Report: Recently fired NFL head coach emerges as 'serious candidate' for Alabama OL coach opening
So, you’ve just been fired from your head coaching job or high-profile coordinator job. What do you do?
Well, you could do a lot worse than giving Nick Saban a call. The Alabama coach has helped a number of big-name coaches get back on their feet and get new head coaching jobs, all while winning half a dozen titles with the Crimson Tide.
After OL coach Kyle Flood left this offseason to join Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas as the offensive coordinator, Alabama could soon replace him with a former NFL coach. Per SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic, former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone has emerged as a strong candidate for the Alabama OL coach job:
Doug Marrone has emerged as a serious candidate as the next OL coach at Alabama.
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) January 18, 2021
Marrone was the Jaguars’ coach from 2017 to 2020, going 23-43 in those 4 seasons. He did go 10-6 and lead the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game in 2017, though.
Will he be the next coach to help Alabama win a title and then get back in the head coaching ranks? We’ll find out soon if he gets the job in Tuscaloosa or not.
So we’re going from a team full of ex-college head coaches (Flood, Sark, Butch, Charlie Strong, Major Applewhite) to a team full of ex-NFL head coaches (O’Brien, Doug Marrone, tbd).
Both O’Brien and Marrone were College Head Coaches as well prior to jumping to the pros. BoB at Penn State and Marrone at Syracuse.
Butch, Strong and Applewhite were not coaches but I see the point you are making. If I am a recruit, I would be influenced knowing my coach has a lot of NFL experience. Either way, they are coming to Tuscaloosa because of what Saban sees in them, not where they came from.
Butch Strong and Applewhite were certainly ex-head coaches in college.
But they were not coaches at Alabama when they their new jobs this year. Of course I have not read that Strong has left at this time.
What happened to hiring Stoutland from the Eagles? Change of plans?