Getty USA Today Network SEC columnist Blake Toppmeyer called the recent Alabama football coordinator hires ordinary and unremarkable
Kevin Steele and Tommy Rees have gotten mixed reviews thus far since being hired defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator, respectively, of Alabama football in early February. USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer believes the hires were run of the mill — as opposed to what many were expecting in the coaching staff search.
“More notable than whom Saban hired, though, is whom he didn’t hire,” Toppmeyer wrote. “He did not plunder an established NFL mind or the wunderkind college coordinator with the cutting-edge system. He did not lure a one-time successful coach off a television set and onto his sideline. He did not hire anyone with the national profile of Lane Kiffin or even Steve Sarkisian or Bill O’Brien. He hired coordinators who fit the profile of hires made every offseason by SEC programs. In fact, a lot of schools have hired Steele at one time or another.”
That’s not a surprise to Toppmeyer, though. Nick Saban is often rumored to make bigger moves than he ends up making. “In other words, these are ordinary, unremarkable hires by an extraordinary coach,” he wrote. “That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Saban’s dynasty is more marked by an unrelenting assemblage and development of elite talent, all while a dependable CEO minds the shop, than it is Saban hiring one visionary after another.”
Past Nick Saban Alabama Football Hires Were Also Unheralded
As Toppmeyer notes, past Alabama football coordinator hires didn’t become household names until after they were done working under Saban.
“These hires may work — they’re just not the miracle moves many have come to expect Saban to make,” he wrote. “We see past Alabama coordinators like Kirby Smart, Kiffin and Sarkisian now as Power Five coaches, but they weren’t prom queens when Saban hired them. Kiffin’s previous employer had wanted rid of him so badly that he was left on an airport tarmac. Twice, Saban hired Sarkisian after he’d been fired from his previous job. Smart’s career was ascending, but he’d never coordinated a Division I defense until Saban elevated him into that role in 2008.”
Saban, according to Toppmeyer, has never done something like Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney just pulled during the 2022 offseason hiring cycle. “Saban’s hiring history includes few heists that compare to Clemson raiding TCU’s cabinet for 33-year-old offensive whiz and Broyles Award winner Garrett Riley.”
Nick Saban Being Asked Too Much to Land Every Coaching Target
Toppmeyer spent a good deal of his piece talking about the underwhelmed feeling many had after Alabama football landed on Rees and Steele for the Tide coordinator roles, but he pointed out that it may be unfair to be asking Saban to land every big-name coaching target his program is linked to.
“When Alabama’s coordinator roles opened, we half-expected Saban the Svengali to conjure two hires that would put the SEC on notice that Alabama’s resurgence to No. 1 is imminent, but Saban’s bag of tricks includes no magic,” he wrote. “To expect he can hire anyone he covets is to turn a legendary coach into a myth.”
For Steele, the goal will be to get back to being a head coach after years as a coordinator. For Rees, being molded by Saban could lead to him being a highly coveted young coaching candidate in the future.