During the mid-1990s, Pelini was an assistant secondary coach with the San Francisco 49ers -- in his late 20s at the time -- when Carroll was the team's defensive coordinator. The 49ers led the NFL in total defense in 1995.
When Carroll became head coach of the New England Patriots before the 1997 season, he hired Pelini to coach linebackers. It was a crucial career move for Pelini, who says he essentially had coached only defensive backs until that point.
"Now, coaching linebackers, I had to be that much more involved in the front and how it pertains to the run game," Pelini told me last week. "It kind of helped me put everything together, you know what I mean?
"It was a whole new world. I had spent time in previous years, obviously, working with linebackers in meetings, but I had never coached that position. It was a phenomenal opportunity."
