To find a new leader for its defense, Colorado turned to the SEC.
The school officially announced Thursday that D.J. Eliot, who spent the past four seasons as the defensive coordinator at Kentucky, has been hired with a proposed three-year deal to fill the same position for the Buffaloes.
The deal is pending review and approval from the CU Board of Regents.
“I’m excited about having D.J. Eliot as our defensive coordinator, he brings a lot of expertise and energy to our defense,” CU coach Mike MacIntyre said in a statement. “Also he is one of the great, young defensive minds in the game of college football today.”
Eliot, 40, is from Edmond, Okla., but has deep ties to the Front Range. He was a linebacker at Wyoming and served as a graduate assistant for the Cowboys in 1999. His wife is from Westminster and attended Northglenn High School.
Eliot replaces Jim Leavitt, who was instrumental in turning CU’s defense from one of the worst in the country to the No. 2 unit in the Pac-12 during the 2016 regular season. Leavitt left CU in December to take the same position, with a significant pay raise, at Oregon.
“I am very excited to work at a great program with an excellent head coach and at a place that has always been special to me and my family,” Eliot said. “We are a 3-4 system that is built to apply pressure on the offense and confuse the quarterback.”
The 3-4 system run by Eliot will give CU’s defense at least some familiarity, but he’ll have his work cut out for him as the Buffaloes begin work this spring of replacing eight starters from last season’s stout unit.
The Buffs must replace their entire starting defensive line, two linebackers and three of their four starting defensive backs.
The job at Kentucky was Eliot’s first as a defensive coordinator. Before joining coach Mark Stoops’ staff in 2013, he spent three seasons as the defensive line coach at Florida State, where Stoops had served as defensive coordinator.
Kentucky’s best national finish in total defense during Eliot’s tenure was 59th in 2015, when the Wildcats gave up 394.2 yards per game. They were especially stout against the pass that season, surrendering only 198.1 yards per game. Kentucky was 85th in total defense in 2016 (434.2). The Wildcats finished 7-6 and made their first bowl game since 2010.
Eliot has coached 11 players who were drafted into the NFL since 2008, and he’s considered to be a strong, energetic recruiter. In addition to the previous stops at Kentucky, Eliot has worked as a full-time assistant at Texas State, Tulsa and Rice. He also worked as a graduate assistant at Houston and Miami.
The Buffs must still find a cornerbacks coach after Charles Clark followed Leavitt and joined the Oregon staff. Also, CU safeties coach Joe Tumpkin has been indefinitely suspended in the wake of an investigation into allegations of domestic assault.
CU begins spring practice Feb. 22.
