There’s been a ton of turnover on Alabama’s staff this offseason.

Defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt (Tennessee HC), offensive coordinator Brian Daboll (Buffalo Bills OC), running backs coach Burton Burns (moved off the field), defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley (Oakland Raiders DB coach), defensive line coach Karl Dunbar (Pittsburgh Steelers DL coach), and special teams Bobby Williams (Oregon TE coach) were all full-time assistants that are no longer on staff in Tuscaloosa.

Even for a team that won the national championship, that’s a significant amount of turnover. According to Nick Saban, who sat down with Chris Low of ESPN, the thought process behind hiring their replacements in Tuscaloosa was to get younger.

Saban has since brought in special teams coach Jeff Banks, quarterbacks coach Dan Enos, receivers coach Josh Gattis, and defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski to help makeover the Alabama staff.

Here’s what the head of Alabama’s program had to say about the thought process behind his hires.

“I was making a conscious attempt to get younger,” Saban said to ESPN. “If you look through the years, until lately, I always had young guys. I had a real young staff at LSU and look at all the young guys I’ve had over the years who emerged as really good coaches. They have more energy in recruiting, which is important, and they relate to the players better. It wasn’t like we got rid of guys. They got better jobs, but I was looking to get younger.”

It’s interesting that Saban mentions recruiting. After finishing behind Georgia in SEC recruiting rankings, and arguably being a step behind the Bulldogs in 2019 recruiting efforts, how well this group finishes in recruiting will be something to watch moving forward. You can be sure that being No. 2 in SEC recruiting isn’t going to cut it for the assistants on Saban’s staff.