Charlie Strong joining Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama

Charlie Strong is the latest coach who will get a chance to resurrect his career with Nick Saban’s program at Alabama.

Reports on Monday indicated that Strong was moving toward landing a job with the Crimson Tide, and ESPN’s Chris Low has confirmed that Strong is joining Saban’s staff as a defensive assistant.

Nobody has had more success bringing in former head coaches than Nick Saban, and he’s tapping back into that market with Charlie Strong, who has agreed to join the @AlabamaFTBL staff as a defensive analyst, sources tell ESPN. Strong had several opportunities to join SEC staffs.

— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) February 18, 2020

Strong apparently had several opportunities for assistant coaching jobs with SEC teams, but it is hardly a surprise that he chose Alabama. A number of head coaches who lost their jobs have worked under Saban and gone on to earn second chances as head coaches with other teams.

Strong, who played defensive back in college, was a successful head coach at Louisville from 2010-2013, which helped him land the Texas job. However, he was fired after going just 16-21 over a three-year stretch at Texas. Strong was then hired by South Florida where he went 10-2 in his first season before things started to fall apart. He fired last season amid a stretch where USF had lost 14 of its last 18 games.