Paul Finebaum evaluates Kalen DeBoer's first Alabama coaching staff

Kalen DeBoer has completed putting together his first coaching staff at Alabama as he prepares to enter his inaugural season. It came with a few surprises, as Ryan Grubb elected not to follow DeBoer from Washington, but overall looks to be a strong group.

The Crimson Tide brought on Nick Sheridan as OC and quarterbacks coach instead, while staying in-state to hire South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack as defensive coordinator. SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum offered his thoughts on the new staff while making an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Monday.

“I think it’s a good staff,” he said. “If we had known Day 1 that Ryan Grubb wasn’t coming here, I think it would probably look a lot better. I think that was something we just naturally looked at and his offensive line coach and we thought, ‘wow, this is great.’ It was sloppy in terms of trying to gut through it all, but he’s got a lot of people he’s comfortable with.”

Sheridan coaches tight ends with DeBoer at Washington, so this will be a promotion for him. It also gives DeBoer a familiar face to work with after he coached the Huskies to the nation’s No. 1 passing offense this past season. Additionally, DeBoer brought JaMarcus Shephard with him from Seattle to serve as co-offensive coordinator, associate head coach and receivers coach.

Although DeBoer has a few familiar faces with him, he also made sure to hire a number of coaches with experience in the SEC. He retained running backs coach Robert Gillespie and brought on Christian Robinson, who has worked at Auburn and Florida, to coach outside linebackers. Maurice Linguist, who will coach defensive backs and serve as co-defensive coordinator, worked at Texas A&M and brings head coaching experience from Buffalo.

“While some people here don’t know all these guys from Washington and elsewhere that he’s previously worked for, it looks like a very cohesive staff from DeBoer’s standpoint because he knows most of these people,” Finebaum said. “These aren’t just guys parachuting in that do not have his mindset. Even with Womack. Even with other people. He knows this staff very well. You’re going to expect that, but I think from a cohesive standpoint he’s got a very good staff.”

Despite all the experience the Alabama coaching staff has, it is a relatively young group. The average age of assistant coaches is 39.5, and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic is the only coach over 50.

That should give them plenty of room to grow as they aim to keep the winning tradition alive in Tuscaloosa.