Texas assistant football coach Bo Davis hired away by SEC rival LSU

Bo Davis is still moving to the Southeastern Conference, but the assistant coach won't be going with the Texas Longhorns.

LSU announced on Wednesday that it hired Davis to coach the Tigers' defensive line. Davis had worked at Texas for the past three seasons.

This will be the third time that Davis, 53, has worked in Baton Rouge. He was a graduate assistant at LSU from 1995-97 and then was an assistant on the Tigers' strength and conditioning staff from 2002-05. He also was an all-conference nose guard for the Tigers in 1992.

Citing a source, The Baton Rouge Advocate reported that Davis will receive a three-year deal at LSU that will pay him $1.25 million in the first year. His annual salary at Texas was $1 million.

"As a defensive line coach Bo brings a wealth of proven success at both the professional and collegiate level throughout his distinguished career," LSU coach Brian Kelly said in a statement. "Additionally, coach Davis is an outstanding recruiter and developer of the players in his charge. I am excited to welcome back to LSU coach Bo Davis."

Davis has coached in the NFL and for college programs at Texas, Alabama and UTSA. A Longhorns assistant from 2011-13, returned to Texas after Steve Sarkisian was hired following the 2020 season.

Under Davis, UT defensive linemen saw a lot of success. This season Texas had the nation's third-best rushing defense at 82.4 yards per game.

Former defensive linemen Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo were both drafted last year. T'Vondre Sweat developed into the Big 12 defensive player of the year and the Outland Trophy winner during his fifth season. Byron Murphy II was lauded as Big 12 defensive lineman of the year in 2023.

"All kudos to that guy because I feel like without that guy, I probably wouldn't be in this position," Sweat said in November. "To this day, he still keep it 100% with me, you know what I mean? I can just appreciate him and just thank him for everything."

Golden: Bo Davis' 2021 Ames rant helped build Texas' emerging winning culture

Davis also was involved in what has been acknowledged as a pivotal moment for the formation of the culture at Texas under Sarkisian. Following a loss at Iowa State in 2021, Davis heard laughter on the team bus and responded with an expletive-laden rant that was recorded and later published on social media. Reflecting on that bus ride this past November, Sarkisian said that “it was one of those moments that I guess in a weird way, fortunately, that situation on the bus got out.”

“I think you could feel the passion in Bo's voice of what all of this means to all of us as we came into this program and what we're trying to do," Sarkisian continued. "Bo made it very clear that we're here to win championships and we're here to compete for championships and that's day in and day out. It's not just Saturday night on the road. We compete every single day. The work that we do throughout the week to prepare for these moments, that's what I think Bo was trying to get across. The fact that people remember that I think is a good thing.

“I joke with Bo all the time that CDC is getting ready to put a statue of him right there outside the North end zone, because it meant a lot to our program. I think it meant a lot to a lot of the players in that locker room because from the sounds of it that might have been going on and the fact that we were able to put a stop to that and change the direction and the trajectory of our program. It doesn't happen overnight. That was just the starting point and then we had to continue to build off of that for years.”

The departure of Davis marks the second change to the Texas coaching staff this offseason. After Jeff Choate accepted the head coaching job at Nevada, Sarkisian tabbed Arizona's Johnny Nansen as his new co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: LSU football's hires Bo Davis, former Texas Longhorns assistant coach