Alabama Football: Best-Ever Nick Saban Assistant Coaches
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Football Assistant: Tight Ends and Special Teams
Many Alabama football fans contend the Crimson Tide has never actually had a special teams coach. There is no truth to the claim. Kick and punt coverage, along with kick and punt return units are carefully planned and trained. The performance of these units has been tremendous in the Saban years.
Javier Arenas was signed by Mike Shula but played three seasons for Nick Saban. Arenas holds the SEC record for career punt return touchdowns with seven. Two Nick Saban players, Arenas and Christion Jones (along with David Palmer) are in the top three of almost every Alabama football punt or kickoff return record.
What the Crimson Tide has never had under Nick Saban, is a designated kicking and punting coach. The vagaries of Crimson Tide punting and kicking are too well known by fans. It has appeared no Crimson Tide special teams coach under Saban has known much about kicking a football.
So by default, our ‘Best-Ever’ Saban assistant for TE/ST came down to who was the best tight ends coach.
The nominees: Ron Middleton (2007); Bobby Williams (2008-2015); Joe Pannunzio (2017) and Jeff Banks (2018). Further complicating this selection is in 2016, Mario Cristobal coached Tight Ends and Brent Key coached Special Teams.