The Buffalo Bills promoted a crucial individual to take over as defensive coordinator.
Buffalo (AP) – Buffalo chose South Carolina special teams coordinator Pete Lembo, who has 15 years of experience as a college head coach, to lead the Bulls.
Lembo succeeds Maurice Linguist, who left the Bulls last week after three seasons to become an assistant coach at Alabama under Kalen DeBoer. Linguist led the Bulls to a 14-23 record after taking over for Lance Leipold, who left for Kansas in 2021.
Lembo, 53, has Mid-American Conference experience, having led Ball State to a 33-29 record over five seasons from 2011 to 2015. He has also been the head coach at Elon and Lehigh, where he went 79-36 over ten seasons.
“We will work relentlessly to recruit, develop, and optimize our student-athletes’ experiences both on and off the field. “I am very excited to assemble an energetic staff that will develop meaningful relationships with our players and with one another,” Lembo said in a statement.
Lembo has not been a head coach since Ball State, but he has served as an assistant coach and special teams coordinator at Maryland, Rice, and Memphis.
He will join Shane Beamer’s staff at South Carolina in 2021. The Gamecocks made the postseason in Beamer’s first two seasons, but dropped to 5-7 in 2023.
The Bulls made one bowl game under Linguist and had a string of three consecutive winning seasons under Leipold, who was 37-33 at the institution.
