Another former head coach is joining Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama.
Former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, who was the New York Giants‘ tight ends coach this past season, has been hired to serve as offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
Dooley was Tennessee’s head coach from 2010 to ’12, and has bounced back and forth between pro and college football since. He was the Dallas Cowboys‘ wide receivers coach from 2013 to ’17, then worked as Missouri‘s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2018 to ’19, before returning to the NFL as an offensive analyst for the Giants in 2020 and then tight ends coach this past season.
Saban has a long history of hiring former head coaches to his staff, both for on-field and off-field roles. Current offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien was the head coach at Penn State and then the Houston Texans before he joined Alabama after being fired by Houston.
Some of the other former head coaches Saban has hired include Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Mike Locksley, Charlie Strong, Butch Jones and Doug Marrone.
Dooley worked under Saban from 2000 to ’06, the first four seasons at LSU and then the final two with the Miami Dolphins. Dooley coached tight ends and then running backs while at LSU and then went back to coaching tight ends with the Dolphins.
Dooley was 15-21 in his three seasons as Tennessee’s coach. Before that, he was Louisiana Tech’s coach for three seasons, going 17-20. Dooley was also Louisiana Tech’s athletic director his last two years there.
FootballScoop first reported Wednesday that Dooley would join Alabama’s staff in a senior offensive analyst role.
