LSU took a big step toward regaining its offense on Wednesday, announcing the hiring of Carolina Panthers quarterback coach Jake Peetz as Tigers offensive coordinator and assistant DJ Mangas as the team’s passing game coordinator.
Both Peetz and Mangas have ties to Joe Brady, who coordinated LSU’s offense during his national championship season.
Who are Peetz and Mangas? Here are five things to know about the new leaders of the Tiger crime.
Peetz and Mangas form a young duet that will guide the LSU offense
Peetz is 37 years old and Mangas is 31 years old.
Peetz’s coaching experience dates back to 2006, when he began as a safety coach and special team coordinator at Santa Barbara City College. His subsequent stops include UCLA, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the University of Alabama (twice), the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders.
Mangas has been a coach since 2012 with stops at Hampton-Sydney College, Georgetown University and William & Mary College. At the time of his promotion to William & Mary, Mangas was the second youngest offensive coordinator in Division I football in 2017 and 2018.
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Peetz will bring the full house to Baton Rouge
Peetz and his wife, Maggie, have six children.
“He’s such an amazing father,” Maggie said in an interview last year with the Carolina Panthers website. “… When he returns home, he’s completely in father mode.”
QB coach Jake Peetz breaks down Teddy Bridgewater’s movie and shows life in the Peetz household with his 5 (almost 6) children#KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/GokKlb1Vts
– Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) October 11, 2020
Peetz was taking a walk in Nebraska; he took care of his brother for the last year
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Peetz stepped on Nebraska in the early 2000s, but did not descend.
Peetz told Journal Star in 2017 that he thought he would play in special teams as a senior, but his brother, Jesse Peetz, fell ill about a week before the start of the 2005 season. Peetz said he stayed with his brother away of the Nebraska football complex. Jesse Peetz died in 2014. He was 29 years old.
Mangas, with ties 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 the tribal’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 at Orgeron, was in contact with Brady during the search, hoping to find candidates who could replicate the schemes that Brady and the former coordinator offensive Steve Ensminger nominated her when the Tigers won the program’s fourth national championship.
“Both Jake and the DJ come highly recommended from one of the most important and innovative offensive coaches in the Joe Brady game,” Orgeron said in a statement on Wednesday.
Follow Kyle Whitfield on Twitter, @kyle_whitfield.