The ripples from the changes on the Alabama football team’s coaching staff have hit Mississippi State.
According to multiple media reports, Alabama will add Mississippi State assistant head coach, run game coordinator, and running backs coach Charles Huff to its staff for the 2019 season.
The move is the latest in a reshuffling to coach Nick Saban’s staff. Since the end of the 2018 season, there have been multiple reports that Alabama will add Steve Sarkisian to its offensive staff. The move is just one of multiple changes that will reshape the coaching staff of the Southeastern Conference champions, who lost to No. 2 Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Huff was new MSU head coach Joe Moorhead’s first hire in Starkville on Dec. 1, 2017, one day after Moorhead’s official press conference. An elite recruiter and developer of talent, Huff helped solidify a top-25 recruiting class for the Bulldogs after only two weeks on the job.
Huff, a Denton, Maryland, native spent the past four seasons (2014-17) as Penn State’s running backs coach and special teams coordinator. He recruited and developed one of the game’s most electrifying players in running back Saquon Barkley, who in 2018 became the highest drafted NFL running back since Reggie Bush went No. 2 overall in 2006. The New York Giants used the second overall pick to select Barkley.
In addition to MSU and Penn State, he coached at Western Michigan (2013), the NFL’s Buffalo Bills (2012), Vanderbilt (2011), Hampton (2010), Maryland (2009), and Tennessee State (2006-08).
The Tuscaloosa News also reports former Alabama player Lance Taylor, the wide receivers coach for the NFL Carolina Panthers last season, could return to Tuscaloosa.
Huff’s responsibility with the Crimson Tide is unclear. The Tuscaloosa News reported Huff could coach Alabama’s running backs and current Crimson Tide assistant Joe Pannunzio could move off the field.
Also Saturday, Tidesports.com reported Tennessee assistant coach and special teams coordinator Charles Kelly would accept a spot on Saban’s 2019 staff.
The Tuscaloosa News reports Sal Sunseri is expected to join the defensive staff, which has seen the departure of Tosh Lupoi to the NFL.
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