Alabama didn’t have to look too hard to find its next defensive coordinator.

Jeremy Pruitt is back in his home state, and he’s already started recruiting for the Crimson Tide.

Most recently the defensive coordinator at Georgia, Pruitt has deep roots in Alabama. And he should fit well with coach Nick Saban’s hard-nosed approach.

“He’s dreamed about being the defensive coordinator at Alabama, a school he loves so dearly,” former Hoover High School coach Rush Propst said, according to AL.com. “It makes perfect sense for him to be given that opportunity and I think he’ll prove his worth with Coach Saban. He knows what to expect.”

Here’s how connected Pruitt is to the Crimson Tide as well as the state of Alabama:

  • Played defensive back for coach Gene Stallings in 1995 and ’96. (So he’s also got a single degree of separation from Bear Bryant. Just saying.)
  • Served as a graduate assistant under coach Mike DuBose in 1997.
  • Spent 1998 to 2006 as a high school or Division II assistant in Alabama.
  • Worked as a staff member and then defensive backs coach for the Tide from 2007-12.

When things went South at Georgia, at least publicly, reports surfaced that there was disharmony on the Bulldogs coaching staff. We may never know the full story, but Pruitt’s name sat in the middle of those discussions.

According to Propst, who hired Pruitt as a high school assistant in 2004, he came into Athens trying to create more toughness, perhaps disrupting the apple cart a bit there.

“They were a little bit more country club and lackadaisical, in my opinion, at Georgia before Jeremy’s arrival,” former Hoover High School coach Rush Propst told AL.com in October. “I know they had some successful teams, but the last several years, the weight room wasn’t very tough, practice wasn’t very tough. Jeremy has a way to make things tough and make kids enjoy playing for him. He makes no bones about it.”

Pruitt immediately will start to use his recruiting ties to the state of Alabama to help the team with its 2016 class. It makes sense that he’d be making as many phone calls and connections as possible Friday, just before a recruiting dead period arrives.