Alabama's first five offensive coordinators of the Nick Saban era had previous play-calling experience at the college level.
Brian Daboll doesn't. His past play-calling experience occurred in the National Football League.
The 41-year-old tight ends coach of the New England Patriots has been hired to replace Steve Sarkisian, who left earlier this month to become the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. Daboll hasn't even worked in college since 1999, when he was in his second season as a Michigan State graduate assistant under Saban.
Daboll has been a part of all five of New England's Super Bowl triumphs, as a defensive assistant for the first one during the 2001 season, receivers coach for the next two and tight ends coach for the most recent two. In between his championship stints with Bill Belichick's Patriots, Daboll served as offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns (2009-10), Miami Dolphins (2011) and Kansas City Chiefs (2012).
His primary quarterbacks in each of those seasons were the unheralded likes of Brady Quinn (2009), Colt McCoy (2010), Matt Moore (2011) and Matt Cassel (2012). Cleveland went 5-11 in each of Daboll's seasons as offensive coordinator, while the Dolphins went 6-10 in 2011 and the Chiefs 2-14 in 2012.
Daboll's first Cleveland offense ranked last in the NFL at 260.2 yards per game, with his second Browns unit ranking 29th (289.7). His Miami offense ranked 22nd (317.4) and his Kansas City offense 24th (319.3), so there was slight improvement shown each year from a yardage standpoint.
Spending the past four seasons with the Patriots and the past three as tight ends coach, Daboll has overseen the dominant run of Rob Gronkowski, who had a combined 2,300 receiving yards during the 2014 and '15 seasons. Gronkowski was on pace for a third consecutive 1,000-yard season before having to undergo a third career surgery on a herniated disc.
Saban's first offensive coordinator at Alabama, Major Applewhite in 2007, had called plays the previous season at Rice. Jim McElwain had called plays at Fresno State, while Doug Nussmeier had run offenses at Fresno State and Washington before replacing McElwain in Tuscaloosa after the 2011 season.
The Crimson Tide's past two offensive coordinators, Lane Kiffin and Sarkisian, called plays at Southern California under former Trojans coach Pete Carroll.
Daboll emerged last week as the leading candidate to become Alabama's new offensive coordinator. Multiple media outlets started reporting the hire late Friday night, but Alabama has yet to officially confirm it.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.