Bo Pelini, fired as Nebraska's coach at the end of November, is the new coach at FCS school Youngstown State.
Pelini is a Youngstown native, and the school made the announcement Tuesday afternoon.
"It is with great passion and enthusiasm that I become the head football coach at Youngstown State," Pelini said in a statement from the school.
Youngstown State's president is former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who enjoyed great success as Youngstown's coach in the 1990s.
The decision -- on Pelini's part, not the school's -- is mildly surprising. It appears as if Pelini, 47, felt remaining a head coach, no matter the level, was important. He could've gotten a job as a defensive coordinator at a FBS school, but it was unlikely that a FBS school would've hired him as head coach this offseason.
Youngstown State was perhaps the nation's pre-eminent Division I-AA (now called FCS) program in the 1990s. The Penguins won four national titles in the '90s under Tressel, but they've reached the playoffs just twice since Tressel left after the '99 season to take over at Ohio State and not since 2006.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
