Saban confirms Daboll, Pannunzio hires

Alabama football coach Nick Saban on Monday confirmed the hirings of Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator and Joe Pannunzio as special teams coordinator and tight ends coach.

Daboll has spent the past 17 seasons in the National Football League, including stints as an offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns (2009-10), Miami Dolphins (2011) and Kansas City Chiefs (2012). He has spent most of his professional career with the Patriots, being a part of five Super Bowl championships with the franchise.

“I am honored to have the chance to return to the college game and work for Coach Saban at Alabama,” Daboll said in a release. “He basically gave me my start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Michigan State in the late 1990s and has always been a very important influence on my coaching career. It is a tremendous opportunity to work at an institution such as Alabama with its rich tradition and history of sustained success, and I’m very excited to get started.”

Saban described Daboll as “a great teacher of the game, and someone who can relate well to our players.”

Daboll will work with quarterbacks, with Burton Burns overseeing running backs for a 10th straight year in Tuscaloosa and Brent Key overseeing the offensive line for a second straight season. New co-offensive coordinator Mike Locksley will work with the receivers, an assignment that had not been confirmed until Monday.

Pannunzio, who spent the past two seasons as director of personnel operations for the Philadelphia Eagles, returns to Alabama after serving as the Crimson Tide’s director of football operations for four years, 2011-14.

“I have always loved working with the special teams and tight ends,” Pannunzio said, “and the chance to do it for the best coach and the best program in college football is a very special opportunity.”

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.