Defense in good hands

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 20, 2008 - Page: 2C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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For most of their football lives, Doug Mallory and Bo Pelini knew about each other. Their coaching careers ran parallel, but took a while to intersect.

Blue-collar Ohio roots, Mallory in Bowling Green and then Miami, Pelini in Youngstown.

Sons of successful coaches.

Solid high school defensive backs who earned scholarships to programs with history rivaled by nobody else in college football.

“There were a lot of similarities between Bo and me, and even though we never played or coached against each other, I knew about him,” Mallory said. “I knew he was one of the best young defensive minds in our game.”

The same tag has been applied to the 43-year-old Mallory, the son of Bill Mallory, who served head-coaching stints at Miami (Ohio), Colorado, Northern Illinois and Indiana.

As similar as Doug Mallory’s and Pelini’s career arcs were, though, their paths rarely crossed as they climbed the coaching ladder — Pelini mostly in the NFL and Mallory at the college level.

That changed four years ago when LSU hired Les Miles.

Mallory, an assistant under Miles at Oklahoma State for four years, followed him to Baton Rouge. Pelini came aboard as the Tigers defensive coordinator.

The last four seasons brought Mallory and Pelini together and forged a friendship and working relationship that has paid big dividends for both men, as well as LSU.

The Tigers defense has ranked third nationally in pass efficiency in each of Mallory’s first three seasons on the way to 34 victories, three bowl victories and the 2007 national championship.

“Bo did a tremendous job when he was here and really set a tone for the way we want to play defense at LSU,” said Mallory, who was promoted to co-defensive coordinator when Pelini left for the head coaching job at Nebraska. “We think a lot alike, so I don’t think there will be much difference.”

The common thread connecting Mallory and Pelini is their prowess as secondary coaches. Under the new hierarchy, Mallory will continue to oversee the LSU defensive backs, while co-coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto will focus on the linebackers and Earl Lane remains in charge of the defensive line.