LSU took a big step toward re-making the offensive on Wednesday by announcing the recruitment of Carolina Panthers ‘quarterback coach Jake Peetz as the 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 attack during the record-breaking national championship season.
Who are Peetz and Mangas? Here are five things to know about the Tigers’ new crime leaders.
Peetz and Mangas form a young duo that will accompany LSU’s attack
Peetz is 37 years old and Mangas is 31 years old.
Peetz’s coaching experience dates back to 2006, when he started as a safety coach and special teams coordinator at Santa Barbara City College. His stops after that 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.
Who among us wouldn’t want to go back to 2019? For many reasons?
Peetz will give Baton Rouge a full house
Peetz and his wife Maggie have six children.
“He’s such a great dad,” Maggie said in an interview last year with the Carolina Panthers team website. “… When he gets home, he’s full of daddy fashion.”
QB coach Jake Peetz breaks down Teddy Bridgewater’s movie and shows life in Peetz’s household with his 5 (almost 6) children#KeepBons 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 walked across Nebraska in the early 2000s but didn’t play down.
Peetz told the Journal Star in 2017 that he thought he would play on special teams as a senior, but his brother, Jesse Peetz, fell ill about a week before the 2005 season opener. Peetz said he was staying with his brother, away from the Nebraska football complex. Jesse Peetz died in 2014. He was 29 years old.
Mangas, with connections to Joe Brady, returns to LSU
Mangas played wide receiver with William & Mary from 2008 to 2011 and cruised paths with Brady, who played from 2009 to 2012, and Mangas was the Tribe’s offensive coordinator for two seasons before joining LSU’s staff.
Mangas was an offensive analyst at LSU in 2019 when Brady was the team’s offensive coordinator.
Peetz and Mangas came highly recommended by Brady
Orgeron told WNXX-FM’s “Off the Bench” on Tuesday that Derek Ponamsky, LSU’s Orgeron special assistant, has been in contact with Brady during the search, hoping to find candidates who can replicate the plans that Brady and former attack coordinator Steve Ensminger were pursuing when the Tigers won the program’s fourth national championship.
“Both Jake and DJ come highly recommended by one of the best and innovative offensive coaches in the game at Joe Brady,” Orgeron said in a statement Wednesday.
Follow Kyle Whitfield on Twitter @kyle_whitfield.