LSU took a big step forward to redo their attack on Wednesday, announcing the hiring of Carolina Panthers defenders coach Jake Peetz as Tigers’ offensive coordinator and assistant DJ Mangas as coordinator of the team’s passing game.
Both Peetz and Mangas have ties to Joe Brady, who coordinated the LSU attack during his record-breaking national championship season.
Who are Peetz and Mangas? Here are five things you should know about the new Tigers attack leaders.
Peetz and Mangas form a young duo that will guide the LSU attack
Peetz is 37 years old and Mangas is 31 years old.
Peetz’s experience as a coach goes back to 2006, when he started as a security technician and coordinator of special teams at Santa Barbara City College. His stops after that include UCLA, Jacksonville Jaguars, University of Alabama (twice), Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders.
Mangas has been a coach since 2012, having worked at Hampton-Sydney College, Georgetown University and William & Mary College. At the time of his promotion at William & Mary, Mangas was the second youngest offensive coordinator for Division I football in 2017 and 2018.
Who among us would not like to return to 2019? For many reasons?
Peetz will bring full house to Baton Rouge
Peetz and his wife, Maggie, have six children.
“He is an incredible father,” Maggie said in an interview last year with the Carolina Panthers team website. “… When he gets home, he is totally in father mode.”
QB coach Jake Peetz analyzes Teddy Bridgewater’s film and shows life at Peetz’s home with his 5 (almost 6) children#KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/GokKlb1Vts
– Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) October 11, 2020
Peetz was a walk-on in Nebraska; he took care of his brother during his senior year
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Peetz set foot in Nebraska in the early 2000s, but did not downplay it.
Peetz told the Journal Star in 2017 that he was thinking about playing on special teams as a senior, but his brother, Jesse Peetz, became ill about a week before the 2005 season opened. Peetz said he stayed with his brother, away from the complex. Nebraska football. Jesse Peetz died in 2014. He was 29 years old.
Mangas, with connections to Joe Brady, returns to LSU
Mangas played wide receiver at William & Mary from 2008 to 2011, crossing paths with Brady, who played from 2009 to 2012, and Mangas was Tribe’s offensive coordinator for two seasons before joining the LSU team.
Mangas was an offensive analyst at LSU in 2019, when Brady was the team’s offensive coordinator.
Peetz and Mangas were highly recommended by Brady
Orgeron told WNXX-FM “Off the Bench” on Tuesday that Derek Ponamsky, LSU’s special assistant to Orgeron, was in contact with Brady during the search, hoping to find candidates who can replicate the schemes that Brady and the former offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger drove when the Tigers won the program’s fourth national championship.
“Both Jake and DJ are highly recommended by one of the most important and innovative attacking coaches in the game, Joe Brady,” Orgeron said in a statement on Wednesday.
Follow Kyle Whitfield on Twitter, @kyle_whitfield.