Stephen B. Morton/Associated Press

Louisiana OL Coach D.J. Looney Dies at Age 31 After Heart Attack at Practice

Mike Chiari

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette announced that assistant offensive line coach D.J. Looney died Saturday after suffering a heart attack during a team workout:

Looney, who was 31 years of age, was entering his third season as part of the Ragin' Cajuns coaching staff.

He served as the tight ends coach at Mississippi State in 2017 after playing collegiately for the Bulldogs as an offensive lineman from 2007 to 2010.

University of Tennessee assistant athletic director for football communications Bill Martin, who was part of the MSU staff with Looney, tweeted the following:

Looney was a Chattanooga, Tennessee, native and played his high school football in Birmingham, Alabama.

After playing collegiately with the Bulldogs, Looney got his start in coaching with the team as an offensive graduate assistant under head coach Dan Mullen in 2011. Looney then spent time as an assistant at East Mississippi Community College, Central Arkansas and the University of Georgia.

With Looney on the staff the past two seasons, Louisiana went to back-to-back bowl games for the first time since going to four straight from 2011 to 2014.

The Ragin' Cajuns went 7-7 in 2018 and then enjoyed the most successful season in program history in 2019, going 11-3 and winning the LendingTree Bowl to close the year.

   

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