Alabama Football: Other candidates for Alabama Offensive Coordinator

Who else might replace Steve Sarkisian as Alabama football’s OC?

After two successful seasons with Alabama football, Steve Sarkisian will now become the head coach of the Texas Longhorns. While fans are happy for him, that leaves the Tide with the matter of replacing him.

This will be the greatest assistant coaching vacancy in recent memory, so expect Nick Saban to do a vast search for Sarkisian’s replacement. Alabama’s next offensive coordinator will be inheriting the keys to a Ferrari before recruiting a single player.

We have already looked at ideal candidates for this job, but the beauty of this hunt is that Alabama could hire just about anyone. The Nick Saban coaching tree has a lot of branches, and nothing would surprise me about a potential hire.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few other candidates that did not make the original list.

Bill O’Brien, former Texans HC

Bill O’Brien has a history in both the NFL and the college ranks, which gives him a similar background to Sarkisian. He has not been an offensive coordinator in a long time, but you can’t debate his coaching prowess. He brought Penn State back to being a relevant team after the Joe Paterno scandal before being a successful head coach for the Houston Texans.

The reason that O’Brien didn’t work in Houston was not his coaching. He was simply given too much power and could not handle the responsibilities of GM. He made a few bad trades that tanked the value of the franchise, and he was not able to overcome these mistakes. Still, he is an excellent offensive mind.

O’Brien was also spotted in Tuscaloosa recently. While no one knows why exactly he was there, it makes this more interesting.