Alabama football coach Nick Saban could be close to rounding out his offensive staff - again.
ESPN reported Thursday that New England Patriots tight ends coach Brian Daboll is a "leading candidate" to become the next offensive coordinator of the Crimson Tide. The 41-year-old Daboll has spent 11 seasons in separate stints with the Patriots and was a graduate assistant under Saban at Michigan State in 1998 and 1999.
Saban has been seeking an offensive coordinator since the departure last week of Steve Sarkisian, who is now the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons.
Alabama also is hiring the familiar Joe Pannunzio as tight ends coach and special teams coach, according to AL.com. The 57-year-old Pannunzio was Alabama's director of football operations from 2011 to 2014 and spent the past two seasons as director of personnel operations for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Before returning to New England in 2013, Daboll served as offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins in 2011 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2012. In his season at Miami, the Dolphins produced both a 1,000-yard rusher (Reggie Bush) and a 1,000-yard receiver (Brandon Marshall) for the first time in franchise history.
Current Alabama co-offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, former Houston Texans offensive coordinator George Godsey and new UCLA offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch have been mentioned as offensive coordinator candidates as well.
Pannunzio, who compiled a 30-37 record as Murray State's head coach from 2000 to 2005 and won the 2002 Ohio Valley Conference title, also coached tight ends and special teams at TCU (1990-91), Minnesota (1992-94), Ole Miss (1995-98), Auburn (1999) and Miami (2006-10).
The Crimson Tide have been short a tight ends coach since Mario Cristobal left last month to become co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Oregon. Alabama's special teams this past season were headed by running backs coach Burton Burns.
Amazingly, Burns and outside linebackers coach Tosh Lupoi are Alabama's only assistant coaches remaining from the 2015 national championship staff.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.