UB football coach Maurice Linguist leaving for Alabama assistant job

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The University at Buffalo has abruptly entered the market for a new football coach. Maurice Linguist is leaving the Bulls, an athletics department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday, after multiple reports linking the 39-year-old Linguist to Kalen DeBoer’s new coaching staff at Alabama.

Linguist, who went 14-23 with one winning season at UB, will join the Crimson Tide as the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, according to ESPN, which was first to report news of Linguist’s departure. He has previously coached defensive backs at Texas A&M and was hired to be the defensive coordinator at Michigan months before replacing Lance Leipold as UB’s head coach in May, 2021.

UB will conduct a national search for Linguist’s replacement, Mark Alnutt, UB’s vice president and director of athletics, said in a written statement thanking Linguist “for his leadership of the UB football program over the last three seasons. We wish Maurice the best in his future,” Alnutt said. “A national search for a new head coach has already begun.”

Departing UB with three years left on a contract paying him an average of $675,000 annually, the Bulls could now recoup $750,000 from buyout clauses in Linguist’s contract, which was extended prior to the 2022 season.

This comes after speculation about Linguist’s job security following a 3-9 letdown from the previous season, when the Bulls finished 7-6 and won the Camellia Bowl. Athletics director Mark Alnutt, however, remained committed to Linguist, owing the balance of his contract.

Now, for the second time in four years, Alnutt begins a coaching search late in the hiring cycle. Leipold left for Kansas in April, 2021.

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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.

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