It was already going to be an incredibly tough task for new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer to replace Nick Saban.

But things have been made a lot tougher for him as he lost his longtime right-hand man, Ryan Grubb. Grubb, who came with DeBoer from Washington to Alabama, will now be the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks.

 

First off, this is a great hire for new Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike MacDonald. Macdonald is a defensive coach and needs someone who can truly be the head coach of the offense while he helps rebuild the Seattle Seahawks defense.

But, as tough as the Alabama job was going to be for Kalen DeBoer before, with insane expectations following a legend like Nick Saban, it’s much tougher now.

Ryan Grubb has been with DeBoer since 2007, and the two men have crafted much of their offensive philosophy together. While many rightly credit DeBoer for being an offensive genius, Ryan Grubb deserves a lot of the credit.

A big part of that is on the offensive line. A lot of offensive gurus are pretty good quarterbacks and have a good skill position focus. That’s more of Kalen DeBoer’s focus. But Grubb is a former longtime offensive line coach. He is adept at matching up concepts with blocking schemes.

This is an Alabama team that has some huge questions up front. Obviously, there’s talent there. But they lost both starting tackles, as JC Latham is off to the NFL and Kadyn Proctor transferred to Iowa. And, obviously, losing DeBoer’s first choice as offensive coordinator is going to hurt.

I think Kalen DeBoer is a fantastic coach and will probably figure it out. But this is another obstacle in his way.