Why Ryan Grubb feels it’s the right time to join Kalen DeBoer, Alabama football coaching staff

Why was 2025 the right time for Ryan Grubb to join the Alabama football coaching staff?

“Third time’s a charm,” Grubb told reporters with a grin.

Grubb and Alabama were no strangers to one another when he was officially named the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator in February.

He was offered a job on Nick Saban’s final coaching staff in 2023, saying he turned it down because he knew what the Huskies had with Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze, ending the season in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

He seemingly took Alabama’s offensive coordinator job on Kalen DeBoer’s first staff in 2024 and was seen recruiting for the Crimson Tide, but instead took the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator position for “a lot of factors” including not having to uproot his family.

But Grubb’s hire at Alabama seemed inevitable going back to DeBoer’s answer at the Senior Bowl in January where he said he’s “here for him whenever he needs me.”

In 2025, DeBoer decided he needed Grubb, shuffling his offensive staff and moving Nick Sheridan to quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator.

It’s a staff Grubb is familiar with, having previously worked with and for DeBoer and worked with Sheridan and co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard.

“You have relationships that you have to go through bumps, right?” Grubb said. “Tough things, you know, whether it’s on or off the field. I think when you put the investment and the time into relationships like that, then when you got to figure out how to throw the ball against Cover 3, that part seems pretty easy.”

Throughout 2024, Grubb said Alabama had a “talented” offense, on that “did a good job of utilizing talent” and found ways to “be creative getting the ball down the field.”

“I thought there was a lot of good players out there,” Grubb said. “I thought there was a lot of talent that we could utilize.”

In 2025, the third time’s the charm for Grubb and Alabama. He joins an offense, he feels, that has already done much of the “heavy lifting” in terms of install. He joins an offense he feels can “get some of the things off the ground that guys have already seen.”

The groundwork has been laid with people he knows, Grubb said. And with that comes familiarity, comes ease, comes a readiness to officially make his mark on the Crimson Tide.

“Like the first time I heard Shep being loud down the hallway, I just kind of had a big smile on my face,” Grubb said.