State as an assistant coaching the defensive line. (Photo Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)
Former Florida Atlantic Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Carl Pelini is back coaching college football again. Carl will return to his alma mater and will join his younger brother Bo, as the defensive line coach for the Youngstown State Penguins. Prior to being hired by YSU, Carl had been out of football since his resignation on October 30th, 2013 amid allegations of illegal drug use.
Pelini’s resignation was later converted to a termination for failing to report the conduct of one of his assistants. Carl had 2 coaching stints with the Cornhuskers. Once in 2003 as a graduate assistant for Bo, after he was named as the defensive coordinator for then Head Coach, Frank Solich. His other stint came in 2008 where he was hired as defensive coordinator/defensive line coach by Bo, where he held that position until the end of the 2011 season.
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One thing we all know about Bo Pelini from his 7 year tenure as the Huskers Head Coach, is that he’s a man of extremes. He is extremely fiery, extremely passionate, extremely paranoid and extremely loyal. Especially, loyal towards his own family. So, when I heard that Bo had hired Carl as one of his assistants, the only question I had was; what took so long?
“Coach Pelini’s remarks as reported are inappropriate and unfortunate. We have discussed the report with coach. We are confident that Coach will conduct himself accordingly moving forward. We will not be commenting any further on this issue.” ~ Youngstown State Athletic Director Rn Strollo
The only conclusion that I could arrive at was that after Bo had been terminated by the University of Nebraska he himself, has had an off field matter of his own to manage. In the course of the same day as his hiring at Youngstown State, there was the audio leak that surfaced from when Bo met with his former players, two days after his firing. That tirade led to an issued statement from YSU’s Athletic Director Ron Strollo. “Coach Pelini’s remarks as reported are inappropriate and unfortunate. We have discussed the report with coach. We are confident that Coach will conduct himself accordingly moving forward. We will not be commenting any further on this issue.”
Whether or not Bo contemplated on hiring Carl for this reason is unknown. As the defensive coordinator for the Blackshirts, Carl Pelini’s had some pretty good defenses as well as having some pretty good players to coach as well. During his short stay at Florida Atlantic, Carl was tasked with rebuilding the football program for the Owls. However, that project ended abruptly with Carl accumulating a 5-15 record in a little over a season and a half.
Carl’s known as a good coach and was even offered a position in the NFL before accepting the defensive line position from Bo. His hiring isn’t a shock to any Husker fan that is familiar with the Pelini’s. It all came down to Carl being the right fit for Bo and for Youngstown State. Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio and being a graduate of the University didn’t hurt and in fact it probably helped persuade Bo into hiring Carl. But, it ultimately came down to a younger brother being extremely loyal to his older brother.
GO BIG RED!