Defensive coaching staff

Defensive coordinator/assistant head coach: Patrick Graham (more info)

Defensive line coach: Sean Spencer (more info)

Outside linebackers coach/senior assistant: Bret Bielema (more info)

Inside linebackers coach: Kevin Sherrer (more info)

Defensive backs coach: Jerome Henderson (more info)

Assistant defensive backs coach: Anthony Blevins (more info)

Defensive assistant: Jody Wright (more info)

Quality control: Mike Treier (more info)

“I’ve known Sean through the business,” Judge said. “The most impressive thing about Sean is the players he’s developed through his time at both Vanderbilt (2011-13) and Penn State, among other stops in his career. Sean has a great energy about him, he has great command within a room, his players respond to him, they play hard and they play fundamentally sound.

“Kevin is just an old ball coach. When I met Kevin, he was coaching at Hoover High School in Alabama. The next year, he was on the staff with us at Alabama. I’ve watched him progress through his career as defensive coordinator at South Alabama, his time in Georgia, his time in Tennessee. I think Kevin is a phenomenal football coach, and he coaches from the ground up with fundamentals, his players play sound and they play hard.

“There’s a lot of things (to like) about Bret. I think Bret brings a great personality to the group, brings a great perspective on how he sees the game, he’s coached the front for some time, he’s coordinated defenses at a high level. Players respond to Bret in a positive way. He has a great way of teaching, he has a great way of getting the guys motivated, and he gets the most out of his players. He brings experience from the NFL, as well as college, so not only does he understand what’s going on in the league now, he understands what the players coming from college are used to and how to better translate the trends they’re going to see.

“Jerome has a great resume, he’s coached a lot of good players in a lot of good schemes. I think the more you check around with Jerome, I talked to guys that he coached, the way they responded to him and the way they respected him in the room definitely said a lot about him as a coach.

“I’ve known Blev for some time now, and he’s coached on all three sides of the ball. He brings great experience that he can contribute to a lot of different parts of developing players. One thing you learn working with the special teams is you’re learning how to develop techniques of a total player. He could easily have gone over to the offense and worked with a skilled position. He could have stayed on special teams and have been an asset. We thought right now, the best fit for Blev was to help with our defense and bring some experience he brought from the other sides of the ball and work with Jerome.”