Bowling Green names Carl Pelini interim head coach

Staff/wire report

BOWLING GREEN

Carl Pelini is once again a head football coach.

Bowling Green fired coach Mike Jinks on Sunday, midway through his third season, with the Falcons winless against FBS competition.

Athletic director Bob Moosbrugger named Pelini, the Falcons’ defensive coordinator, as interim head coach.

It’s the second time Pelini, a Cardinal Mooney High School graduate, has been a head coach at the collegiate level.

Pelini was head coach at Florida Atlantic from 2012-13, posting a 5-15 record.

On Oct. 30, 2013, Pelini resigned after allegations of drug usage among his staff. He later rescinded his resignation and by late November 2013 was cleared by the university.

Pelini sat out a year, teaching at a community college, then became Youngstown State University’s defensive coordinator when his brother Bo became the Penguins’ head coach in 2015.

In the 2016 season, the Penguins advanced to the FCS championship game.

After the 2017 season, Carl Pelini left YSU to become Jinks’ defensive coordinator.

Jinks was 7-24 with Bowling Green and the team seemed to be sliding backward. The Falcons won four games in 2016, two last season and are 1-6 after falling 42-35 at home to Mid-American Conference rival Western Michigan on Saturday.

Bowling Green’s only victory this season was against FCS-level Eastern Kentucky.

Moosbrugger said in a statement that “it was time” for a change.

“I want to thank Coach Jinks for all of his efforts with our football program and in the BG community. However, we felt it was time to make a change in leadership,” Moosbrugger said in a prepared statement.”

Bowling Green said in a release that it will begin its search for a new coach immediately.

Bowling Green plays at Ohio next Saturday.