Tulane defensive line coach Kevin Peoples will be hired as Indiana's next defensive line coach, a source confirmed to TheHoosier.com on Monday. FootballScoop.com was first to report the news.
Peoples comes to Indiana after Michigan State defensive tackles coach Ron Burton had accepted the offer for the position but backed out shortly after, choosing to remain in East Lansing.
The Tulane defensive line coach has served his current role for four seasons and has brought positive change to the New Orleans-based program, after Tulane head coach Willie Fritz carried him along after the two won Georgia Southern's first ever bowl game in 2015. In 2018, Tulane recorded 41 sacks as a team, the third-best mark in program history and eighth nationally, in terms of sacks per game (3.15). That same team also ranked 24th in the nation in redzone defense.
A program that has a good history dating back to the 1920s and 1930s, Tulane has been working its way back to national relevance in 2018 and 2019, stringing together two seven-win seasons for the first time since 1997 and 1998, when the Green Wave went 12-0.
Upon Peoples' arrival to Tulane, defensive end Ade Aruna took off developmentally, as he recorded five sacks and 10 tackles for loss in 2016 before eventually being selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Defensive tackle Tanzel Smart played his final year at Tulane under Peoples and found another gear, boosting his tackles for loss total from 14 to 19 and his sacks total from two to five. He was also selected in the sixth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams.
Peoples began the 2010 decade at Arkansas, where he spent 2010 as the director of high school relations before being promoted to defensive line coach for the next two seasons. He coached in the 2011 Cotton Bowl for Arkansas and was on staff for the 2010 Sugar Bowl appearance.
His defensive lines performed well at Arkansas, finishing top-25 nationally in sacks and top-20 in rushing defense. But when former Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema took over at Arkansas before the 2013 season, Peoples was replaced by Charlie Partridge, who had coached under Bielema and new Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Ash. The staff would underperform in Fayetteville. Bielema now coaches linebackers for the New York Jets, Chris Ash is the defensive coordinator at Texas and Partridge is the defensive line coach at Pittsburgh.
Peoples coached at UAB (2013) and Georgia Southern (2014-15) before earning his job at Tulane. Other noteworthy stops on Peoples' resume include the 2000 defensive line coach for the Las Vegas Outlaws in the original XFL, nine seasons as the defensive line coach at Arkansas State from 2002-2010 (Tom Allen coached there in 2011), and Georgia Southern's first ever bowl victory in the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl.
Allen has now rounded out his coaching staff, after promoting Nick Sheridan to offensive coordinator, adding Kevin Wright as the new tight ends coach, Jason Jones as the new safeties and moving Kasey Teegardin to special teams coordinator. Peoples replaces former defensive line coach Mark Hagen, who spent four seasons in Bloomington before taking a defensive line coaching job at Texas.
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.
