Coach Elliott Shakes Up Defensive Coaching Staff, Brings In Cory Peoples and Brian Landis

Coach Elliott Shakes Up Defensive Coaching Staff, Brings In Cory Peoples and Brian Landis

As the spring semester gets underway and Georgia State football looks towards spring practice, head coach Shawn Elliott has made two new hires on the defensive side of the ball. Cory Peoples – most recently the cornerbacks coach at Georgia Southern – and, according to Brian Milam of WKYT Sports, Brian Landis, the head coach of Fredrick Douglass High School in Lexington, Kentucky, are the newest additions to the GSU defensive staff. 

Coach Peoples will instruct the cornerbacks for the Panthers. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Peoples’ stops before his time in Statesboro include a stint as defensive coordinator at Albany State and time spent as defensive backs coach for FCS schools South Carolina State and Charleston Southern. In charge of the corners at Georgia Southern during their 10-3 campaign of 2018, Peoples oversaw the growth of cornerbacks Kindle Vildor and Monquavion Brinson, who combined for 5 interceptions and 21 pass breakups on the year and received First Team and Second Team All-Sun Belt honors respectively.

Coach Landis will be in charge of the linebackers at Georgia State. Landis spent over a decade coaching various positions at his alma mater, Georgetown College (KY), before making moves in consecutive years to be the defensive backs coach at Eastern Kentucky and a defensive quality control analyst under Mark Stoops at Kentucky. Coach Landis stayed in Lexington for his next job, moving to Douglass High School as head coach and defensive coordinator in 2017. He amassed an impressive 35-5 record in charge of the Broncos and his defense shut out 9 of the 15 opponents they faced in 2019.

UPDATE: The school has officially announced these hires. Neither coach has any additional titles – Peoples will be the cornerbacks coach and Landis will coach inside linebackers.

Coach Elliott said in a statement released by the athletic department, “We are excited about adding two outstanding coaches to our defensive staff. Both are strong coaches, recruiters and men as well great fits for Georgia State football.”