With 13 years orchestrating the defense at Ivy League member Cornell University, Jared Backus was one of the most consistent and longest-tenured assistants anywhere in the conference.
But there will not be a 14th season for Backus as Cornell's defensive coordinator. Sources told FootballScoop on Wednesday that Backus and the school had separated.
The move comes after an overall 4-6 campaign for the Big Red.
But it was a season in which Backus's defense limited opponents to 26 points per game -- a number that included special teams or defensive scores against Cornell -- and also finished 51st nationally among the more than 130 Football Championship Subdivision programs.
He also had been the Cornell program's associate head coach for the duration of his run at the school, which followed his successful run at Ivy League rival Princeton as the Tigers's defensive coordinator from 2009-13.
Additionally, Backus has previous Power Conference coaching experience at Rutgers and also at Football Bowls Subdivision Group of Five program Temple.
The Cornell Big Red program just completed its second season under Dan Swanstrom, who has compiled an 8-12 mark during those two years.
But Cornell has typically been one of the most difficult programs in the Ivy League to turn into a consistent winner. The Big Red have not had a winning season in two decades; Jim Knowles led the program to an 6-4 mark.
It is Cornell's only winning season this century, and the program has closed with a losing record every other season except a trio of .500 campaigns at 5-5.
Backus during his tenure nonetheless coached nearly 30 All-Ivy League performers and prior to the cancellation of the 2020 season in the Ivy League due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Backus had engineered a top-25 stop-unit for the Big Red.
Cornell is scheduled to kick off Year 3 under Swanstrom on Sept. 19, 2026, at Colgate.