Alabama football: Nick Saban loses top recruiter to Marshall head coach job
By John Buhler
Nick Saban will have to now replace his top recruiter on his Alabama football team.
There is a price to pay for winning as much as Nick Saban does leading his Alabama football program.
Alabama won its sixth national title of the Saban era on Monday over the Ohio State Buckeyes. While we have known that former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was leaving for the main job with the Texas football program, Saban has lost yet another assistant to a Division I job, as running backs coach and his top recruiter Charles Huff is going to the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Huff going to Marshall makes it 13 Saban assistants in 14 years at Alabama to get an FBS head coaching job. He is joined by Sarkisian (Texas Longhorns) and former offensive analyst Butch Jones (Arkansas State Red Wolves) to lead their own teams in 2021. Add in Charlie Strong going to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Kyle Flood following Sarkisian to Austin and you see the issue at hand.
BREAKING: Marshall University's Board of Governors will have an emergency meeting at 9 a.m. on Monday to discuss personnel matters pertaining to the head football coach position.
— Grant Traylor (@GrantTraylor) January 16, 2021
Per sources, it will be to approve Alabama associate HC/RB coach Charles Huff as Marshall's new HC.
Should Alabama fans be worried over how many assistants Nick Saban has lost?
Saban’s coaching tree is a robust one. While Sarkisian is the most prominent branch to be created this cycle, former Saban disciples include Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M Aggies), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss Rebels), Jeremy Pruitt (Tennessee Volunteers) and Kirby Smart (Georgia Bulldogs) in the SEC alone. Fate would have it no former Saban assistant has ever beaten his former mentor before.
So should Alabama fans be worried? No, probably not, even though losing at least five assistants from 2020 is nothing to sneeze at. The reason for this is Saban not only does a phenomenal job of recruiting the best talent out of high school, but he looks for coaching scrap metal from the junkyard of previously fired coaches. He just landed Bill O’Brien as his next offensive coordinator.
As long as Saban has the energy and tenacity, Alabama will be a dynasty in college football.
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