Former Alabama defensive coordinator Bill 'Brother' Oliver dead at 85

Former Alabama defensive coordinator Bill “Brother” Oliver died at age 85, according to a report from AL.com. He was a member of Alabama’s 1961 national title team as a player.

Oliver is best known for his time with the Crimson Tide, where played from 1959-61, winning a title in his final season. He was also a coach at his alma mater from 1971-79 (DBs), 1990-92 (DBs) and 1993-95 (DC).

Oliver also coached Chattanooga as the team’s head coach from 1980-83, going 29-14-1 in four seasons. He then took a job as the defensive coordinator for the Memphis Showboats of the USFL from 1984-85.

Oliver was also the interim head coach at Auburn and went 2-3 in 1998. He coached at Auburn previously from 1966-70 as the defensive coordinator and again in the same role from 1996-98.

In between his time with Memphis and a return to Alabama, Oliver coached at Clemson. He was the teams DBs coach and DC from 1986-89.

“There’s no question that in his day, he was the finest defensive coach in the country,” former Alabama athletics director Hootie Ingram once told AL.com. It also referred to Oliver’s defense in 1992 at Alabama.

John Copeland, an All-America defensive end on Alabama’s 1992 national championship team said that Oliver was a “genius.”

“We would go into football games knowing exactly what the opponent is about to do, sometimes before they would do it,” Copeland told AL.com back in 2017. “It’s not the big picture with coach Oliver, it’s all the big things that add up to the big picture. It could be something as small as ‘if this guy lines up here, this is going to happen. If he lines up here, this is going to happen.’ It was all those little things that put us ahead of the game.”

Oliver retired following the 1998 season but often served as a consultant to various team. He also worked with Steve Spurrier periodically at Florida. Oliver was also inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.