BATON ROUGE — LSU has promoted John Jancek to Special Teams Coordinator and Outside Linebackers Coach.
“John is a veteran SEC coordinator who possesses a great deal of knowledge as it relates to the scheme we teach,” LSU football coach Brian Kelly said. “He’s earned this opportunity and we are excited about this new challenge for him.”
Jancek joined Kelly’s staff at LSU in 2022 as senior defensive analyst. He has over three decades of college football coaching experience, including serving as defensive coordinator at both Georgia and Tennessee.
Jancek has 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.
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.
Jancek got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant on Kelly’s first staff at Grand Valley State in 1991. He then 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.
Jancek coached the defensive line at Central Michigan in 2003 and then served as defensive coordinator in 2004.