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Carl Pelini finds peace at alma mater
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Carl Pelini wrote his master’s thesis on the propaganda struggle of the Irish Republican Army — something inspired by reading Leon Uris’ “Trinity” — but some people only know him as “CAAAAAARRRRRRLLLL,” the cartoonish brother of Bo Pelini’s Twitter doppleganger, FauxPelini.
He’s coached at 11 schools over more than a quarter-century, but he’s mostly known for spending the last 14 months in exile, the result of what he calls “the biggest mistake of my life.”
He lost his job at Florida Atlantic amid drug allegations (despite passing multiple drug tests), got vindicated by FAU’s president (in what some assume was a backdoor arrangement) and finally landed as the defensive line coach at his alma mater (Youngstown State, in what’s been written off as his younger brother doing him a favor).
Through all of it, Carl Pelini has spent more than a year trying to block out the noise.
He’s finally succeeding.
“When you go through something like that — and it doesn’t matter how famous you are or how nonfamous you are — when the chips are down, there are certain people you can lean on,” he said after Friday’s practice at YSU’s WATTS. “You really start to take stock in that. You stop worrying about what random people are saying on social media and you just kind of live your life.”
Pelini began his coaching career in 1987 as an assistant at his former high school, Cardinal Mooney — the first rung on a ladder he spent the next two decades determined to climb, impressing people with his football knowledge but (far too often) alienating people with his prickly personality and not-always-perfect behavior. After alternating between high school and college jobs, he became his brother’s defensive coordinator at Nebraska in 2008 and soon began dreaming of a head coaching job. He got it in December 2011, taking over a 1-11 program at FAU, then winning five of his first 20 games.
On Oct. 30, 2013, his life blew up. FAU’s athletic director, Patrick Chun, confronted Pelini and assistant coach Pete Rekstis with allegations of drug use that came from two affidavits: one by Owls assistant Matt Edwards, and one by a woman named Allison Stewart. Pelini said he offered to take a drug test on the spot, “but I was told at that time that the results of the drug test did not matter because I was being removed for failure to supervise my staff.
“That,” Pelini said, “was when I made my big mistake.”
Pelini signed a resignation letter, Chun told the press Pelini and Rekstis admitted to using illegal drugs, and Pelini issued a statement apologizing for “exercising poor judgment.”
“Looking back, and hindsight is 20/20, I should have walked out the door and sought counsel at the time,” Pelini said. “I went ahead and signed the letter because I felt like the story would be portrayed accurately as to what happened at that meeting.”
Pelini eventually rescinded his resignation, which was changed to a termination for “failing to timely report certain conduct of a member of your staff.” Pelini said Edwards and Stewart were having an affair and, after he confronted them, they used the affidavits as part of a smear campaign. He has also said that Chun — who did not hire Pelini — used the incident to remove Pelini and insert his own coach.
By the time FAU’s president cleared Pelini of drug use on Nov. 26, the damage was done. (Or, to put it another way, he lost the propaganda struggle.) Pelini said he cooperated fully in the investigation and is still annoyed that people think he struck a deal with FAU, agreeing to a firing with cause (so the school wouldn’t owe him money) in return for clearing his name of drug use. Pelini wanted to sue Edwards for defamation, but his team of advisers ultimately persuaded him to wait, believing it would hurt his job prospects.
“The hard part for me was I was looking to people who had experience there,” Pelini said. “The legal advisers wanted to go ahead with legal pursuits right away. The PR people said the more you bring it up, the more it’s going to be in the headlines. And just those key words [drug use] are going to be there in the search engines.”
Pelini finally filed a defamation suit against Edwards on Monday — getting the OK from YSU athletic director Ron Strollo first — but he’s more interested in clearing his name than cashing in.
“To me, it’s more about my name and getting the truth out there about what really happened,” he said.
Pelini took the 2014 season off, both to heal (“I was paralyzed, but at the same time I was kind of embarrassed”) and to get away from the spotlight. He taught at a community college, he spent more time with his kids and, when the time was right, started looking for jobs again. In YSU, he believes he found the right one.
“I wasn’t in a good place,” he said of 2014. “I was down. I felt like I’d been wronged and I was a little bit angry. When you go through something like that and you’re ... I don’t want to say rock bottom, but at a low point in your life, you kind of reassess what’s important for you. For me, coming home was the best opportunity I could hope for.”
Pelini comes across as friendly and normal (i.e. as Carl, not CAAAAAARRRRRRLLLL) and five minutes after the interview was over, he doubled back across the parking lot to make sure the story mentions how grateful he is to YSU for another chance.
“Right now, I’m just enjoying every day. I love coaching. I love being out there on the field. I’m not worried about my future. I’m just asking myself, ‘Did I do a good job today?’ and moving on to the next day and not worrying about all the noise out there.”