BREAKING NEWS: Former Alabama assistant to reportedly become head coach at FBS program

Kelly, who replaces former Jacksonville State coach Rich Rodriguez, spent the 2024 season with the Auburn Tigers as safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator. This was the lone season for Kelly at Auburn.

Prior to Auburn, Kelly served as the defensive coordinator with the Colorado Buffaloes for a season. Before that, he spent four seasons (2019-22) at Alabama as an assistant on Nick Saban’s staff. At Alabama, Kelly served as assistant defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

Kelly also served as an assistant coach with the Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Tennessee Volunteers as well as two Alabama high schools, Central-Phenix

The South Carolina Gamecocks and quarterback LaNorris Sellers will have someone new in charge of play-calling duties next season, and it’s a name Alabama football fans remember well.

On Tuesday, former Crimson Tide quarterback and coach Mike Shula was promoted to offensive coordinator on coach Shane Beamer’s staff. Shula replaces Dowell Loggains, who accepted the coaching job at Appalachian State.

According to various reports, Shula’s contract with South Carolina is for three years at $1.1 million a season. Shula had been an assistant coach in 2024, his first season with the Gamecocks’ program.

Before joining Beamer’s staff in Columbia, Shula had worked as an assistant coach in the NFL with a number of teams. Most notably, he was the Carolina Panthers’ offensive coordinator from 2013-17, including during their run to Super Bowl 50. He also was the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants for two seasons (2018-19).

Shula is best known in college football circles for his tenure as Alabama’s coach beginning in the spring of 2003. He spent four seasons leading the Crimson Tide, winning 10 games and the Cotton Bowl in 2005 before being fired after going 6-6 the following season.

Shula’s firing led to Nick Saban being named Alabama’s coach — and savior — in January 2007.

For a while, Shula was considered one of the most polarizing figures in the history of Alabama football. His detractors pointed to an 0-4 record against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, an offense that had become too predictable and vanilla, and a resistance to change.

Shula’s defenders recognized he was placed in a no-win situation during his tenure in Tuscaloosa. At the time of Shula’s hiring, Alabama was suffering from great embarrassment amid the fallout of the Mike Price scandal, in which the coach was fired for unethical conduct before he coached his first game.

The image of the Alabama football program had taken a severe beating in the public eye. Dennis Franchione, faced with crippling NCAA sanctions as the result of a major recruiting scandal he’d had nothing to do with, had jilted Alabama for Texas A&M the previous winter. Shula’s first season resulted in just four wins.

But the passing of time, and Alabama’s return to national prominence under Saban, has healed most if not all wounds in regard to Shula.

Alabama will face Shula and the Gamecocks next season on Oct. 25 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.