Indiana will hire Georgia defensive backs coach Charlton Warren as its next defensive coordinator, a source confirms.
Warren has spent the last two seasons with the Bulldogs. Before that, he had stints at Florida (2018), Tennessee (‘17), North Carolina (’15-16), and Nebraska (’14). The first part of Warren’s career was at Air Force (2005-13), his alma mater, where he was either the defensive coordinator or co-defensive coordinator from 2008-13.
Warren will replace Kane Wommack, who has become the head coach at South Alabama. This is the second year in a row where IU coach Tom Allen has had to replace a coordinator. Kalen DeBoer, who guided the offense in 2019, became Fresno State’s head coach ahead of the 2020 season.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg was the first to report IU’s plan to hire Warren as Wommack’s replacement.
Wommack also left a vacancy at linebackers coach. Though Warren’s specialty as a position coach is defensive backs, Allen said last week that he believed he had enough versatility on his current staff to accommodate a non-linebackers coach as defensive coordinator. This move would likely require some shuffling.
Warren does come to the Hoosiers with some significant Power 5 experience, which wasn’t the case upon Wommack’s arrival from South Alabama in 2018. During his first season at Georgia in ’19, Warren helped coach a unit that led the nation in scoring defense and rushing defense. There, he also helped mentor a first-team All-American, safety J.R. Reed.
Before his lone season at Florida, Warren was both the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator at Tennessee under Butch Jones. His stay was short because Jeremy Pruitt would be hired as the Volunteers’ next head coach after the 2017 season.
At Florida, Warren was part of a defense that rebounded in several departments, including Allen’s most coveted category, takeaways. The Gators went from tied for 81st in takeaways in 2017, with 17, to tied for 11th, with 26, that next season.
Warren has also impressed as a recruiter. He was one of the main reasons Georgia landed a 2020 five-star prospect, Arizona cornerback Kelee Ringo, who was considered the No. 4 player in that class. Warren has also helped Georgia secure five four-star prospects in two years.
As a player, Warren was a three-year letterman at Air Force until his graduation in 1999. Before returning to Air Force as a coach in 2005, he was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base as an air-to-ground weapons program manager for the Air Armament Center.
The end of Warren’s tenure at Air Force has a unique connection to IU. He departed for Nebraska shortly after Air Force hired Brian Knorr as its top defensive coach in 2014. Knorr was at Air Force for just 10 days, before he was hired by Kevin Wilson to be IU’s defensive coordinator. Knorr was replaced by Allen in 2016.
Knorr, also an alum of Air Force, has been a linebackers coach and assistant head coach at the school since 2018.
