Alabama Football: Best-Ever Nick Saban Assistant Coaches
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Football Assistant: Running Backs
This position isn’t even a discussion. As unfair as it might be to Joe Pannunzio and now Charles Huff, there’s really only one choice for best running backs coach under Saban.
Burton Burns is not only the best RB coach under Saban, but he is also one of the best RB coaches in college football over the last two decades.
Burns was the RB coach at Clemson for 8 seasons before joining Saban at Alabama in 2007. In 2018 Burns moved to an off the field role as Assistant Athletic Director for Football, where he remains today.
Here is a list of some of Burns’s accomplishments in his 11 seasons as RB coach at Alabama.
- Coached two Heisman winners and another Heisman finalist
- 2008 Football Scoop Running Backs Coach of the Year
- Named one of the top recruiters in all of college sports in 2011 by ESPN The Magazine
- 6.3 Yards per carry average by Alabama Running Backs in 11 seasons under Burns
- 295 Rushing TDs and 36 Receiving TDs by Bama RBs under Burns.
In addition, backs coached by Burns can claim 4 of the top 10 single-game rushing performances in Alabama football history; 6 of the top 10 best single-season rushing performances in Alabama football history; and 5 of the top 10 spots in career rushing yards in Alabama football history.
In short, Burns was behind arguably Alabama’s most dominant stretch on the ground ever. You could make the argument that he was a product of being given 5-star athletes year after year, but that is simply not true.
You can recruit 5-stars all day long, but it takes good coaching to help them reach their potential. He was behind 3-star Glen Coffee’s best rushing season and helped turn him into an NFL draft pick and starter.
He was also behind the development of 3-star Josh Jacobs whom, as you probably know, was a first-round pick in this year’s draft. The man can turn 5-stars into Heisman winners, 4-stars into NFL starters, and 3-stars into 1st round picks. That makes this choice an easy one.
We’ll even skip the list of nominees on this one. This was a one-horse race.