Alabama’s first 10-member assistant football coaching staff appears to be set, just in time for this afternoon’s national championship parade.
Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, according to multiple media reports, has promoted Mike Locksley to offensive coordinator and has hired Penn State receivers coach Josh Gattis and Louisiana-Lafayette defensive coordinator Karl Scott to complete his staff.
On Thursday, Alabama announced the hiring of former Texas A&M assistant Jeff Banks as special teams coach, but the university has yet to confirm the promotion of Locksley and the hirings of Gattis and Scott.
Locksley spent the 2016 season as an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide and served this past season as co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach. ESPN reported Friday that Locksley, who was New Mexico’s head coach from 2009 to 2011 and Maryland’s interim coach for the final six games of the 2015 season, will oversee the quarterbacks.
Scott has spent the past two seasons coaching Texas Tech’s secondary and was hired last month as the defensive coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette, which is now coached by Billy Napier, a former Tide receivers coach from Murray County in Georgia. Scott is replacing Derrick Ansley, who was introduced this week as the new defensive backs coach for Jon Gruden’s Oakland Raiders.