Former Alabama assistant Burton Burns says new NFL job reminds him of first season with Nick Saban

Former Alabama assistant Burton Burns is now with a football team entering Year 1 under a new head coach: Joe Judge of the New York Giants. Burns recently shared that it feels a lot like joining Nick Saban at the start of his Alabama tenure.

“Both of those guys are very organized,” Burns said of Judge and Saban in a recent press conference. “There are certain steps that you have to take the first year you’re trying to build a program or rebuild a program. I see Joe basically taking those same steps.

“I remember I went with Nick in 2007, and it’s like déjà vu. It’s not because Joe is copying Nick, but that’s how good football coaches who are organized create a different environment for a brand-new team.”

Judge was an assistant under Saban at Alabama from 2009-11 and is now surrounding himself with fellow former Saban assistants on his Giants staff. Judge impressed Burns during the time they were both Crimson Tide assistants.

“I always thought, when Joe was with us years ago, he was very bright, very articulate,” Burns said. “He was dutiful in doing the assignments he had on our staff. I expected it from him from that standpoint.

“The other thing about Joe, we always knew he was organized. Especially in the situation, we’re in now, it takes an organized person to navigate through all the challenges that we have to face day-to-day. I’m not surprised by the way he’s handled it. He’s very meticulous about doing the little things despite the big picture that’s going on. Joe has always been good at organizing things like ABC. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that next — do this first in order for the next thing to work.”

SDS Staff

Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.