Over the course of his 17 highly productive seasons as Alabama football coach, Nick Saban has repeatedly made a fortune from his choice of offensive coordinator.
Jim McElwain, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian called plays on national championship-winning Crimson Tide teams before parlaying that success into eventual Southeastern Conference head coaching roles. Kiffin and Sarkisian currently oversee programs – Ole Miss and Texas, respectively – with preseason top-10 rankings.
Brian Daboll, who called the plays for Alabama’s 2017 national champions, begins his third season as head coach of the New York Giants in the NFL.
It’s a new era in Alabama, but new Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer is trusting Nick Sheridan to keep the program’s offensive engine running. The 36-year-old Sheridan was Washington’s tight ends coach for the past two seasons under DeBoer, who led the Huskies to a sparkling 25-3 record and a berth in the most recent four-team College Football Playoff final.
“I think Nick has a brilliant mind,” DeBoer said last month at SEC media days in Dallas. “I know Nick has an extremely astute sense of how to make the necessary digressions with the personnel we have to make the offense the best it can be.”
Sheridan inherits an Alabama offense led by redshirt junior quarterback Jalen Milroe, who finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting last year, and a stellar left side of the line with junior guard Tyler Booker and sophomore tackle Kadyn Proctor. The top two running backs, sophomore Justice Haynes and junior Jam Miller, combined for just 66 carries last season but totaled 369 yards and averaged 5.6 yards per carry.
Add to that the uniqueness of prominent transfers from Washington, such as redshirt sophomore center Parker Brailsford, who shares a lot of preseason laurels with fifth-year senior Cooper Mays from Tennessee, and junior receiver Germie Bernard.
“We have good players in all positions and we try to defend hard in all areas,” Sheridan said at a press conference last week. “That’s what makes great offenses. They can execute what they need to do in the moments they need to.”
“In different weeks, in different matchups against different tactics that you’re up against, the defenses require you to attack in a certain way.”
Sheridan is a former Michigan walk-on quarterback who came to Ann Arbor in 2006, eventually earning a scholarship and starting four times for the Wolverines in 2008. He spent three seasons as a Tennessee Graduate School assistant under Butch Jones from 2014-16, compiling a 25-14 record and three bowl wins during those years.
In 2019, Sheridan was Indiana’s tight ends coach and DeBoer was the offensive coordinator. When DeBoer left the Hoosiers after that season to take his first head coaching job at Fresno State, Sheridan was promoted to offensive coordinator for the Big Ten program.
Sheridan’s quarterback in Indiana for both seasons was current Atlanta Falcons rookie Michael Penix Jr., who called the plays. Penix led the Hoosiers to a 6-2 record and an unexpectedly good 6-1 Big Ten mark during the COVID-altered 2020 season, despite missing the final two games after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee for the second time.
Penix returned to the field for the Hoosiers at the start of the 2021 season, but suffered an acromioclavicular joint injury in the fourth game, causing the team to bottom out at 2-10.
The 2020-21 seasons were the only two in Sheridan’s career in which he was offensive coordinator, so there wasn’t a large sample size to define his style. Ryan Grubb was offensive coordinator for Washington last season and now holds the same role with the Seattle Seahawks.
“I think it’s important to vary the tempos,” Sheridan said. “The tempo of the game has always been something that the offense uses to gain an advantage, whatever that may be. We’ll be willing to do whatever we think will help us win.”
Alabama’s most recent team, winning the 2020 national championship, boasted one of the best offenses in the sport’s history. Receiver DeVonta Smith won the Heisman award, quarterback Mac Jones finished third and running back Najee Harris finished fifth in the voting.
The Tide averaged 48.5 points and 541.6 yards per game this season, with Alabama’s 2021 team averaging 488.2 yards and the 2022 team averaging 477.2 yards. Last year’s Tide, however, slipped to 34.0 points and 393.1 yards per game under the leadership of Tommy Rees, who temporarily benched Milroe in September before the quarterback resumed his starting position.
Now it’s up to Sheridan to take over the navigation, although he’ll be trusted with the knowledge and services of former Washington receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard – and, of course, DeBoer himself.
“I think in any relationship you have to earn trust and Coach DeBoer has hired some great people who are high quality at what they do,” Sheridan said. “He does a great job of giving the staff a vision of his standards and expectations. He constantly holds us to that and we have high standards together. He empowers his staff and hires people he trusts.”
“Coach DeBoer is a brilliant offensive player, but he is a phenomenal football coach in all areas.”
Contact David Paschall at [email protected].
AP Photo by Michelle Haas Hutchins/Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker and quarterback Jalen Milroe celebrate a touchdown in last November’s win at Kentucky that clinched the Crimson Tide’s berth in the SEC championship game. Booker and Milroe are two of the key players returning for Alabama’s offense under new Tide coordinator Nick Sheridan.ALABAMA 2024 SCHEDULE
All times Eastern Time and afternoon
08/31 – WESTERN KENTUCKY (7 on ESPN)
9/7 – SOUTH FLORIDA (7 on ESPN)
14.9. – in Wisconsin (12:00 on Fox)
28.9. – GEORGIA (7:30 on ABC)
10/5 — at Vanderbilt (tbc)
10/12 – SOUTH CAROLINA (12:00 p.m. on ABC or ESPN)
19.10. – in Tennessee (to be announced)
10/26 – MISSOURI (to be announced)
9.11. – at LSU (to be announced)
11/16 – MERCER (2 on ESPN+)
23.11. – in Oklahoma (to be announced)
30.11. – AUBURN (to be announced)
