Alabama’s biggest offseason move brought even more continuity to coach Kalen DeBoer’s staff, as offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb returned — sort of — to Tuscaloosa, reuniting with DeBoer after a brief stint in the NFL.

Grubb almost became the Crimson Tide OC twice before. In the offseason before Washington made it to the national title game, Nick Saban tried to hire him, but the Iowa native opted to remain in Seattle with his mentor DeBoer and coach Michael Penix Jr.’s final college season.

Then last year, after DeBoer replaced Saban, Grubb spent three weeks with the Tide before accepting the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator job.

“Third time’s the charm,” Grubb joked earlier this month.

The last time Grubb and DeBoer teamed up, in 2023, they conducted one of the most prolific offenses in college football, as Washington led the nation in passing yards and made the national title game. The high-speed turnaround came just two years after the Huskies had gone 4-8 and ranked No. 107 in the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring and No. 113 in yards per play.

The challenge now is to amp up an offense that sputtered at times in 2024. The Tide averaged only 28 points in SEC play last year after averaging 41 over the previous five seasons.

“When you coach with a guy for so many years, you know what he’s gonna bring to the table,” DeBoer told The Athletic earlier this month. “You just know Ryan’s gonna bring his best every single day. He’s got a good feel, not just for quarterback and skill play and scheme, but he’s got his eyes on the offensive line, too. To have the entire offensive staff back and then to bring him on top of that, how can it be any better?”

He inherits a talented O-line and a good group of wideouts led by sophomore Ryan Williams, a preseason second-team All-American. Junior Ty Simpson, who finished spring football strong, had an impressive camp and won the starting quarterback job.

Simpson, son of Tennessee-Martin head coach Jason Simpson, looked erratic in the pocket early in spring ball and lacked poise as Grubb handed him more responsibility for running the offense. But over the last four or five spring practices, Simpson didn’t throw any interceptions.

“He caught up to the curriculum, where you could see — ‘OK, I’m getting a grasp of it,’” Grubb said.

It helped that Grubb didn’t have to go out on the road recruiting in the spring. He was able to debrief with the Tide staff and focus on preparation for the season, grinding through the details with Alabama’s analysts and watching film with Simpson, Williams and the other players.

Grubb led football IQ meetings with players to better educate them on situational football, a trick the 49-year-old coach picked up in the NFL.

Alabama’s quarterbacks only threw four or five interceptions in their first dozen practices this fall. Simpson only threw one.

“It’s fun watching (Alabama QB coach/co-OC) Nick Sheridan and Grubb go to work with the quarterbacks,” said DeBoer. “It’s high-level stuff that’s getting taught. It’s high-level but it’s also meat and potatoes, the most important stuff that’s getting taught and building from there. They feed off each other’s energy. They’re in it with no ego and just enjoy coaching ball. It’s just cool seeing those guys all believe in each other, and always searching for ways to make what we do better for our guys. And that’s the key for our guys because it might not look exactly like it did last year or the year before.”

Here’s more of what we’re hearing as the 2025 season kicks off in earnest Thursday night.

Campbell’s career path

Iowa State fans have been dealing with speculation about coach Matt Campbell for years.

When the Cyclones are going well — and they started Campbell’s 10th season with a win over rival Kansas State in Ireland last weekend — inevitably the chatter resumes about what his next job might be.

Expect that to be the case again this season and for the speculation to center as much on the NFL as college football.

Campbell, who was 32 when he became head coach at Toledo in 2011, is 65-51 at Iowa State, the winningest coach in program history. Take out the Campbell era, and the Cyclones have a .443 winning percentage in more than 115 seasons of playing football. The program has not won a conference championship since 1912, but it has twice played for the Big 12 title under Campbell.

Campbell drew interest from NFL teams, most notably the Detroit Lions, in 2021. The New York Jets also reached out to Campbell after he guided Iowa State to a 9-3 record and top-10 finish during the pandemic-altered 2020 season.

There is an alternate universe where Campbell became the USC coach after the 2021 season, but in this world Oklahoma lost Bedlam to Oklahoma State, and Lincoln Riley ended up with the Trojans.

The Cyclones’ slip to 4-8 in 2022 took some of the shine off Campbell as a candidate, but more significantly, he’s been particular. Ames has suited him and his family well. He is an Ohio native who played at the great Division III program Mount Union.

Campbell has had suitors the past two years, but the job market has been relatively cool. The perfect schools for him like Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State either have not come open or — in the case of Michigan with Sherrone Moore — had their guy in place when they did.

After taking Iowa State to a program-record 11 wins last season, Campbell again picked up NFL interest, with the Chicago Bears giving him a look before they landed on Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

Industry sources believe that at this point in Campbell’s career the NFL is more likely to be what pulls him away from Iowa State than another college job. The qualifier, of course, is the 2025 hiring cycle could be very active at the Power 4 level, and it only takes one or two big openings to set off a domino effect.

Of course, Iowa State fans have been hearing about Campbell’s next job for a decade, and he just keeps elevating the program. So why even worry about it at this point?

Ready to go

With the expanded Playoff, the high school early signing period and the winter transfer portal window all opening in December, the calendar has never made it more difficult for schools to hire a coach.

