Update: Thoughts on the Pelini/YSU rumors

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Bo Pelini-to-Youngstown State rumors just wouldn’t go away. Now it appears there is something to them.

FootballScoop.com — a website that specializes in coaching carousel news — reported late Tuesday that Pelini was set to accept the YSU football job. The website reported that an announcement could come as soon as today or Thursday.

Calls and texts to Pelini and YSU athletic director Ron Strollo went unanswered late Tuesday night, as did a text to YSU President Jim Tressel.

A YSU official, however, expressed surprise at the report of Pelini’s impending hiring. The official, contacted late Tuesday, said the job had not been offered nor accepted by Pelini.

That could change as early as today.

Pelini, who will turn 47 on Saturday, is a Youngstown native, Cardinal Mooney High School graduate and former Ohio State defensive back. He had been the head coach at Nebraska until Nov. 30, when he was fired after seven seasons despite a 67-27 record with the Cornhuskers.

Pelini played at OSU from 1987-90, first under Earle Bruce and then under John Cooper. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Iowa in 1991 and returned to Cardinal Mooney to coach quarterbacks under the legendary Don Bucci in 1993.

Pelini spent much of the next decade as an assistant in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers (1994-96), New England Patriots (1997-99) and Green Bay Packers (2000-02).

Pelini joined the Nebraska staff in 2003 as defensive coordinator. When head coach Frank Solich was fired at the end of the season, Pelini coached the Cornhuskers to a 17-3 win over Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl. In 2004 he was the co-defensive coordinator under fellow Cardinal Mooney graduate Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, then was LSU’s defensive coordinator under Les Miles from 2005-07.

Pelini took over as Nebraska’s head coach in 2008.

YSU fired Eric Wolford on Nov. 24 after five seasons and a 31-26 record with the Penguins. Wolford’s teams were unable to qualify for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and several late-season collapses led to his firing despite a one-year-contract extension negotiated in the spring and signed in August.

Strollo and YSU have been tight-lipped during the search for Wolford’s replacement, but most of the candidates who names surfaced had connections to Tressel. YSU’s current president coached the Penguins from 1986-2000 and guided them to four Division I-AA national championships (1991, ’93, ’94 and ’97) and two other appearances in the title game (‘92 and ’99) before leaving for Ohio State in 2001.

Pelini would be the third straight Mahoning Valley native to coach the Penguins. Wolford is a Brookfield native and Ursuline High School graduate. Jon Heacock, who replaced Tressel and coached the Penguins from 2001-09, is a native of Beloit and a West Branch High School graduate.

Heacock led YSU to its last playoff appearance in 2006, when the Penguins advanced to the national semifinals.