Alabama has a new offensive coordinator. Again.
According to a report from ESPN.com’s Chris Low, New England Patriots tight ends coach Brian Daboll is set to become the third offensive coordinator at Alabama since the calendar flipped from 2016 to 2017.
Lane Kiffin had been Alabama’s offensive coordinator, and served in that role through Alabama’s win over Washington in the Peach Bowl. After that game it was decided Alabama and Kiffin were better off going their separate ways, as the Tide had a title game to prepare for, and Kiffin had the head coach job at FAU waiting for him.
So Kiffin was replaced by Steve Sarkisian, who called the plays in Alabama’s loss to Clemson in the national title game. About a month later Sarkisian left Alabama to become the offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons.
All of which led Alabama to Daboll.
Daboll is a name that won’t be too familiar to college football fans. While he has been coaching since 1997, aside from a year at William & Mary as something called a “restricted earnings coach” and two seasons at Michigan State as a grad assistant, the 41-year old Daboll has spent his coaching career in the NFL. He spent seven seasons with the New England Patriots on Bill Belichick’s staff before leaving in 2007 to become the quarterbacks coach with the New York Jets. He left that job to become the offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns (2009-10), Miami Dolphins (2011) and Kansas City Chiefs (2012) before returning to New England in 2013.
Had current Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to take a head coaching gig, many believed it would have been Daboll replacing him in New England. That didn’t happen, but Daboll’s found a pretty good landing spot at Alabama.
In a sense he’s leaving the Patriots to join the Patriots of college football.
