Dan Mullen labels Alabama's hire of Christian Robinson 'great'
Dan Mullen is a fan of the latest hire from Alabama, which brought in Christian Robinson as its next linebackers coach. The former Florida and Mississippi State coach turned ESPN analyst took to Twitter on Monday to offer his thoughts on the move.
He kept it short and sweet, but was highly complimentary of Robinson.
“That is a great hire,” he replied under a tweet from Bruce Feldman.
Mullen is plenty familiar with Robinson, who worked under him both as a graduate assistant at Mississippi State (2017) and linebackers coach at Florida (2018-21). He helped develop several talented linebackers in Gainesville, including future NFL Draft picks Jonathan Greenard and Vosean Joseph.
Most of Robinson’s experience comes in the SEC, as he’s made stops at Georgia (2013-14), Ole Miss (2015-16) and Auburn (2022). Most recently, he was a linebackers coach at Baylor this past season under Dave Aranda.
Robinson also spent his playing days in the SEC as a linebacker from 2009-12. He finished his career with 159 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.
Robinson will replace linebackers coach William Inge, who left for the same position at Tennessee. He inherits a defense that was among the best in the country this past season, totaling 39 sacks and holding opponents to 19.0 points per game.
Those are big shoes to fill, but Robinson seems like a good fit for the Crimson Tide given his connections to the SEC. We’ll ultimately see how things work out this upcoming season, but he’s at least got an endorsement from Mullen.
Christian Robinson expected to coach outside linebackers at Alabama
On Monday morning, Alabama officially announced Kane Wommack as the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach. This leaves Robinson with coaching outside linebackers moving forward, a position the Crimson Tide will be replacing a ton of production from.
Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell were Alabama’s two main guys on the outside in 2023. Both are now moving on to the next level and the 2024 NFL Draft. Replacing both in the same offseason would be a difficult challenge for anyone but a new position coach only adds to the process.
Robinson will have plenty of talent to work with but not have a good amount of experience. Outside linebacker has been a proud position in Tuscaloosa throughout the years and everyone will be hoping it continues moving forward.