Why Alabama is Devoting One Coach Solely to Tight Ends

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s a storyline lost in the annual offseason coaching shuffle at Alabama. For the fourth time in five years, the Crimson Tide welcomed in four or more new on-field assistants to its coaching staff, adding Joe Cox (tight ends), Coleman Hutzler (outside linebackers/special teams), Travaris Robinson (cornerbacks) and Eric Wolford (offensive line).

The introduction of fresh faces has become a spring-time tradition in Tuscaloosa. Over the next few weeks, we’ll hear the same stories of how each new assistant brings his own spark to the coaching staff while still sticking to the overall ethos Nick Saban has implemented over the past 15 seasons.

However, this year’s coaching carousel features an interesting wrinkle.

For the first time in Saban’s coaching tenure at Alabama, the Crimson Tide will devote one coach solely to the tight end position as Cox was brought in to oversee the unit. Previously, the role had been split with another duty.

Drew Svoboda coached tight ends and special teams last season, while Jeff Banks (2018-20) and Joe Panunzio (2017) held identical duties before him. Mario Cristobal offered a slight deviation from the norm, coaching offensive tackles and tight ends in 2016. Before that, Bobby Williams (2008-15) and Ron Middleton (2007) took on the familiar role of tight ends/special teams coach.

So why is Cox overseeing the unit by himself this season? It’s a bit of a balancing act.

This all started in 2018 when the NCAA first allowed programs to add a 10th on-field assistant. That offseason Alabama promoted Mike Locksley from wide receivers coach to offensive coordinator. Because of Locksley’s lack of quarterback experience, the Crimson Tide elected to fill its extra assistant role with quarterbacks coach Dan Enos.

The move created a bit of an imbalance on the coaching staff as Alabama had six offensive assistants — Locksley (offensive coordinator), Enos (quarterbacks), Pannunzio (running backs), Banks (special teams/tight ends), Josh Gattis (wide receivers), and Brent Key (offensive line) — and just four offensive assistants in Tosh Lupoi (defensive coordinator/outside linebackers), Pete Golding (inside linebackers), Craig Kuligowski (defensive line) and Karl Scott (defensive backs).

Things changed the following year as Locksley took the head coaching job at Maryland while Enos left to become the offensive coordinator at Miami. From there, Alabama hired Steve Sarkisian as its offensive coordinator and also had him oversee the quarterbacks.

Looking to balance out its staff, the Crimson Tide added a safeties coach in Charles Kelly and had Karl Scott focus solely on cornerbacks — a move that gave the staff five defensive assistants as well as five offensive assistants.

That model worked well enough for Alabama over the past three seasons, but it didn’t come without flaws. While the Crimson Tide technically had five assistants on both sides of the ball, it was really more like four and a half on offense as the tight ends coach was required to split time with the special teams unit.

This year’s hiring of Hutzler, who has experience coaching both linebackers and special teams together at Florida (2010-11 and 2014), New Mexico (2012-13), Boston College (2015) and South Carolina (2016-19), allowed Alabama to add more attention to the offensive side of the ball.

“Last year, we were a little bit imbalanced and that’s the reason for making the changes that we made,” Saban explained during his first spring press conference last week. “To bring a guy in, if we’re going to have a special teams coach on defense, let’s at least have five guys that are focused on every position on offense and not have what I call four and a half — one guy that’s on special teams trying to coach tight ends, too.

"So I think that can be overwhelming sometimes, depending on how many other guys you have on the offensive staff. I think it creates more balance for us.”

Of course, now there’s a bit of imbalance on defense. While Alabama now has five assistants solely focused on offense, Hutzler’s divided attention creates the aforementioned four-and-a-half scenario on the other side of the ball.

Then why the change?

For one, Hutzler has a pretty enviable situation at the outside linebacker position. Alabama returns the nation’s top pass-rushing duo in junior Will Anderson Jr. and sophomore Dallas Turner, who combined to record 43.5 tackles for a loss and 26 sacks last season. The outside linebacker unit also features two five-star reserves in junior Chris Braswell and early enrollee Jeremiah Alexander.

Conversely, Alabama’s tight end situation is less ideal as redshirt senior Cameron Latu returns as the only experienced pass-catcher in the unit. Last week, Saban also explained that the tight end position is a bit more complicated in today’s game as players are required to take on more responsibilities depending on the formation.

“I do think it’s a position now that requires a little bit more attention because a tight end used to be a guy that lined up in the C-area beside the tackle and put his hand in the dirt, and that’s where he played from,” Saban explained. “Now the guy plays off the ball. He’s playing like a fullback. He plays on the ball, he’s playing like an old-fashioned tight end. He flexes out, he’s playing like a wide receiver. So I think that for those guys to get a little bit more focused attention is probably really important, and I think Joe Cox is one of the bright young guys. I’ve been very impressed with his knowledge, and I think he’s going to help us."

Cox, who played quarterback at Georgia from 2005-09, comes to Alabama after spending last season coaching tight ends at Charlotte. He previously coached wide receivers at South Carolina in 2020 and tight ends at Colorado State from 2016-19.

“Joe is an outstanding young coach who possesses extensive experience coaching tight ends,” Saban said through a release at the time of Cox’s hiring. “He has tremendous enthusiasm for teaching the game of football and is a great recruiter who works tirelessly at his craft.”

After holding its first practice last Friday, Alabama will take this week off for spring break. The Crimson Tide will return to action Monday for the second of a total of 15 spring workouts culminating with the annual A-Day Game on April 16.

Gallery: Joe Cox