Will Bill O'Brien be back as Alabama football OC next season? He knows the dance | Goodbread
NEW ORLEANS - Bill O'Brien knows the dance step well.
He's been asked about speculation on his job status enough to move with the beat, not against it. Would he leave the New England Patriots for Penn State? Penn State for the Houston Texans? And now, full circle, it's about whether he'd leave Alabama to go back to the Patriots.
Those are the reports, at least that it's a strong possibility, anyway. So in the town where jazz dance launched, as the Crimson Tide prepares to face Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl on Saturday (11 a.m. CT, ESPN), O'Brien didn't miss a step Wednesday when asked about what the future might hold for him beyond the 2022 Crimson Tide's final game.
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"Whatever conversations happen after this game, those will take place when they take place," he said.
Conversations have to take place − be they about return or departure − because his contract with Alabama expires in February. He'll end his second season with the Crimson Tide on Saturday, and if it's his last, it will continue a relatively clear pattern of short stops for Alabama offensive coordinators. He is coach Nick Saban's eighth in 16 years, so an exit back to the NFL would maintain the two-year average. Jim McElwain (2008-2011) lasted the longest at four years, while others such as Major Applewhite, Brian Daboll and Mike Locksley were one-and-dones.
Regardless of O'Brien's fate, it's been a role of heavy turnover.
"I haven't spoken to anybody in New England since probably last April when I went by and saw those guys when I was up there," O'Brien said. Of course, that doesn't mean his representatives haven't been working the phones. Coaches don't have to engage in negotiations for their next stops, they only green-light the start of the process for their agents and rubber-stamp the move at the end if it suits them.
As for criticism of his offense this season, O'Brien said he's been insulated from any such thing, unaware of backlash. That's a pretty good sign he doesn't spend a lot of time on social media, a place where expectations know no bounds, and that's a good thing. Alabama was objectively more talented offensively in 2021 than it was this year, a fact that seems to escape some of his harshest critics.
At any rate, he's not ashamed of what's been accomplished.
"I think over the last two seasons, we've been pretty productive. I think we've averaged 40 points a game, thereabouts," he said. "Are there areas that we can be better at? Certainly."
A 40-point average over two years is difficult to argue with, to be sure. But there's no argument that the Crimson Tide's offense looked disjointed at times this season, was heavily penalized and often relied too heavily on star quarterback Bryce Young's ability to break off the design of a pass play and throw off the scramble.
That speaks to coaching more than talent.
Signs suggest that Saban will, more likely than not, be searching for a new offensive coordinator soon. Until then, however, the Crimson Tide has one more game to play.
And O'Brien can dance the job-change step as well as he needs to until then.
Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Bill O'Brien: Will Alabama football OC return for Nick Saban in 2023?
