The Nick Saban-Alabama Coaching Tree Continues To Churn

As if they didn’t already have enough staff in place to get guys ready for the NFL, Alabama added a couple more notable names to their staff for the 2021 season.

Both Bill O’Brien (Offensive Coordinator) and Doug Marrone (Offensive Line) joined the Crimson Tide after being let go from the Houston Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars respectively, after former OC Steve Sarkisian (now the HC at Texas) took OL coach Kyle Flood to be his OC in Austin.

O’Brien flamed out in Houston after struggling to manage the roster as HC and GM and connecting with players, like star WR DeAndre Hopkins and LT Duane Brown. Marrone struggled to build off his successful first season in Jacksonville in 2017, struggling to keep the personalities of the team together and ultimately falling apart into the No. 1 pick this year. Two guys are looking for a coaching reboot.

This move mirrors a bunch of coaching moves that Saban has made in the past, being a sort-of coaching rehab center for coaches who need an image remake. Just look at Sark, who came to Alabama in 2016 as an analyst after off-the-field issues derailed his time at USC and Washington. He took over as OC for the 2017 National Championship Game, spent two successful years as the Atlanta Falcons OC, then returned to the Crimson Tide as their OC for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, two of the most offensively successful seasons in program history. Now he’s the HC at Texas, a top-five job in the whole sport.

How about Lane Kiffin? His story mirrors Sark in so many ways. They were both assistants at USC under Pete Carroll. Kiffin had stints with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers, and finally the USC Trojans until he was famously fired on the LAX tarmac in 2013 (Sark took over for him in 2014). It only took a couple of months until Kiffin got the OC job at Alabama, where he revitalized his career under Saban and is now coaching at Ole Miss. That’s two guys in the last four years that revitalized their careers under Saban and turned it into prime HC jobs.

This kind of turnover isn’t unusual for Saban. His entire coaching staff from his 2017 National Championship team has turned over in the last four years (most notably OC Brian Daboll and DC Jeremy Pruitt). You would think that would be incredibly hard for the players, but they keep chugging along year after year. 

SI’s Andy Staples put together a great article detailing Saban’s coaching tree following the 2017 season (not including Sark). It’s so impressive to look at. It wouldn't surprise us if Marrone and O’Brien have an immense amount of success in Tuscaloosa and translate it back to the next level or in a head coaching role in the college ranks, and it would just add another branch to the coaching tree of Saban.

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-By: TJ Mathewson