Former Houston Texans Coach Bill O’Brien To Be The New OC At Alabama

Alabama celebrated a national title on Monday night with a win over Ohio State, but the program made news prior to the game with reports of a big name hire coming in as the club’s new offensive coordinator.

FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman reports that former Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is set to be the new Alabama OC, and that the deal will be announced in the next few days.

The coordinator spot became open due to Steven Sarkisian leaving the staff to be the new head coach at Texas.

As I reported last week Bill O'Brien, the former #Texans and Penn State head coach visited Tuscaloosa about replacing Steve Sarkisian as Alabama’s OC.. I’m hearing that deal is expected to happen in the next few days.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 12, 2021

It was a tough season for O’Brien, as he was fired by the Texans after an 0-4 start as the team never got off the ground.

Before being the head coach of the Texans he was head coach at Penn State, and in two years leading the Nittany Lions from 2012-13, O’Brien was a combined 15-9.

O’Brien was the part of a number of head scratching decisions by the Texans, the biggest being the decision to trade leading wide out DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals before the start of the 2020 season.

The Texans got running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick for Hopkins, who had another huge season playing now out west in Glendale.

The downfall for O’Brien started last January when the Texans led the Kansas City Chiefs 24-0 in an AFC Divisional Playoff game only to lose after a memorable Patrick Mahomes comeback.

In just over six years with the Texans O’Brien went 52-48 record with four playoff appearances.

Now he will take over an Alabama offense that was on fire Monday night, scoring 52 points in a 52-24 win over Ohio State.