The special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach for Alabama football is expected to cross state boundaries. A source confirmed to AL.com that Coleman Hutzler will be the next defensive coordinator at Mississippi State.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger broke the news first.
Hutzler arrived in Tuscaloosa in January 2022. He worked as the special teams coordinator at Ole Miss under Lane Kiffin in 2021.
After Zach Arnett was sacked, Mississippi State has hired Jeff Lebby as its new head coach for the 2024 season. In 2021, Lebby was the offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.
In the two seasons since Alabama hired Coleman Hutzler, the Tide’s kicker has broken NCAA records, their punter has increased his yards per punt by a full 8 yards (this is seriously mindblowingly impressive), and the defense has started with better field position than any Alabama squad since 2013.
Simultaneously, the outside linebacker combination of Will Anderson, Dallas Turner, and Chris Braswell has routinely built up superior stats over two seasons than any other outside linebacker duo in Saban’s tenure.
It’s college football award season, and no matter how good Alabama is, one accolade always eludes the Tide: coach of the year.
There are eight major coach of the year accolades, and Nick Saban has won only one of them twice in his 16 seasons at Alabama – the Walter Camp coach of the year award in both 2008 and 2018. Saban has only won six additional coach of the year titles throughout his time at Alabama, and he has never been elected AFCA coach of the year.
There is less coach of the year hardware than one might think for the coach with the most national title rings in history.
It’s a heinous crime, but here we are. After the entire world was ready to bury Saban and Alabama in September, the Tide have emerged as college football’s hottest team. But I suppose Eli Drinkwitz has done well… for Missouri.
It’s interesting to see things organized like this. Alabama has more than twice as many wins as losses in a single elimination deathmatch against the top four teams in the country.
Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio State are the only other schools with enough multiple appearances to collect data, and things look bad for OSU and OU (really… 0-4, Oklahoma??). Georgia, on the other hand, has the highest win percentage. So, Alabama really needs to improve to 11-4 this year, right?
With two historic programs colliding on an iconic stage, excitement is growing. Let’s take a look at the statistical comparisons between the Crimson Tide and the Wolverines as each coaching staff continues to analyze each team’s film.
Here’s an intriguing comparison of several team stats between Alabama and Michigan. Essentially, the Tide has a somewhat stronger offensive and the Wolverines have a tremendously good defense (albeit Big 10 offenses are always suspicious due to the competition).
Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Texas, and Iowa all had two players named to the first team, with the Crimson Tide leading the way with five All-America selections. With four each, the Bulldogs, Longhorns, and Missouri came in second.
The SEC reclaimed the top slot on the CBS Sports / 247Sports All-America team, which was previously held by the Big Ten. In total, 17 SEC players were named All-Americans, with six of the conference’s programs participating. The Pac-12 had the most picks (seven), while the Big Ten had ten players honored among six of its programs.
