Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

DeBoer Reportedly Adds Morrell, McKeefery to Alabama Staff

The former Husky co-defensive coordinator and strength coach apparently will become special assistants in Tuscaloosa.
Dan Raley|
DeBoer Reportedly Adds Morrell, McKeefery to Alabama Staff
DeBoer Reportedly Adds Morrell, McKeefery to Alabama Staff

In this story:

Washington Huskies

Chuck Morrell and Ron McKeefery, former University of Washington co-defensive coordinator and strength coach, respectively, will join Kalen DeBoer's Alabama staff as special assistants, according to Bama247.

In the weird dynamics of the coaching world, DeBoer completed his Crimson Tide staff last week, but now will add Morrell and McKeefery — two valuable members of his Husky staff — in support roles.

Unlike Jedd Fisch, who brought nearly his entire Arizona staff to Montlake, plus his a strength coach, DeBoer's move to Alabama splintered a coaching staff that was responsible for 11-2 and 14-1 seasons, which included Alamo and Sugar bowl victories, plus a Pac-12 championship.

In accepting the Alabama job, it's unclear whether DeBoer was under certain conditions regarding who he could bring to Tuscaloosa or not.

Morrell and DeBoer, both South Dakota natives, go all the way back to the University of Sioux Falls as teammates for a 1996 national championship team and they also coached together at their alma mater

After serving as the Montana Tech coach for nine seasons, Morrell reunited with DeBoer at Fresno State in 2020 for two seasons as his safeties coach and came with him to the UW as his co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the past two seasons.

McKeefery was widely credited for improving the Huskies' conditioning and fitness in order to make the championship run possible, with the Huskies winning several games in the fourth quarter. After McKeefery took over in 2022, nearly 70 percent of the players dropped weight. 

While they've accepted support roles, Morrell and McKeefery, in a sense, could just be positioning themselves for greater Alabama roles that could emerge down the line.

From his UW staff, DeBoer now has three of his 10 assistant coaches with him at Alabama, with Morrell joining Nick Sheridan and JaMarcus Shephard, who will serve as co-offensive coordinators while coaching the tight ends and wide receivers, respectively.

Only Huskies cornerbacks coach Julius Brown from DeBoer's previous staff hasn't re-emerged somewhere else with a new position.

 

 

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories.

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on X — @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook — at Inside the Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football