Alabama has added four new assistant coaches to its staff in Charles Kelly, Sal Sunseri, Kyle Flood and most recently Charles Huff, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Nick Saban saw a flood of attrition from his staff after the national championship game with offensive coordinator Mike Locksley taking over as head coach at Maryland, co-offensive coordinator Josh Gattis leaving to run the offense at Michigan, quarterbacks coach Dan Enos landing the offensive coordinator position at Miami and offensive line coach Brent Key leaving for his alma mater Georgia Tech, while co-defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi is now in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns.
Saban has dealt with this type of attrition in the past, hiring six assistants after the 2017 season, and is now bringing back a few familiar faces with his most recent hires.
Kelly is expected to coach Alabama’s secondary and Sunseri the outside linebackers.
Kelly joins Alabama from Tennessee, where he was the safeties coach and special teams coordinator for former Alabama assistant Jeremy Pruitt with the Vols. Sunseri had been the defensive line coach at Florida and is rejoining Saban at Alabama for his second stint with the Crimson Tide.
Sunseri had been the linebackers coach at Alabama from 2009-11 working for Saban.
Kelly and Sunseri have both previously been defensive coordinators, Kelly at Florida State and Sunseri at Tennessee. Sunseri’s son, Vinnie Sunseri, was hired last week at Alabama as a graduate assistant. The younger Sunseri was a safety for the Tide on their 2012 national championship team.
Flood, the head coach at Rutgers from 2012-15, had most recently been with new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian as an assistant offensive line coach for the Atlanta Falcons.
Huff was the running backs coach at Mississippi State, where he joined coach Joe Moorhead after both left Penn State after the 2017 season.
Lupoi, who was regarded as the Tide’s top recruiter, on Wednesday became the fifth Alabama assistant to leave since the Tide’s 44-16 loss to Clemson this month.
Saban, 67, knew he’d be searching for a new offensive coordinator after Locksley joined Maryland on Dec. 4. But then Enos, Locksley’s supposed replacement, unexpectedly accepted the offensive coordinator job at Miami last week. Sources told ESPN that Enos didn’t even inform Saban that he was leaving, and that Heisman Trophy runner-up Tua Tagovailoa didn’t learn of his departure until the next day. Enos has denied not telling Saban that he was leaving
Saban hired Sarkisian, a former Washington and USC coach and offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, to replace Enos. Sarkisian worked as an offensive analyst at Alabama during the 2016 season before replacing Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator for the national championship.
Co-defensive coordinator/inside linebackers coach Pete Golding, who assumed the play calling from Lupoi during the first month of the 2018 season, is expected to remain on Alabama’s staff, according to sources,
ESPN’s Chris Low and Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.