LSU officially announces it is parting ways with DC Bo Pelini
On Monday night, it was reported that LSU was expected to part ways with embattled DC Bo Pelini.
Later that night, it became a reality, as LSU issued a statement saying the school and coach had agreed to part ways.
Per the release from the school, a financial settlement was agreed to and Pelini will receive a one-time payment for an undisclosed amount of money:
LSU and defensive coordinator Bo Pelini have agreed to mutually part ways.
LSU and Pelini agreed to a financial settlement to end Pelini’s employment agreement with the University. As part of the agreement, Pelini will accept a one-time payment in lieu of the liquidated damages detailed in his contract.
“While this year has been challenging in many ways, the decision to return to LSU – a place that I love with many wonderful memories – is something that I’m thankful for. However, after meeting with Coach O and discussing the future of the program, we have mutually decided that it’s best we part ways,” Pelini said. “I wish nothing but success for LSU, Coach O and the players that I thoroughly enjoyed coaching and getting to know this year. I was proud of how hard our team competed down stretch, the way our young guys stepped up and were developing and the overall direction we were headed.
“I am grateful to call Coach O a friend and I am thankful for the opportunity to come back to LSU, but I have decided to move on in my coaching career. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Coach O, the staff, the players and the entire LSU community. I will be pulling for the Tigers wherever my next stop may be.”
LSU wrapped up the 2020 season on Saturday with a 53-48 win over Ole Miss in Tiger Stadium to finish 5-5 overall.
The LSU defense took a major step back this year, finishing second-to-last in the SEC in total defense and passing defense.
Who the Tigers turn to next remains to be seen, but Pelini won’t be the coordinator in 2021.
I’d hate to coach under Ed O. You get all that turnover with players and covid and get canned after a year so he can pass blame. Boosters will get tired of cutting checks for buyouts when he can’t prove he can win again.
That’s just goofy, but expected.
You get easily offended by the truth. If you think Ed O will be a perennial contender from this point on you’re more than welcome to be hopeful. But it’s headed straight towards where all his jobs go from the looks of it.
He was on an upwards path for three years. 20 guys left for the NFL and he made a couple of bad hires. The bad hires are gone and the young players got a ton of experience. We also had another great recruiting class. What shows is your fear of competition.
Wow, what a surprise. Never saw it coming.
Bo’s a much better Def coord than what his record showed this. Installing a complete new Def with lots of young inexperienced players during a pandemic proved to be a tall order.
Still, Bo was not without fault. Every tm in the PAC 12 stopped or slowed Wash STs offense by rushing 3 and dropping 8. He should have scouted that b4 the MSU gm. He never made adjustments either. MSU was below avg vs every other tm after LSU because they rushed 3 dropped 8.
I was hoping he’d get another yr to fix the Def but I guess not. I still think he’s a good Def coach and best of luck to him.
Missouri couldn’t stop his air raid offense. What happened was Leach finally made adjustments and started running the ball more and did other things that was different. Leach is lazy. He would make adjustment when he needed to after losing 3 games in a row and the offense was bad. That is what I am talking about making adjustment from start to end. Not once it gets really bad and teams know how to beat his system.
I don’t think there were enough healthy defensive backs in that game to run that defense. They were playing true freshman and a guy that transferred from McNeese a few weeks before the game.
What does it say about O’s evaluation when he was bragging preseason about how much better the defense was this year compared to last?
Bo had to go. There was no defending his retention. Last year LSU’s defense was tied for 27th best in the country and gave up 5 yds per play. This year’s defense gave up 7 yds per play and ranked 128th in the country.
And just think of all the times you saw them give up a big play with someone running free through the defense. They still have tons of talent on the field and yet they dropped 100 spots in the national defense rankings in yds per play. Yes they lost a lot of talent and
experience but they did not lose 100 spots in the rankings worth of talent in my opinion.
I think you kind of saw this coming when Pelini would say one thing to the media about the defense and then Coach O would basically say “no, that’s not right.” or at least something to that effect.
“…we have mutually decided that it’s best we part ways…”
Yeah right buddy.