Report: Nick Saban interviewed former Vols coach for Alabama's offensive coordinator job
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban recently hired Tommy Rees away from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to replace Bill O'Brien as Bama's offensive coordinator. The hiring of Rees signals that Alabama is prepared to move to a more old-school-looking offense that revolves around the running game and utilizes multiple tight ends (basically what […]
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban recently hired Tommy Rees away from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to replace Bill O'Brien as Bama's offensive coordinator.
The hiring of Rees signals that Alabama is prepared to move to a more old-school-looking offense that revolves around the running game and utilizes multiple tight ends (basically what Georgia does offensively).
This is essentially Saban's counter to up-tempo offenses like Josh Heupel's Tennessee Vols offense or Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss Rebels offense.
It's one of the first times in Saban's career that he's reverting back to his old ways instead of evolving with the rest of college football. It'll be interesting to watch the old-school vs new-school battle go down in the SEC.
Nick Saban interviewed a former Tennessee Vols head coach before hiring Tommy Rees
Before hiring Rees, Saban interviewed numerous candidates, including Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and former Florida/Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen.
According to ESPN's Chris Low, Saban also interviewed former Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley, who is currently a senior offensive analyst at Alabama.
Dooley was an assistant under Saban at LSU for five seasons from 2000 to 2004 (running backs coach and later tight ends coach). The former Vols head coach was also on Saban's Miami Dolphins staff in 2005 and 2006 (tight ends coach).
The only experience that Dooley has as an offensive coordinator came in 2018/19 when he was the play-caller at Missouri (oddly enough, he followed Heupel in that role after Heupel left Mizzou to become the head coach at UCF).
Mizzou had the No. 18 scoring offense in the nation in Dooley's first season, but they fell to the No. 93 scoring offense in Dooley's second year (it was probably wise of Saban to not offer Dooley the job).
It's unclear if Dooley will remain on Alabama's staff after getting passed over for the offensive coordinator job. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if he searches for an on-field role at another Power-5 program.
Featured image via Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
