Ryan Grubb will serve as Alabama football‘s offensive coordinator after all.
Grubb, who spent 12 previous seasons with DeBoer in a variety of roles, was with DeBoer at Washington, Fresno State, Eastern Illinois and Division II Sioux Falls. Grubb was originally brought to Alabama after DeBoer’s hiring last offseason but decided to stick in Seattle after being hired as the Seattle Seahawks‘ offensive coordinator.
Grubb was fired after one season in Seattle, bringing him back to Tuscaloosa after emerging as one of the top play callers in college football with the Huskies.
REQUIRED READING: Five things we learned from Alabama football documentary ‘The Tides That Bind’
DeBoer spoke on Grubb’s hiring for the first time since bringing him to Alabama in a recent interview with Bama247.
“I’m excited about those guys all just getting their heads together again and being in the same room,” DeBoer told Bama247 on Wednesday. “I think the coaching staff did a nice job of installing our base offense and adjusting and tweaking to the personnel, which is what you’re going to do every year. And now we know what that personnel is, the staff that’s here can help Ryan really know and have a leg up on how to keep us moving in that direction and be better next year.
“Then, obviously, Ryan’s been through a year now, too, at the highest level there is in the NFL. And so taking some of the things he’s learned and bringing that to us, too. We did some things to have to adjust. He did some things to have to adjust. And we know what our base foundation is. It’s really going to be cool to see us go through the spring and keep evolving like we have our offense over the last 15-20 years.”
Grubb was officially announced as Alabama’s offensive coordinator on Feb. 6, and DeBoer told Bama247 that Grubb will also be in the quarterbacks room.
Grubb’s hiring also demotes Nick Sheridan, who was brought by DeBoer from Washington after serving as tight ends coach for the Huskies from 2022-23. Sheridan now carries the quarterbacks coach title at Alabama.
“That’s going to be key,” he said. “But the familiarity with he and Nick together is just like hitting on all cylinders already. So, he’ll be in that room. He’s got to have that communication. Because, especially now, with so much communication that can happen through the headsets with coach-to-player, that’s really critical.”
DeBoer added Grubb and Sheridan have a strong relationship dating back to their time as coaches at Washington, and that he expects the unique situation to go smoothly.
“He’s a stud in every way, simply put,” DeBoer said of Sheridan. “I mean, he’s extremely smart. He’s a brilliant football mind. But most importantly, he is just a man of humility. And this is what I knew about him from the time I met him, and I’ll always think of that that way. And again, a very unique situation, the only one that would have led me to do something like this.
“And he has just done nothing but been a team player in all of this. You know, he and Grubb’s relationship, I think, continues to grow because of the respect they have for each other. And I’m excited to see how that evolves even between the two of them. But he’s a champion. He’s recruited the best player in the country, the No. 1 player in the country (five-star quarterback Keelon Russell). And the respect that our whole staff has for him, I think respect the players have for him, and especially in this moment, it only shows out even more.”
Grubb will be tasked with finding Alabama’s next quarterback, as backups Ty Simpson and Austin Mack, who was once at Washington with DeBoer and Grubb, will compete for the starting role with Russell, one of the top-ranked players in the country in the 2025 recruiting class. One of those three will be the likely signal caller after Jalen Milroe entered the 2025 NFL Draft.
Alabama and DeBoer hopes the addition of Grubb can help the Crimson Tide bounce back from a disappointing — by Alabama’s standards — 9-4 finish in 2024.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Kalen DeBoer speaks on Ryan Grubb’s hiring for first time in 2025
