The coaching carousel of assistants under Nick Saban continued to spin on Sunday.
After spending just one season as running backs coach at Alabama, Charles Huff left Saban and the Alabama program to take a head coaching job with Marshall earlier this week. Now, the Crimson Tide have reportedly filled that void.
According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Alabama is set to hire North Carolina assistant coach Robert Gillespie as the next RB coach.
SOURCE: #UNC RB coach Robert Gillespie is set to become the new running backs coach at #Alabama.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 24, 2021
Gillespie is certainly no stranger to coaching top-tier running back talent.
This year with the Tar Heels, the former Florida running back led one of the most potent backfields in the nation. In 2020, Javonte Williams and Michael Carter absolutely lit up the ACC — rushing for a combined 2,385 yards and 28 touchdowns. In a blowout win against Miami earlier this year, Gillespie’s running back duo broke the single-game rushing record with 544 combined yards on 47 carries.
Before his time in Chapel Hill, Gillespie spent four years as running backs coach at Tennessee. During his coaching tenure with the Volunteers, Gillespie led another incredible backfield. From 2015-16, the RB coach was blessed with the talents of NFL superstar Alvin Kamara.
Prior to these successful jobs, Gillespie served a couple more running back coaching stints with West Virginia, Oklahoma State and South Carolina.
Clearly Gillespie has what it takes to coach at big time programs, but Alabama is no doubt the next tier up.
Let’s see how long Saban can keep this new assistant around.
The post Report: Nick Saban Makes Alabama Running Backs Coach Hire appeared first on The Spun.
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