Getty Image / Lance King
Alabama‘s coaching staff continues to be a pretty fluid situation this offseason.
They lost their offensive coordinator when Bill O’Brien took the same job with the New England Patriots.
Former defensive coordinator Pete Golding headed to Ole Miss to become their DC.
Former co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly headed out to Boulder to become Deion Sanders’ new defensive coordinator at Colorado.
Now their inside linebackers coach is leaving the program too.
Alabama had just officially hired Austin Armstrong on February 13th, but he is reportedly already taking another job.
According to On3 Sports’ Matt Zenitz, Armstrong is going to become the new defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators.
To follow up on this: Austin Armstrong is indeed leaving Alabama and taking the defensive coordinator job at Florida, sources tell @on3sports.
Armstrong was Southern Miss’ DC the last two years prior to joining the Bama staff in January.https://t.co/DlIXY67ten https://t.co/Qozxpeqy5N
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 22, 2023
The move comes after Florida lost their defensive coordinator to an NFL job. Patrick Toney served as a co-defensive coordinator for the Gators last season, but is now heading to the Arizona Cardinals to become a secondary coach on Jonathan Gannon’s staff.
Armstrong had spent the past 2 seasons as the defensive coordinator for Southern Mississippi. In the season before he took over their defense, Southern Miss was 86th in college football in points allowed. In his 2nd year in charge, he had them all the way up to 45th.
This past season, Florida was 87th in points allowed and their defense was shredded repeatedly throughout the year. They allowed 31 points against Vanderbilt and 45 each to LSU and Florida State.
The Gators will be hoping Armstrong can improve their defense in the same way he improved Southern Miss’ as they will be tasked with facing plenty of top offenses in an SEC that only continues to get tougher.