The Titans hired Ray Horton to be their defensive coordinator and they’ve started filling out the defensive staff that will serve under him in the 2014 season.
Tennessee announced that Lou Spanos will be their linebackers coach. Spanos served as the defensive coordinator at UCLA for the last two seasons, but spent 17 years in the NFL before joining Jim Mora’s staff in L.A. Most of those years were spent in Pittsburgh, where he worked with Horton and Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt.
“I know Lou from our time together in Pittsburgh,” Whisenhunt said in a statement from the team. “He has put together a great body of work during his career. In his extended time in Pittsburgh working with Dick LeBeau, he gained a tremendous amount of experience and contributed to some of the best defensive teams in the league. As defensive coordinator at UCLA, he again showed he is a good teacher and leader and we are lucky to have him working with our linebackers.”
One of Spanos’ main charges will be getting linebackers Akeem Ayers and Zach Brown, among others, to play at a higher level than they reached under Chet Parlavecchio.
[Photo credit: UCLA]