Alabama Football: Nick Saban and Plan B for a Defensive Coordinator

Thinking about Nick Saban and Alabama Football backup plans is easy. The perfectionist in Saban attempts to have a plan for each and every contingency.

Thinking about Saban needing backup plans, when hiring coaches, doesn’t come as easily. After all, with Alabama’s resources, the GOAT should be able to hire anyone he wants.

Often it is more complicated than that. Probably the most complicated hire Nick Saban has ever tried to make is a current one, to bring back Jeremy Pruitt as Crimson Tide DC.

Every Alabama football fan knows why hiring Pruitt in any onfield capacity is risky. In the coming months, the NCAA may give Pruitt a ‘show cause’ that, at the least, would limit his ability to recruit players.

There is little doubt Nick Saban wants Pruitt as DC. If he was going to hire Glenn Schumann, it would have already happened. It appears Saban has been unable to get feedback from the NCAA that allays risk to the Alabama football program from hiring Pruitt. Saban has been patient and perhaps he will be for a while longer. But, as I wrote a couple of days ago, my guess is Pruitt will be hired but, it will be as a defensive analyst.

On Thursday afternoon, ESPN’s Chris Low basically said the same thing. Since the passing of Cecil Hurt, no media person gains more insight into Nick Saban than Low. Talking to Tide100.9, Low said,

"Things change, it’s very fluid. I don’t see Jeremy Pruitt being hired as the defensive coordinator, but it’s not because Nick Saban or anybody there at Alabama don’t think he can do the job … there’s just a lot of things out there, that I think any school, not just Alabama, any school would be hard pressed to bring someone in his position in as a coordinator or an on-field assistant coach."

Alabama Football DC Backup Plans

Where would Nick Saban turn in a Plan B (or C or D) as the 2023 Defensive Coordinator? A guess is, with Pruitt onboard as an analyst to help tutor a new OC, Saban might be comfortable with a less experienced DC. The position might be a ‘caretaker’ role for a season or maybe two until Jeremy Pruitt can be unshackled from the NCAA.

Maybe someone like Derrick Ansley could be enticed to return to Tuscaloosa. He also worked for Pruitt in Knoxville. Or even an inexperienced DC, like Karl Scott (who had one season as a DC at Southeastern Louisiana in 2014). Saban knows both men well and understands their strengths and weaknesses.

It is a stretch but the newest Crimson Tide coach might become an option Saban would consider.    New linebackers coach, Austin Armstrong might be up for the challenge, as long as Pruitt was an analyst who could backstop him. Armstrong put in impressive work as the Southern Miss DC and as an interim for a season, maybe Saban would believe promoting Armstrong to be less risky than hiring Pruitt as  DC for 2023.

Based on recent faulty information on Wikipedia, Todd Grantham was identified as the new Alabama Football DC. Many Crimson Tide fans think of Grantham as the worst possible option, with one fan sharing his thought, on the Bama Hammer Facebook site,

"I think I’d legitimately go into a deep depression."

More realistically, none of the names mentioned above match a typical Nick Saban hire. The demands and expectations of the position are too high for a DC to learn on the job. Nick Saban could easily have other plans with names no one has discussed.

Will Alabama football fans be happy with whatever decision Nick Saban makes? For most, the answer is yes, but more than a few may be doubters until the Tide’s first three-and-out in the 2023 season.