Not many head coaches could lose three assistants in an offseason and not miss a beat, but I doubt that slows Nick Saban down much.
Alabama has lost a third offensive assistant since capturing its 26th Southeastern Conference football championship in early December.
Receivers coach Billy Napier, the former Murray County High School and Furman University quarterback, left the Crimson Tide this past weekend to become the new offensive coordinator at Arizona State. Napier replaces Chip Lindsey, who left the Sun Devils for the same role at Auburn nine days ago…
Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin was named Florida Atlantic’s head coach on Dec. 13, and Alabama head coach Nick Saban tabbed offensive analyst Steve Sarkisian as Kiffin’s successor four days later. Offensive tackles and tight ends coach Mario Cristobal left to become Oregon’s co-offensive coordinator on Jan. 13, and Saban named offensive analyst Mike Locksley to the full-time staff three days after that.
The Laner may be a little overrated as a recruiter, but Cristobal and Napier are anything but. Still, Saban doesn’t sound all that concerned. Having a deep bench at analyst helps, I suppose.
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Saban can at least sell HC/OC/DC jobs to any assistants he hires. I mean, has any other coach produced as many HC/OC/DC as Saban has?
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The only one that might rival him currently is Meyer.
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Didn’t we have a couple analyst spots open recently?
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Next year should be interesting at Bama. A recovering alcoholic running the O, and a tempermental ass running the D. What could ever go wrong?
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Are you taking bets?
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Saban has figured out that planning to replace your coaches is a full time thing. The analyst positions are a great way to be able to bring guys in and be able to replace someone when they leave.
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Is that the route he’s going again? Haven’t been following it. I’d be surprised if he went exclusively with the island of misfit toys approach; you can’t fix em all.
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Cristobal is another guy likely to be a HC again. Got fired for something off the field but he had been doing a first rate job as HC up to that time.
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Can you fill us in? I was really surprised when he was fired. He built FIUs program from nothing, led them to two winning seasons, went 3-9 and got fired. I don’t remember a scandal and google is turning up anything.
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Got into a fist fight in a bar off-campus. Beat the guy up pretty badly. Cristobal is not someone to screw with.
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You know I can’t find it on the internet either. Maybe I am FOS but I swear I remember a brawl in a restaurant/bar in the Miami area where ole Mario cleaned house. Maybe it wasn’t right before he got fired? Year before maybe? And he did get the ax for going 3-9 so nobody pointed to that. I have friends in Miami one of who played for the U and maybe that’s how I heard about it–I just can’t remember. But now it’s all hush-hush and strictly confidential I guess.
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