Alabama football coach Nick Saban has hired assistants in recent seasons with head-coaching experience, but nobody arrived with more accolades than Bill O’Brien.
The Crimson Tide’s new offensive coordinator won the Bear Bryant Award as college football’s top coach during his first season at Penn State in 2012, which happened to be the year Saban won his third of what are now six national titles in Tuscaloosa. O’Brien vaulted to the NFL in 2014 and led the Houston Texans to five winning records in his six full seasons that included four AFC South titles and playoff appearances.
On Sunday, during his first Zoom call as Alabama’s play caller, O’Brien expressed the same appreciation as Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian and others who came before him.
“Alabama quite obviously has proven to be a very special place to play and coach,” O’Brien said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity that Coach Saban has given me. To work and learn from someone like Coach Saban – I’m going into my 29th year of coaching, but I’ve already been here for seven months, and I’ve learned a ton.”
O’Brien explained his love for college football, pointing out his 16-12 edge in years of coaching college versus pro, and he doesn’t look at this opportunity as any kind of rehab assignment before relaunching his career. Kiffin and Sarkisian arrived in Tuscaloosa having been fired at Southern California but used their stints under Saban to help attain their current head-coaching jobs – Kiffin at Ole Miss and Sarkisian at Texas.