The University of West Alabama announced a coaching staff built almost entirely from Nick Saban's Alabama national championship rosters. Offensive coordinator Blake Sims started 42 games for the Crimson Tide and led the 2014 squad to the College Football Playoff. Running backs coach Bo Scarbrough carried 27 times for 180 yards in Alabama's 2017 title win over Georgia. Tight ends coach O.J. Howard caught two touchdowns in the 2016 championship game. Linebackers coach Reggie Ragland captained the 2015 defense. Strength coach Scott Cochran spent 13 seasons building Saban's weight room before leaving for Georgia.
The hires reflect a pattern in Division II football: programs with modest budgets use alumni networks and title-team nostalgia to staff positions that pay $45,000 to $65,000 annually, well below FBS coordinator salaries that start near $500,000. West Alabama, located 60 miles west of Tuscaloosa, competes in the Gulf South Conference and draws roughly 4,200 fans per home game. The school has no television contract. Its total athletic budget runs $6.8 million, about 3% of Alabama's.
What matters here is the recruiting architecture. High school players in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana grow up watching these names on SEC broadcasts. A tight end from Mobile gets a call from O.J. Howard, who caught 88 passes across four Alabama seasons and went 19th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft. The pitch is proximity to the Saban system, film study with someone who executed it at the highest level, and a direct line to NFL scouts who trust the coaching tree. West Alabama signed 11 three-star recruits in its 2024 class, unusual depth for a Gulf South program that typically lands zero.
The second-order effect is workforce development for college football's lower tiers. Coaches who played in championship games but lack the résumé for a Power Five assistant job use Division II stops as proof of concept. If Sims's offense finishes top-20 in Division II scoring, he becomes a candidate for FBS offensive coordinator roles at schools in the Sun Belt or Conference USA, where coordinator salaries approach $350,000. The Division II-to-Group of Five pipeline is well-worn: 14 current FBS coordinators held Division II positions within the last five years, per NCAA employment records.
The risk is retention. If West Alabama wins, these assistants leave. If the team struggles, the championship pedigree loses shine quickly. Division II head coaches typically earn $110,000 to $140,000, and assistants can triple their salary by moving to an FBS quality control role. Blake Sims turned down a graduate assistant offer from Ole Miss to take the offensive coordinator title at West Alabama, a calculated bet that coordinator experience, even at a lower level, accelerates his timeline.
Watch for West Alabama's 2025 recruiting class in February. If the staff pulls multiple FCS-level recruits who chose the Division II program over scholarship offers at Jacksonville State or UT Martin, the model proves itself. Also watch whether Cochran, who still has relationships with every strength coach in the SEC, can funnel transfer portal players looking for a second chance. The Gulf South Conference championship game is scheduled for late November 2025.
West Alabama opens its season September 4 against Delta State. The defensive coordinator, not announced in this hiring wave, is expected to be named by early March.
The takeaway
West Alabama turned Saban's championship rosters into a Division II coaching staff, testing whether title-game pedigree translates to recruiting leverage at **$50,000** salaries.
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