Capstone Report with DC: Coaching Staff Changes
Over a week has passed since Clemson demolished Alabama on college football's biggest stage.
Following the loss, four assistant coaches have departed Tuscaloosa for other collegiate destinations while seven players have declared their eligibility for the 2019 NFL Draft.
During Tuesday's "Capstone Report with DC" segment of The Blitz, Martin Houston and DC looked at the road ahead for Alabama football when it comes to filling assistant coaching vacancies and finding the next impact players for 2019.
So far, offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, quarterbacks coach Dan Enos, wide receivers coach Josh Gattis and offensive line coach Brent Key have taken jobs elsewhere with Locksley accepting the head coaching job at Maryland and both Enos and Gattis taking positions as offensive coordinator at Miami and Michigan respectively.
Out of the losses on the coaching staff, DC explained why Gattis is the biggest loss.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the coach that we'll miss the most is Josh Gattis. I think he is a great offensive mind. I think he's going to make a great offensive coordinator, but what he brought to our wide outs this past year, foot placement, hand placement and getting off the line. That's the reason our guys are wide open a lot of times on those slants. I think we're going to miss Josh Gattis a lot." DC said.
Historically, the Crimson Tide offense has relied heavily on the run but in 2018, the passing game accounted for 4,854 yards while the running game accounted for just 2,976 yards during the course of the season.
With Locksley going to Maryland, the Golden Shores Productions analyst detailed why Nick Saban may not have been comfortable with the direction of the offense and how it affected his defense.
"I don't feel like he was comfortable coaching this year with the RPO offense that we were running. I don't think he ever had a grasp of the defense in that, and I don't think it complimented his defense. In my mind, I think it was the most foreign thing to him to have to coach." DC said. "I believe that he felt like that was the situation where he needed to go with the talent that he had, but it still didn't produce the national championship as he thought."
In addition to his guess at The Tide's next offensive coordinator, DC discussed the issues in developing depth on defense this past season, how Mack Wilson's departure could hurt Alabama and why 2019 may be the most challenging year for Nick Saban since his arrival in Tuscaloosa in 2007.
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