Report: Alabama Hiring Georgia Southern's Bryan Ellis as Tight Ends Coach

The Alabama Crimson Tide's coaching staff is now finalized.

Author:
Hunter De Siver
Publish date:
Feb 19, 2024 11:42 AM EST

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Since Washington's Kalen DeBoer was named the successor to legendary head coach Nick Saban on Jan. 10, many Crimson Tide assistants have been replaced. This trend continued on Monday morning as Alabama will be hiring Baylor's Chris Kapilovic as the offensive line coach and Georgia Southern's Bryan Ellis as the tight ends coach, per Tide 100.9's Ryan Fowler.

Ellis hasn't coached tight ends before, but while at Georgia Southern as the offensive coordinator, he pulled the strings to a top-30 passing offense and completion percentage last season.

Additionally, as the co-offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky from 2019-2021, Ellis developed a team that scored over 44 points per game in his final season there.

These new additions have a bit more transaction history than other assistants joining the Tide though. One of DeBoer's first hires at Alabama was Washington offensive line coach Scott Huff, who pulled the strings to the Joe Moore Award-winning front five this past season.

DeBoer also brought Huskies offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb along on Jan. 14, but despite having the job in hand, he continued to explore other options and was eventually hired by the Seattle Seahawks for the same position on Feb. 9. Huff was expected to follow Grubb to Seattle for the offensive line coach position and made it official on Feb. 11.

Nick Sheridan was DeBoer's tight ends coach while at Washington from 2022-23, but the new head coach later brought him to Alabama for the same position. However, he was promoted to offensive coordinator once Grubb left for Seattle, leaving the tight ends job open once again for Ellis.

The acquisitions of Ellis and Kapilovic finalize Alabama's assistant coaching search as all position groups are now filled.

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