Tag: Ken Whisenhunt

Everything Nick Saban said following Alabama’s 10th spring practice

Everything Alabama football head coach Nick Saban had to say following the Tide’s 10th spring practice!

On Wednesday, the Alabama football team completed its 10th practice of the spring on the Thomas-Drew Fields. The Crimson Tide is scheduled to practice again on Friday before holding its second scrimmage of the spring on Saturday afternoon from inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Following Wednesday’s practice, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban would make his way over to the Mal Moore Athletic Facility where he would speak to the media.

Coach Saban would provide an update on how some of his new additions to the coaching staff are working out, as well as a few player updates.

Here is everything coach Saban had to say!

Alabama hiring former NFL HC Ken Whisenhunt in off-field role

Alabama is hiring former Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt as a special assistant to the head coach.

Recently, On3’s Matt Zenitz reported that Alabama had hired former NFL head coach Ken Whisenhunt to an off-field role. Whisenhunt had been an offensive analyst at Penn State for the past two seasons.

Whisenhunt’s most notable coaching gigs came at the professional level. He served as the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach from 2007-2012. Then, he served as the Tennessee Titans’ head coach from 2014-2015.

Interestingly, Whisenhunt is the father-in-law of Alabama offensive analyst Zach Mettenberger. The two will both be on the Alabama coaching staff next season.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow news surrounding the Alabama football program.

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Ex-Titans HC Ken Whisenhunt joins Alabama as assistant

Former Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt is joining Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama.

Former Tennessee Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt is joining the Alabama Crimson Tide’s coaching staff as a special assistant to head coach Nick Saban.

Whisenhunt, 60, spent the last two seasons with Penn State as an offensive analyst. Before that, he served in his second stint as the Los Angeles Chargers’ offensive coordinator, a role he also held in the 2013.

That year, Whisenhunt guided the Chargers to a 9-7 record behind the AFC’s fifth-best offense, including the fourth-best passing offense in the league.

Following the 2013 season, the Augusta, Georgia native was hired as the head coach with the Titans. After going 2-14 in the 2014 season and a 1-6 start the following year, Whisenhunt was fired.

Whisenhunt takes over for Drew Svoboda, who left Alabama after two seasons to become North Texas’ special teams coordinator.

He’s also reunited with former Titans quarterback, Zach Mettenberger, who joined the Tide’s staff as a coaching analyst last offseason.

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Ken Whisenhunt joins Alabama staff after two season at Penn State

Penn State is losing an analyst to Alabama according to a report.

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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7 coaches Shane Steichen could hire as Colts OC

Here are seven candidates Colts HC Shane Steichen could hire as offensive coordinator.

Indianapolis Colts fans can breathe. The is finally wait is over, and Shane Steichen is the new head coach for the franchise.

Now the question is, who will be his offensive coordinator? The 37-year-old coach will have to make the decision if he will want to call plays on gamedays or hand those duties off to whoever his offensive coordinator will be.

That decision could potentially impact the desire of a coach to take that job if they wish to be calling plays in that role. We should get that answer in Steichen’s opening press conference Tuesday, which could give better insight into who he may target.

But for now, let’s take a look at some potential names for the new offensive coordinator for Indianapolis:

The Raiders announced Gus Bradley hire by accidentally tweeting a photo of Ken Whisenhunt

Oops.

Oh, Las Vegas Raiders.

It was good news in the organization when the former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach — more importantly, the former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator who coached the Legion of Boom — Gus Bradley was hired to be defensive coordinator to replace the fired Paul Guenther.

But the announcement on Twitter confused a lot of fans and NFL experts — it appeared to be a photo of former Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, and that might explain that the Raiders got the wrong ex-Chargers coach (Bradley was the defensive coordinator for Los Angeles the last three seasons).

Here’s the gaffe:

https://twitter.com/GManzano24/status/1349048197327384577

And the correct photo:

LOL.



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Report: Chargers expected to bring back OC Shane Steichen

The 34-year old play-caller is expected to return for the 2020 season.

The Los Angeles Chargers are expected to bring back offensive coordinator Shane Steichen for the 2020 season, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo.

Steichen was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator when Ken Whisenhunt was relieved midway through the 2019 season.

With Steichen’s contract set to expire, a decision had to be made either way and it appears like they are confident in the 34-year old calling the plays when Los Angeles moves into their new stadium.

Despite finishing 5-11, Steichen slightly improved the Bolts’ offense from 350.63 yards per game under Whisenhunt to 384.25 yards per game under him.

Other notable improvements on the offensive side of the ball include the running game and red zone efficiency.

The Chargers averaged 3.48 yards per carry on 160 carries under Whisenhunt, while Steichen had the unit averaging 4.35 yards per carry on 206 carries.

The red zone touchdown percentage leaped from 48.1% under Whisenhunt to 57.7% under Steichen.

Steichen has been praised by both coach Anthony Lynn and general manager Tom Telesco. Considering he didn’t have a full slate to design his own playbook, Steichen will now be able to form his own offensive identity, with that possibly being revolved around the quarterback of the future.