Reports: Louisville OL Coach Richard Owens Leaving for Alabama

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Head coach Jeff Brohm will have to make another new hire to his staff at Louisville ahead of the 2026 season.

Offensive line coach Richard Owens is set to take over as the tight ends coach at Alabama, according to reports from CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz and On3's Pete Nakos. Owens has been the OL coach at UofL since Brohm took over the program in 2023, and played tight end at Louisville under John L. Smith and the first year under Bobby Petrino.

Owens is the fourth position assistant to depart the program so far this offseason. Tight ends coach Ryan Wallace left for Oregon State, defensive line coach Mark Hagen joined him in Corvallis after he was not retained, while defensive coordinator and safeties coach Ron English is taking a year off from coaching.

While Louisville's offensive line had an extremely slow start to the 2025 season, they made a complete 180 around the midway point of the year, to the point where Lance Robinson and Pete Nygra were named All-ACC honorable mentions. Over their first five games vs. FBS opponents, Louisville gave up 7.2 tackles for loss and 2.8 sacks per game, while only rushing for 93.0 yards. Over the final seven, those numbers improved to just 4.7 tackles for loss, 1.6 sacks and 205.3 rushing yards per game.

2024 was the best season for the offensive line under Owens. The Cardinals allowed just 1.15 sacks and 4.23 tackles for loss while rushing for 185.2 yards per game that seasons, with those marks coming in at 17th, 18th and 33rd, respectively, in the nation. As a result, Nygra, Monroe Mills, Michael Gonzalez all earned All-ACC honorable mentions.

Year one for the offensive line under Owens in 2023 was up-and-down, but was still successful at the end of the day. Louisville was 51st in tackles for loss allowed per game at 5.29, 84th in sacks allowed per game at 2.29, and 37th in rushing offense at 178.5. Gonzalez earned a Third-Team All-ACC nod, while Willie Tyler and Eric Miller were honorable mentions.

While Brohm will now have to fill the void left open by Owens, he has already done so with the other spots on the staff that opened up.

Mark Ivey is making the move to defensive line coach, while he and cornerbacks coach Steve Ellis will be co-defensive coordinators. Paul Petrino is taking over as tight ends coach, while quality control coaches Adam Mueller and Brandon Sharp were promoted to linebackers and safeties coaches, respectively.

More Cardinals Stories