With Alabama football, the past and present are merging this offseason. The 4th Quarter Program is still an exhausting event, music can be heard practicing on spring afternoons behind Coleman Coliseum, and Kalen DeBoer is getting used to his new office.
On Tuesday, a new link was made between DeBoer’s debut and the Nick Saban period. Last year, John McNulty, a former NFL coach who has recently worked at Penn State, Notre Dame, and Boston College as an undergraduate, was employed in Tuscaloosa. He will now return to DeBoer as the eleventh off-field analyst.
The members of DeBoer’s staff were first revealed on March 4. They included Jay Nunez, the coordinator of special teams, Chuck Morrell, the former defensive coordinator for Washington, and Mark Sheridan, who is the brother of offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan. Matt Zenitz of 247Sports first revealed McNulty’s hiring.
By the late 1980s, McNulty was a Penn State safety. In 1995, he began working as an on-field coach for Connecticut. In 1998, he departed for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. After playing for Notre Dame, McNulty crossed paths with Tommy Rees and joined the staff the previous year. When DeBoer took control, McNulty was one of the analysts who was not renewed.
McNulty is back, rejoining former holdovers Robert Gillespie (running backs) and Freddie Roach (defensive line).
We simply accept things as they are and work to improve upon where we are now and tomorrow. We don’t really assess things as if we’re behind or ahead of where we should be. Regarding the introduction of a new offensive system, Nick Sheridan stated, “We have a way that we install the offense.” “I believe that you adjust that with your team every year based on the players’ skill level and who you have.”
“We don’t see them as obstacles. We just try to pinpoint the areas in which we still need to grow, tackle them head-on every day, and then build on the things that we did well. As a staff, that is what we have always attempted to do.
Kirk Barron, Ryan Trevathan, Matt Shadeed, Mitch Dahlen, Ali Smith, Jamey Mosely, and Ron McKeefery are some of the other DeBoer analysts.