JMU is set to Hire Former Tide co DC as Next DC

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Alabama's former co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Colin Hitschler, who served his one and only year with the Crimson Tide this past season before being fired in early January, is set to be hired as James Madison University's next defensive coordinator.

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Hitschler contributed to a defense that ranked ninth in the country in points allowed, allowing only 17.4 points per game, tenth in yards per play, allowing only 4.7 yards per play, and eighth in stop rate, stopping opposing defenses 72.7% of the time.

Hitschler was Cincinnati's co defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the 2020-2021 season, where he led the nation's best pass defense and assisted Luke Fickell, the Bearcats' head coach at the time, in leading the program to its first ever 13-0 record and a second consecutive American Athletic Conference championship.

The following season, Hitschler joined Fickell in Wisconsin for the same position when Fickell was named head coach of the Badgers prior to the 2023 season. The former Badger defensive coordinator helped guide a solid defense that finished 20th in the country in scoring defense, allowing only 20.4 points per game, and 34th in pass efficiency defense.

Hitschler worked at South Alabama for four years, starting as a graduate assistant in 2014 and eventually becoming director of football operations for the 2015-2016 season. He coached the safeties in 2017, and that same year South Alabama finished in the top five of the Sun Belt conference in pass defense, pass efficiency defense, and tackles for loss.

Hitschler will take over as James Madison's defensive coordinator from Lylle Hemphill, who left to work as an assistant for Mike Elko at Texas A&M in January. Under Hemphill's command, James Madison's defense ranked 21st in the country for scoring defense last season.

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