On3 is reporting that CU is expected to name former Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Domato Peko as its defensive line coach. Peko will be a head position coach for the first time at Colorado, but the former Bengal and Bronco worked closely with the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive line this past season. The 15 year NFL pro continues the pipeline of NFL players to position coaches at CU (after the hiring of NFL Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk to coach the running backs last week), and he’ll work closely with coaches Warren Sappp and George Helow on the CU defensive line.
Peko was a beloved player, known to call his teammates “Uso,” meaning “my brother” in Samoan, to help foster a sense of unity among his teammates. Peko’s Samoan cultural influence helped create tight knit locker rooms during his playing career according to former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, and its reasonable to expect the same in his time in Boulder.
While born in Los Angeles, Pelo was raised in American Samoa. Coloardo has not had a recruiting link to Polynesian under the Deion Sanders regime. Hopefully Peko can create a pipeline of players that move from Polyneisan to Colorado like past former Buffs Sefo Lifau, Jordan Dizon, Josh Tupou, Vaka Manupuna, Sal Aunese, Chris Naeole, and Villi Maumau.
Source have told me that there are still other staff changes that need to be made and that additional NFL vets will be added to the staff, so stay tuned.
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