If you’re going to right a shipwreck of a defense, there aren’t many better places to turn than Nick Saban’s extended football staff down in Tuscaloosa.
Wednesday, UConn announced that Lou Spanos has been hired as Randy Edsall‘s new defensive coordinator. Spanos had spent the 2018 season as a defensive analyst for Saban at Alabama.
The 47-year-old Spanos has been a coordinator once at this level of football, at UCLA in 2012-13. He’s spent most of his 24-year coaching career in the NFL, including stops with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1995-2009), Washington Redskins (2010-11) and Tennessee Titans (2014-17).
“Lou was exactly what I was looking for when I started the search for a new defensive coordinator,” Edsall said. “I wanted someone who had NFL and college experience, someone who has coordinated a defense previously with success and someone who knows how to develop players and will be aggressive with the scheme that we will be running.
“When you look at who Lou worked for and with throughout his career, it is very impressive. Talking with the coaches that Lou has worked for and with during his career, it was very apparent to me that we were able to attract an outstanding coach, person and recruiter to our staff and someone that will relate very well with our student-athletes and take us to where we want to go defensively.”
Spanos, who replaces the dismissed Billy Crocker, has a tall, tall task ahead of him.
The Huskies gave up a whopping 605 points in 12 games this past season, breaking the old FBS record of 572 set by the 2010 East Carolina Pirates. Their average of 50.4 points per game was the worst in the FBS this season; at 45.7 ppg, Oregon State was next.
UConn also allowed 617.4 yards per game, absolutely shattering the old mark of 560.8 ypg set by the 2015 Kansas Jayhawks.