Alabama Football Completes Staff With Hiring Of TEs Coach Joe Cox

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Alabama has apparently completed its football coaching staff with the hiring of tight ends coach Joe Cox, a former Georgia starting quarterback who was the tight ends coach at UNC-Charlotte last season and was wide receivers coach at South Carolina in 2020.

"Joe is an outstanding young coach who possesses extensive experience coaching tight ends," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday. "He has tremendous enthusiasm for teaching the game of football and is a great recruiter who works tirelessly at his craft."

Cox, 35, was tight ends coach at Colorado State from 2016-18 and wide receivers coach in 2019. A Charlotte, N.C., native, he was Georgia's starting quarterback in the 2009 season. He joins another former SEC starting quarterback on the Tide's staff as former LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger will be an analyst.

"It is an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to work for and learn from coach Saban," Cox said. "I can't wait to get to work with this staff and the young men on this football team."

Cox replaces tight ends coach Drew Svoboda, who has either left the Alabama program or will be reassigned. He is no longer listed as an assistant coach by Alabama. Svoboda's special teams coordinator duties were taken over last month by new special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach Coleman Hutzler, who was Ole Miss' special teams coordinator last season.

Hutzler, 37, will also coach outside linebackers. Sal Sunseri was Alabama's outside linebackers coach, but he was reassigned to special assistant under Saban and will work primarily with the NCAA transfer portal.

Alabama's other previous new hires since the end of the 2021-22 season were cornerbacks coach Travaris Robinson and offensive line coach Eric Wolford.

Robinson, 40, was Miami's defensive backs coach last season and was retained by new Miami coach Mario Cristobal, but left for Alabama. A Miami native and top recruiter, Robinson was defensive coordinator at South Carolina from 2016-19 and the Gamecocks' defensive line coach in 2020. He replaces Jay Valai, who left Alabama to become Oklahoma's co-defensive coordinator.

Wolford, 50, was Kentucky's offensive line coach last season and coached that area at South Carolina from 2017-20 and with the San Francisco 49ers in 2015-16. He replaces Doug Marrone, who is expected to be named offensive line coach with the New Orleans Saints under new coach Dennis Allen.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.