Nick Saban announces staff change for Alabama football

College football coaches across the country are figuring out different ways to handle the transfer portal and the same goes for Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Today he announced that Crimson Tide linebacker coach Sal Sunseri will be moving into a special assistant role to the head coach to help deal “with the changing landscape of college football.”

Saban talked about the move in-depth in a press conference on Wednesday.

“Sal (Sunseri) is going to be a special assistant to the head coach for me. I think there’s a lot of things going on in college football, the landscape has changed dramatically, you guys all know that. Whether it’s the portal, having people on top of the portal, you almost need a staff of people – just like you have a staff of people for recruiting to find out who the best players in high school are – you also have people responsible to do evaluations in terms of who’s in the portal.”

“And also tracking how guys getting into the portal actually do. I think it’s a little bit of a fad right now to think if I get in the portal and all my issues and problems are going to be solved. But yet it’ll be interesting to see how many people really benefit in a positive way from taking advantage of the opportunity to get into the portal. And we’re going to track those kinds of things. So Sal’s going to be involved in a lot of those things. He’s going to be a special assistant to me to help me in a lot of ways in the changing landscape of college football,” Saban said.

Sunseri has served as Alabama’s outside linebackers coach from 2019 until the end of the 2021-2022 season. He also had a previous stint with the Crimson Tide as their linebackers coach from 2009-2011. Coleman Hutzler was announced as the Tide’s new outside linebacker and special teams coach earlier on Wednesday, along with other staff changes.

Saban makes several good points about the transfer portal and the illusions that it offers for players. Many players automatically think all of their problems will just wash away by entering the portal and boom, they’ll land at a new school and become a star immediately. Of course, there are cases where things shake out in a good way for the player, but there are plenty of cases where things don’t go as planned.

Former Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow is a shining example of the transfer portal and how it provides the chance to players to create value for themselves by showcasing their skills at another school. But, for every Joe Burrow, there’s a Tate Martell, one of the biggest busts in college football recruiting history.

The transfer portal has been very kind to Alabama the past two off-seasons. Last year, they landed the likes of Henry To’o To’o and Jameson Williams. Both players made a huge splash for the Crimson Tide and dominated on the field during the 2021-2022 season.

During the 2021-2022 off-season, Alabama has landed Georgia Tech’s electrifying running back, Jahmyr Gibbs, former LSU defensive back Eli Ricks, and speedy Georgia wide receiver Jermaine Burton. Burton and Gibbs were both rated in the top five overall prospects in On3’s 2022 Transfer Portal Prospect Rankings. Ricks was rated as the No. 1 defensive back in On3’s 2022 Transfer Portal Prospect Rankings.

For all the latest updates on where college football prospects across the country are headed, keep it locked into the 2022 On3 Transfer Portal Wire.