Jaime Ffrench, a highly-regarded wide receiver in 2025, revealed on Sunday night that he had decommitted from Alabama. Ffrench, a four-star recruit who was ranked No. 29 overall in the 2025 class by 247 Sports, had committed to Alabama in July of last year. With a five-star rating, he is ranked No. 11 nationwide in the industry aggregate by 247 Sports. Joe Cox, the tight ends coach at Alabama and French’s main recruiter, is not anticipated to stay with Kalen DeBoer’s current coaching staff. It is anticipated that Nick Sheridan, a tight ends coach from Washington, will succeed DeBoer.
It looks like Kalen DeBoer has already put together his main offensive coaching staff, just one day after he was publicly presented and two days after he was named Alabama’s new head football coach. Many of the five-member team are the same ones who helped Washington field one of the best offenses in the country for the previous two seasons. Nick Saban attempted to hire Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator during the previous offseason.
Throughout DeBoer’s two years at Washington, the Huskies had one of the best offenses in the country. With 462.1 yards per game in total offense and 36 points per game in scoring offense during the previous season, they were rated No. 12 and No. 13 respectively in the country. They had the second-best total offense (516.2 yards) in the country in 2022.
DeBoer is also keeping Robert Gillespie on staff. Gillespie was the running backs coach for Alabama under Nick Saban and Tommy Rees, the offensive coordinator. Gillespie, who has connections to the SEC, has been employed by Alabama since 2021. In addition to coaching at South Carolina (2005–08) and Tennessee (2013–17), he was a player at Florida (1998).
DeBoer stated on Saturday, “I always am a believer that you build around your coordinators.” “I realize there needs to be some Southeast ties, some SEC ties that can help bridge the gap of maybe my experiences here,” he continued. It was important to DeBoer and his staff that he and they act fast with their hires so that they could concentrate on keeping as much of Alabama’s excellent squad as possible. Having been an offensive coordinator in the past, it Grubb was named offensive coordinator of the Huskies by DeBoer’s initial staff announcement upon his hiring at Washington. At DeBoer’s head-coaching positions at Sioux Falls, Fresno State, Washington, and now Alabama, they have been together.
The 47-year-old Iowa native is one of the greatest offensive coaches in the profession. He and DeBoer completely redesigned the Washington offense, making it an offensive machine. In addition, Grubb was the quarterbacks coach, which meant he had direct supervision over Michael Penix Jr., a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
Grubb offers a plethora of experience to Alabama. Throughout his tenure, he has coached every facet of the offense, including the offensive line and run game coordinator at Sioux Falls, the running backs and receivers at South Dakota State, the offensive line at Eastern Michigan and Fresno State, and more.
