The outside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator for Alabama football are probably moving across state borders. According to a source who spoke with AL.com, Coleman Hutzler is anticipated to take over as Mississippi State’s new defensive coordinator.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger broke the story first.
Tuscaloosa welcomed Hutzler in January of 2022. He previously worked under Lane Kiffin as Ole Miss’s special teams coordinator in 2021.
Zach Arnett was fired as Mississippi State’s head coach, and Jeff Lebby will take over for him in 2024. In 2021, Lebby was Ole Miss’s offensive coordinator.
The Tide have seen their punter increase his yards per punt by a full 8 yards (this is seriously mind-blowingly impressive), their kicker break NCAA records, and their defense start with better field position than any Alabama team since 2013. All of this has happened in the two seasons since Alabama hired Coleman Hutzler.
In the meantime, over the course of two seasons, the trio of outside linebackers—Will Anderson, Dallas Turner, and Chris Braswell—has continuously amassed higher metrics than any other outside linebacker tandem in the Saban era.
In summary, everything Hutzler has coached has gone really well.
It’s college football award season, and no matter how good the Tide performs, they usually miss out on one prize: coach of the year.
Only one of the eight major coach of the year awards has been won by Nick Saban more than once in his 16 seasons at Alabama; that was the Walter Camp coach of the year award in 2008 and 2018. During his tenure at Alabama, Nick Saban has won six additional coach of the year accolades, but he has never been voted the AFCA’s coach of the year.
There is less coach of the year hardware than you might think for the coach who has won the most national championship rings of any anyone in history.
Even though this is a complete farce, here we are. The Tide have emerged as the most popular college football team, even though in September everyone was prepared to bury Nick Saban and Alabama. However, Eli Drinkwitz has undoubtedly performed admirably—at least for Missouri.
It’s interesting to see items arranged in this manner. It’s insanely incredible that in a single elimination deathmatch between the nation’s top four teams, Alabama has more victories than losses.
The only other schools with enough multiple appearances to compile any statistics are Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio State. OSU and OU appear to be in very bad shape (really, 0-4, Oklahoma??). But Georgia’s win percentage is the highest. Alright, so maybe Alabama should aim for an 11-4 record this year.
This is an intriguing comparison of Michigan’s and Alabama’s various team statistics. In essence, the Wolverines boast an absurdly good defense while the Tide have a marginally superior offense (however, Big 10 offenses as the competition is usually suspect).
Two players from each of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Texas, and Iowa were named to the first team; total, the Crimson Tide received five selections to the All-America team. Missouri, the Longhorns, and the Bulldogs all had four spots after that.
The Big Ten dominated selections the previous year, but the SEC reclaimed its top slot on the CBS Sports / 247Sports All-America team. Six of its programs produced players who were named All-America, for a total of 17 SEC players. In fact, the Pac-12 had the most programs with picks (seven), while the Big Ten recognized ten players from six different programs.
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