Greg McElroy calls Bill O'Brien a 'logical' choice if Alabama hires an NFL coach

The natural transition from Nick Saban at Alabama is someone with ties to the program, specifically during his tenure. However, one former assistant, Bill O’Brien, isn’t getting enough consideration on the outside as he likely should on the inside according to Greg McElroy.

McElroy assessed the probability of several potential replacements for Saban following his retirement during ‘McElroy and Cubelic In the Morning’ on Thursday. To him, O’Brien was far longer of a shot than he thought he should be. That’s especially so if the Tide do looks at any options in the pros.

“Billy ‘O at 80-1 is a little surprising – I’ll be honest,” said McElroy.

“Not saying that he’s going to get it. Just, like, he would be a pretty logical choice if they went the NFL route,” McElroy said. “I don’t know if they will but 80-1 is a little steep.”

For reference, McElroy gave Washington’s Kalen DeBoer a 25% chance, Oregon’s Dan Lanning a much worse chance before he then announced his return to Eugene, and a 1% chance to Colorado’s Deion Sanders. He also gave a 0% chance to both Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin.

As for O’Brien, he would be another former staff member who could make some sense in Tuscaloosa. He spent two seasons, 2021 and 2022, as the Tide’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

In those two seasons, ‘Bama posted a Top-10 offense in both. They averaged 40.5 points and posted over 480 yards of offense per game in those seasons. Much of that came off the success of Bryce Young at quarterback. He went on to win The Heisman Trophy in 2021 and become the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

The 2021 season was more successful than the 2022 campaign, though. They were able to win the SEC Championship and play in the College Football Playoff that year before losing to Georgia in the national championship in Indianapolis.

Since then, O’Brien spent the last season with the New England Patriots. It was his second stint with the franchise as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He has also spent time with the Houston Texans and at Penn State, Duke, Maryland, Georgia Tech, and Brown.

Many names are going to circulate over the short span that this coaching search is likely going to go for. Even so, of all of them, McElroy just wants to put a tad more respect on O’Brien’s name as a potential hire in Tuscaloosa.

“There’s names in front of him? The fact that Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is 75-1 and Bill O’Brien is 80-1 is a little absurd to me,” said McElroy.