Nick Saban Loses Coach Just After Hiring Him As Austin Armstrong Leaves Alabama To Be Florida's Defensive Coordinator

Published|Updated

I can almost hear Nick Saban:

"I'm getting too old for this (expletive deleted)."

Just when he thought he was done hiring his new assistant coaches ahead of the 2023 football season, the Alabama football coach has an opening. Newly anointed inside linebackers coach Austin Armstrong, 29, got a promotion he couldn't refuse. He will be the new defensive coordinator at Florida, according to several reports. On3 first reported it.

NICK SABAN CAN BE A TOUGH GUY TO WORK FOR

Armstrong served as Southern Mississippi's defensive coordinator in 2021 and '22. He will join Florida head coach Billy Napier, whom he coached inside linebackers for in the 2020 season at Louisiana-Lafayette. He also served under Napier in 2017 and '18 as a graduate assistant. Then he became a defensive quality control coach at Georgia in 2019. Armstrong played linebacker at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, and graduated from there in 2015.

Alabama Has Had Several Openings This Offseason

"The opportunity to coach at the University of Alabama is a dream come true," Armstrong said in an Alabama release on Feb. 13. "I have admired what coach Saban has built in Tuscaloosa and the long history of tradition and success the program has enjoyed. I am excited to get to work as we continue the legacy that is synonymous with Alabama football."

Armstrong accepted the Alabama job in mid-January. It was only made public by Alabama on Feb. 13.

Saban, 71, also just hired offensive coordinator Tommy Rees from Notre Dame and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele from Miami. Multiple coaches turned him down in the hiring process.

Alabama Loses Coach To A Struggling Florida Defense

Armstrong's move is an obvious promotion that is expected to include significantly more salary. Florida's opening is just now happening as Napier is reportedly in the process of losing defensive coordinator Patrick Toney to the Arizona Cardinals as a defensive assistant under new coach Jonathan Gannon.

Armstrong will leave a team that went 11-2 overall and 6-2 in the SEC last season, narrowly missing the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide finished No. 3 in the SEC and No. 13 in the nation in total defense with 318.2 yards allowed a game. Florida finished 12th in the 14-team SEC and 97th in the nation in total defense with 411 yards allowed a game.

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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.