Former Illinois offensive coordinator Tony Petersen didn’t have to look too far from Champaign to find his next gig.

Tuesday afternoon, Illinois State announced that it has hired Petersen to be the next offensive coordinator of the program. He spent the 2021 season at Illinois on Bret Bielema’s staff, but because of struggles offensively during the year, he was not retained.

This will be Petersen’s fourth stop in as many seasons. He was at Missouri in 2019 as an offensive analyst and then moved on to Appalachian State in 2020, where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Illinois’ passing offense was the worst in the B1G during the 2021 season. Even though the Illini found success on the ground at times last fall, the quarterback play and passing attack was an issue.

After the year, Bielema decided to move on from Petersen. But he was able to find a home on Brock Spack’s Illinois State staff rather quickly.