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.