Report: Peveto on NW State short list

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Dec 13, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LSU football coach Les Miles on Thursday emphatically declared there won’t be any changes to the Tigers coaching staff before the Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Bowl game against Georgia Tech (6:30 p.m./ESPN).

Maybe so, but there could be some shifting on the way that would make changes necessary sooner rather than later.

Bradley Dale Peveto, one of the defensive co-coordinators who has been under fire from LSU fans since the regular season ended, is reportedly one of six finalists for the head-coaching position at Northwestern State.

The Shreveport Times listed Peveto as one of the six coaches in the running for the Demons job, which opened in late November when Scott Stoker was fired. Peveto was Northwestern State’s defensive coordinator from 1996-98 and called the defensive signals when the Demons advanced to the Division I-AA national semifinals in 1998.

Efforts to reach Peveto were unsuccessful for a second straight day. A receptionist at the LSU football office said he was out recruiting.

Peveto, who turns 46 later this month, is in his fourth season on the LSU staff, his first as the co-cordinator of the defense, a job he shares with Doug Mallory. Those two ascended to the job shortly after the Tigers won the 2007 BCS National Championship Game, replacing Bo Pelini after he left to take over as the head coach at Nebraska.

Before his current job, Peveto was LSU’s linebackers coach and special teams coordinator. He has also made coaching stops at Middle Tennessee State, Houston, Arkansas, Southern Mississippi and Stephen F. Austin.

The Times listed five other finalists for the Northwestern job: Current Demons defensive coordinator Brad Laird, Arkansas State defensive co-coordinator Kevin Corless, former Miami and Ole Miss offensive coordinator Dan Werner, Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College coach Steve Campbell and Abilene Christian coach Chris Thomsen.

“As of right now, we have six on-campus interviews scheduled,” Northwestern State Athletic Director Greg Burke said in the Times story. “We’ve left the door open for perhaps another one or two at the most. But I anticipate by the end of next week that that process will have been completed.”

There have been rumblings around the LSU program that Peveto and Mallory will be replaced after a 2008 season when the Tigers defense tumbled from the Southeastern Conference’s elite — ranking ninth in total defense, 11th in scoring defense and 12 in pass defense.

When Miles met with a handful of reporters a few days after LSU’s 31-30 loss at Arkansas, he refused to address the notion that major changes were coming on the defensive coaching staff.

On Thursday — the first meeting with the media since he declined to talk about changes — Miles was specifically asked if any changes would be made before the bowl game against Georgia Tech and he said there would not be.

Still, a handful of potential candidates’ names continue to pop up in connection with the LSU job.