Former NFL coach and current Penn State offensive analyst Ken Whisenhunt has joined Alabama‘s football staff as the special assistant to head coach Nick Saban. ESPN reported Whisenhunt’s move to the SEC and Alabama early Thursday morning.
Whisenhunt spent the past two seasons as an offensive analyst at Penn State while the offense saw itself come into its own with a newly established run game and a career year out of quarterback [autotag]Sean Clifford[/autotag]. Whiesenhunt previously was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals as well as the Tennessee Titans. He last held an on-field role in 2019, when he finished a four-year tenure as the Chargers‘ offensive coordinator.
Coaching the college game is not unheard of when it comes to Whisenhunt. He began his coaching career in the SEC as Vanderbilt’s tight ends coach before jumping to the NFL where he has since spent most of his time. He would end up going 48-71 in eight seasons as a head coach including leading the Cardinals to Super Bowl XLIII.
Whisenhunt replaces Drew Svoboda, who left Alabama after two seasons to become special teams coordinator at North Texas. Whisenhunt has family ties currently at Alabama in Zach Mettenberger who is his son-in-law. Mettenberger, a former LSU quarterback, is currently an analyst with Alabama. Whisenhunt was briefly Mettenberger’s head coach with the Titans.
Whisenhunt joins a plethora of former NFL and college head coaches to head to Nick Saban’s staff as a form of “recovery”. Coaches like Lane Kiffin, Doug Marrone, and another Penn State coach [autotag]Bill O’Brien[/autotag] have all been on his staff before taking on other roles with different teams.
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