Kalen DeBoer opens up on building his Alabama staff

When Kalen DeBoer was hired at Alabama‘s, he put together his staff with the intent of making the Crimson Tide program his own while maintaining the winning culture that Nick Saban instilled in T-Town for nearly two decades.

While there appears to be an emphasis on bringing coaches into the program who have previous experience with him, DeBoer made sure he was meticulous in choosing his inaugural staff.

“I am just crazy excited about who we have and how there are so many people that I have familiar paths with and worked together at different stops,” DeBoer said on ‘Next Up with Adam Breneman.’ “But there’s this SEC, southeast part of the country, kind of feel to our staff as well.

“If you remember, I brought originally four coaches down from Washington and then Ryan Grubbs, Scott Huff got an opportunity to be with the Seattle Seahawks. Just so happy for those guys because they’re great friends. They helped me and our teams the last two years. And Grub, you know, I’ve known for 17 years or more. I lost count, but Nick Sheridan, JaMarcus Shephard, really the two on field coaches that are here well from Washington and really understand from an offensive side what we want to do.”

Shephard came in from Seattle to serve as co-offensive coordinator with Sheridan. Shephard is also the assistant head coach and receivers coach, while Sheridan also holds quarterback coaching duties for the team.

The duo helped build the offensive system that has brought DeBoer success in recent years. They “understand it inside and out,” DeBoer said. He praised their abilities to recruit and how they command respect in their position rooms.

However, DeBoer made sure that when he took the Crimson Tide job that he wasn’t going to copy and paste his staff from Washington.

“Add in the other pieces and really focusing probably on the key pieces on the field would be Kane Wommack, who I worked with at Indiana,” DeBoer continued. “I was so impressed with him when we were there and what he did and what we were building that year in 2019. And then him having the opportunity to go be a head coach and do it himself down in Mobile at South Alabama. … He knows this this part of the country.

“Not to get into each and every guy but keeping a couple of coaches in Robert Gillespie and Freddie Roach here, one on each side of the ball. It was just so evident to me what these guys stood for, what their rooms look like, how great of recruiters they were, and most importantly how great of people they are.”

Gillespie, the running backs coach and assistant head coach, and Roach, Alabama’s defensive line coach and associate head coach, can aid in keeping a sense of familiarity to the locker room as the Crimson Tide continue its transition to the Kalen DeBoer era.

His staff’s work will be put to the test often in year one, but the first time fans get to see DeBoer’s squad in action will be during the season opener against Western Kentucky on Aug. 31.