John Jancek, the former defensive coordinator at Georgia and Tennessee, has been promoted to LSU’s special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach, head coach Brian Kelly announced on Tuesday.
“John is a veteran SEC coordinator who possesses a great deal of knowledge as it relates to the scheme we teach,” Kelly said. “He’s earned this opportunity and we are excited about this new challenge for him.”
Jancek, who joined the Kelly’s staff at LSU in 2022 as senior defensive analyst, has over three decades of college football coaching experience. He’s also been part of Kelly’s coaching staffs at Grand Valley State and Central Michigan.
“I’m super excited about the opportunity to be back with Coach Kelly,” Jancek said. “I love his vision and the way he leads the program. LSU is great place and I couldn’t be happier for the chance to remain here and be part of what we are building.
“I have been involved with special teams my entire career so the opportunity to lead our special teams is something I’m very excited about. We have a great group of young men on our team and I can’t wait to get started.”
Jancek’s coaching career includes stops at Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Cincinnati among others. He coached linebackers at Georgia from 2005-08 before being elevated to co-defensive coordinator in 2009. In his five seasons at Georgia from 2005-09, the Bulldogs won 48 games, made a pair of BCS Bowl appearances, won the 2005 SEC title and finished ranked in the Top 10 three times.
He followed that with three seasons as defensive coordinator at Cincinnati from 2010-12 helping lead the Bearcats to back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2011 and 2012.
Jancek returned to the SEC in 2013 as the defensive coordinator at Tennessee from 2013-15. He coached safeties at South Florida in 2016 and served as the defensive coordinator at Colorado State from 2018-19.
Prior to joining the LSU staff in 2022, Jancek served as a defensive quality control assistant at Georgia where he was part of the 2021 national title team.
He got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant on Kelly’s first staff at Grand Valley State in 1991.
From there, Jancek jumped right into a defensive coordinator role at Wayne State for three years (1992-94), followed by three more seasons (1996-98) of overseeing the defense at Hillsdale.
He returned to Kelly’s Grand Valley State staff as defensive coordinator from 1999-2002 where he helped lead the program to NCAA Division II National Championship in 2002. The Lakers posted a 13-1 mark in 2001 and advanced to the national title game.
Jancek coached the defensive line at Central Michigan in 2003 before being elevated to defensive coordinator in 2004.
A native of Muskegon, Mich., Jancek played defensive line at Grand Valley State from 1986-1990. He graduated from Grand Valley State in 1991 followed by earning his Master’s degree from Wayne State in 1994.
