Featured

Alabama announces 2018 staff assignments

Feb 22, 2018 • 1:21 pm

We're still waiting on Alabama to join Ohio State, Clemson and Georgia to announce raises for the 2018 season, but we do know who will be coaching the Tide in this coming campaign.

Alabama announced the staff assignments for the 2018 season, Nick Saban's 12th as the lead elephant. And while change has been a constant for those 12 years -- turns out winning five national titles entices other teams to hire your people -- it's hard to recall one offseason of more staff attrition than this one.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll took a similar job with the Buffalo Bills, defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt became the head coach at Tennessee, defensive line coach Karl Dunbar left for the Pittsburgh Steelers, defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley took off for Colorado State and then the Oakland Raiders, and running backs coach Burton Burns has moved off the field. That's five of the returning spots that have opened, plus the 10th assistant that all FBS programs can now hire.

To fill in those gaps, Saban promoted from within to fill both of his primary coordinator spots, but hired Josh Gattis from Penn State and Pete Golding from UTSA to be his co-coordinators. Dan Enos was pulled away from Michigan to coach quarterbacks and take an assistant head coach title, and Craig Kuligowski was lured away from Miami for the same promise.

Joe Pannunzio moved from tight ends to running backs to accommodate free agent Jeff Banks (formerly of Texas A&M) to handle special teams and tight ends, and Karl Scott was yanked out of his recently-accepted job as Louisiana-Lafayette's defensive coordinator to coach the defensive backfield.

With the dust settled, only one assistant will return to the staff in the role he handled a year ago: offensive line coach Brent Key.

Here's the full staff.