MSU to Hire Louisville DB Coach Terrell Buckley

According to those in the know, Dan Mullen has hired Louisville DB Coach Terrell Buckley to replace Tony Hughes:

A source close to Terrell Buckley has confirmed that the Louisville safeties coach will take the same post at MSU.

— Robbie Faulk (@robbiefaulk247) January 7, 2016

Hearing from multiple sources that Mississippi native and NFL veteran Terrell Buckley has accepted a job at Mississippi State.

— Steve Robertson (@ScoutSteveR) January 7, 2016

Buckley was in town yesterday for an interview, so I guess things went pretty well. No word yet on whether Buckley would take over Hughes' position as Recruiting Coordinator.

Buckley's a Pascagoula native who lit it up in both his college and professional careers. In his last season with Florida State, he won the Thorpe Award and the Jack Tatum Award, both of which are both given out to the best DB in college football. He followed that up by getting picked fifth overall in the 1992 NFL draft. He floated around a bit in the NFL, but had at least one interception in each of his 13 seasons as a pro and earned a ring in Super Bowl XXXVI as a member of the Patriots.

Though he was on staff at Florida State in some capacity from 2007 - 2011, his coaching career is relatively young. He coached cornerbacks at Akron from 2012 - 2013, and then spent two years at Louisville.

I know very little about Buckley's style and personality, but I know Louisville's defensive backfield has experienced success under his watch. In both 2014 and 2015, Louisville was 2nd in the ACC in passes defended and 1st in interceptions. Louisville has also been in the top 6 of the ACC in opponents' yards-per-pass-attempt in both of his years there. Solid stuff. Oh, and by the way—Louisville returned zero defensive backs in 2015. Again, solid.

Next up: DC.