There just isn’t much time to hone in on a candidate, hire him and effectively start building a staff and roster for next season. Everything is rushed.

That makes coaches who aren’t active particularly interesting candidates.

Former Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson most definitely did not retire when he stepped down last December. And while he might have been frustrated by how rapid changes to name, image and likeness compensation and transfer rules made his job harder, he has made it clear he was not scared off by the new landscape.

It was best for both him and Wake to hit the reset button. Now Clawson wants to coach again.

Like Campbell, Clawson had success at a place that traditionally struggled to be consistent. His 99-101 overall record at Wake Forest and Bowling Green includes seven consecutive bowl appearances and a 5-2 postseason record with the Demon Deacons.

Industry sources note his background and track record match up particularly well with several schools that could be looking for coaches in the months ahead, including one that already is in Stanford. Add to that list Cal, Northwestern — which made a run at Clawson after Pat Fitzgerald was fired in 2023 — and Wake’s ACC rivals at Virginia and Virginia Tech.

Speaking of Fitzgerald, now that his wrongful termination lawsuit with Northwestern has been settled, expect the 50-year-old former Wildcats linebacker to try to get back into coaching ASAP.

Fitzgerald was 110-101 in 17 seasons as head coach at Northwestern, but was fired after an internal investigation into hazing allegations in the football program. Fitzgerald was originally suspended by the school but later fired by the university president after more details about the hazing were reported by The Daily Northwestern. Fitzgerald maintained he had no knowledge of the hazing incidents.

Running backs of interest

Sunday’s night marquee matchup of No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 10 Miami is the third and final top-10 game of opening weekend.

There is a lot of excitement at Miami about running back Jordan Lyle, a one-time Ohio State commit in the Class of 2024 whom the Canes reeled in instead. Lyle’s ability to make big plays even when it appears nothing is there has wowed Hurricanes coaches. They expect he will be the best running back Miami has produced in a long time.

Notre Dame already has its star running back in All-American Jeremiyah Love and a high-quality No. 2 in Jadarian Price, but remember the name Nolan James Jr. The Irish coaches love what they’ve seen from the 5-foot-11, 215-pound freshman from New Jersey, who was once committed to Boston College. James, whose uncle is Nebraska running backs coach E.J. Barthel, has been impressive throughout fall camp. He runs with great pad level and has outstanding ball skills.

Jordan Lyle is expected to play a big part in Miami’s hopes of fielding another explosive offense. (Megan Briggs / Getty Images)Receiver upgrades

With three top-10 matchups to start the season, some interesting games are going relatively unnoticed. For example: Cincinnati facing Nebraska at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Thursday night.

Both teams worked the portal in the offseason to get their promising quarterbacks some weapons out wide. While Nebraska grabbed Dane Key from Kentucky and Nyziah Hunter from Cal for Dylan Raiola to throw to, Cincinnati is also feeling good about its new receiving corps, which features five transfers.

“We needed to add more explosiveness and playmaking on offense,” a program source said. “We think we addressed that.”

Slot receiver Cyrus Allen, who has bounced from Louisiana Tech to Texas A&M and now to the Bearcats, is expected to be Cincinnati’s go-to receiver, but it’s an FCS transfer who could be the key to unlocking quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s potential.

Jeff Caldwell, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound senior, had 93 catches for 1,722 yards and 23 touchdowns in three seasons at Lindenwood. He was a finalist last year for the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the most outstanding player in the Football Championship Subdivision, and a Freaks List pick.

As for Sorsby, NFL scouts who passed through Cincinnati this offseason love his size (6-3, 235 pounds) and athleticism. A good year could have him shooting up draft boards, and with an improved supporting cast the Bearcats could be this year’s surprise team in another wide-open Big 12.

Off the edge

Texas A&M coaches, looking to replace three defensive linemen selected in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft, are banking on edge rusher Cassius Howell to become a difference-maker this season. They also have been impressed with Iowa State grad transfer Tyler Onyedim, a 295-pound tackle, who will need to fortify a rotation that lacks experienced depth.

Second-year leap

USC wasn’t ranked in the preseason after finishing 7-6 in 2024, but don’t be surprised if the Trojans take another big step forward on defense.

In their first season under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, the Trojans improved from No. 110 to No. 86 in yards per rush and from No. 109 to No. 21 nationally in third-down defense.

The staff feels like their personnel is more talented this year. Lynn, a 35-year-old former Penn State defensive back, was a hot commodity last winter, including being pursued by his alma mater.

Lynn liked the way things were set up for him both personally and professionally at USC, and the Trojans also made a robust commitment to him. As a private institution, USC does not make staff salaries public, but according to sources, Lynn is the country’s second-highest-paid assistant coach, behind Jim Knowles, whom Penn State later hired to take over their defense. Knowles is in line to become college football’s first $3 million coordinator.

It seems like a stretch that Lynn would leave USC for any other college assistant job, but he is a coach ADs are tracking for potential head coaching vacancies.

(Top photo of Ryan Grubb and Kalen DeBoer: Butch Dill / Getty Images)