In the decade’s worth of college football seasons from 2008 to 2017, Alabama had either Kirby Smart or Jeremy Pruitt as its defensive coordinator.
Smart and Pruitt parlayed their success as Nick Saban’s defensive masterminds into current head-coaching positions in the Southeastern Conference, but they were recognized names before they coached the Crimson Tide given that they played in the SEC. Tosh Lupoi played and ascended the coaching ranks in the Pac-12 with California before arriving at Alabama in 2015 and becoming defensive coordinator last season, which leaves Pete Golding as the Saban defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa with the most obscure background.
Golding is a former safety for the Delta State Statesmen who had coaching stops at his alma mater, Tusculum and Southeastern Louisiana before landing his first Bowl Subdivision position as the Southern Miss safeties coach in 2014.
“I played Division II football, was a graduate assistant for a semester and got my first DC job at 22,” Golding said in a recent news conference. “I’ve never looked at where I was or where I was trying to go. My old man was a high school football coach for a long time, and whatever I was going to do, I was all in wherever I was.
“I’ve never called another guy for another job. I wasn’t calling agents and doing all that BS. I’ve always been here to coach football, no matter where it’s at. I like developing young men, and I never worry about my next job.”