Three things that sold JaMarcus Shephard on Alabama Football

JaMarcus Shephard spent the last two years working under Kalen DeBoer at Washington and followed him to Alabama to join his Crimson Tide staff. While Alabama’s new assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach believes in DeBoer and what he can accomplish in Tuscaloosa, Ala., it wasn’t the only reason Shephard made the move.

He explained what sold him on Alabama in an interview with Tide 100.9’s Ryan Fowler.

“I think the big thing about this whole profession is you got to choose people, and if you choose people, it typically won’t disappoint you,” Shephard said on Tuesday. “A lot of people make decisions in life based on the salaries, the titles – and of course, I got a bunch of titles and everything – but you make those decisions based on those things versus making it about the people that you’re going to be around.

“And Kalen DeBoer is one of the best human beings that I’ve been around in college football. The staff that we have here with Nick Sheridan, Coach (Robert) Gillespie, even meeting Coach (Freddie) Roach for the first time, these are tremendous human beings. And that, to me, is what it’s all about. It’s about people more than anything else.”

Shephard also said Alabama’s rich tradition was a top selling point for him, and he believes DeBoer can continue that based on his track record and the state of the Tide program.

“I certainly appreciate and respect everything that Coach (Nick) Saban has done here,” Shephard said. “At the end of the day, you come here and you do something special here, you create a new legacy with Coach Saban having left an immense legacy already here. So you restart that whole thing.

“I know that Alabama won plenty of championships prior to 2007, 2006, and so hopefully, we can come out here and do the same types of things.”

A Fort Wayne, Ind., native, Shephard also revealed that accepting a job in the Yellowhammer State was made with family in mind as his family is originally from Uniontown, Ala., he said.

“My family has been Alabama fans for a long period of time and have always cherished this place,” Shephard said. “Tuscaloosa has been somewhere where they would come for a night out on the town and things of that nature. So for me, this is somewhat of a homecoming lot of ways to be here at the University of Alabama.”

Shephard’s role as co-offensive coordinator

Last week, Alabama officially announced Shephard would be its co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in his first season. He served as the passing game coordinator in his two years at Washington after serving as the co-offensive coordinator at Purdue from 2018-21. With Sheridan calling plays for DeBoer’s offense, what will Shephard’s role be?

“We will collectively game plan, make sure that in third-down situations, red-zone situations, first-down calls, all those different things, make sure that we’re collectively making sure we’re in the right calls,” Shephard said. “Additionally, just making sure that we’re bringing fresh ideas to the table that fit us.

“I think that that is something that’s really important, something that we’ve done over the last couple of years with Nick, myself and Coach (Ryan) Grubb when we were all together and (Scott) Huff and Coach (Lee) Marks, we all did a good job of bringing fresh ideas to the table and making sure we pare it down so that it really truly fits the identity of the offense that Coach DeBoer really initially created.

“So I will certainly be involved in every aspect of it in its entirety. Coach Sheridan and I will definitely do our best to come up with the right game plan so that it’s prepared and ready and successful on Saturday.”

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