 Spanos in 2012 | |
| Ole Miss Rebels | |
|---|---|
| Title | Defensive analyst |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1971-03-27)March 27, 1971 (age 54) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Keystone Oaks (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) |
| College | Tulsa |
| Career history | |
| |
| Awards and highlights | |
| Head coaching record | |
| Career | 1–9 (college) |
Louis G. Spanos (born March 27, 1971) is an Americancollege football coach. He is a defensive analyst for theUniversity of Mississippi, a position he has held since 2023. He was the interim head football coach for theUniversity of Connecticut in 2021.[1] He also coached in theNational Football League (NFL) as a defensive quality control and assistant linebackers coach for thePittsburgh Steelers from 1995 to 2009,[2] thelinebackers coach for theWashington Redskins from 2010 to 2011,[3] and served as thedefensive coordinator forUCLA from 2012 to 2013.
Throughout his career, Spanos has been to theSuper Bowl three times, winning two of them with the Pittsburgh Steelers in2006 and2009, and had been to theCollege Football Playoff National Championship once; in2019 withAlabama.
Spanos attendedKeystone Oaks High School, located in theSouth Hills suburbs ofPittsburgh,Pennsylvania, and played in the 1989Big 33 Football Classic. A 1994 graduate of theUniversity of Tulsa, Spanos was a four-year letterman and three-year starter atcenter. He served as the center for Tulsa quarterbackGus Frerotte.
Spanos stayed at Tulsa for a year after his playing career concluded to assist coaching the linebackers. He joined the Steelers in1995. Spanos is one of only two assistant coaches to be on theSuper Bowl XXX,Super Bowl XL andSuper Bowl XLIII coaching staffs, joining defensive line coachJohn Mitchell.
On January 16, 2010, Spanos was hired byMike Shanahan and theWashington Redskins to be their linebackers coach.[4] After the2011 season, he left the Redskins to coach theUCLA Bruins defense. On January 18, 2014, Spanos left the Bruins and was hired byKen Whisenhunt of theTennessee Titans as linebackers coach.
On September 5, 2021, Huskies head coachRandy Edsall announced plans to retire at the end of the 2021 season; a day later, UConn announced that Edsall would step down immediately as a result of a "mutual decision" between him and the university. Spanos was named the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.[5]
Spanos resigned as defensive coordinator at UConn in August 2022, two weeks before the beginning of the football season.[6][7]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UConn Huskies(NCAA Division I FBS independent)(2021) | |||||||||
| 2021 | UConn | 1–9[a] | |||||||
| UConn: | 1–9 | ||||||||
| Total: | 1–9 | ||||||||
As of 2021[update], Spanos and his wife reside inMount Pleasant, South Carolina with their three children.[8]