Alabama to hire Stoutland to coach OL - Bruce Feldman (update: not official yet)

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Bruce Feldman
@BruceFeldmanCFB

Look for #Eagles OL coach Jeff Stoutland to replace Kyle Flood (off to Texas) as #Alabama’s offensive line coach. Stoutland who was the Tide’s OL coach in 2011-12, and Nick Saban go back a long time.

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John Clark
@JClarkNBCS
Eagles could be losing one of their best assistant coaches in recent memory

Jeff Stoutland could be returning to Alabama to coach the Oline under Nick Saban, according to
@BruceFeldmanCFB


A lineman just told me he would be “devastated” if Jeff leaves

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Here’s the thing: Even before this season, we knew how great of a coach Stoutland was. While he has certainly had plenty of talent during his eight seasons with the Eagles, he’s helped get the most out of that talent. Evan Mathis (2 Pro Bowls, 1 All-Pros), Jason Kelce (3 Pro Bowls, 3 All-Pros) and Brandon Brooks (3 Pro Bowls) were in the league prior to playing for Stoutland but never made a single All-Pro team or Pro Bowl until he became their coach.

In his eight years as the Eagles’ OL coach, his players have combined for six All-Pros and 15 Pro Bowl appearances.

Stoutland is one of several holdover coaches from the Chip Kelly regime and keeping him has proved to be one of Doug Pederson’s best decisions. Pederson said he heard plenty of good things around the league about Stoutland and that helped sway his decision to keep him. Back in January of 2016, just after Pederson was hired, he had a sit-down meeting with Stout in his office and felt the passion for which Stoutland is known.

“He has a lot of energy, very, very excited,” Pederson said. “For him, I can understand it was a little bit of an unknown time, right? New head coach coming in, you don't know if you're going to be here or somewhere else, but I just assured him that quite frankly, he was going to be my offensive line coach. But it was a great meeting. A lot of energy, and looking back, a great decision on my part.”

Kelce has a theory about why Stoutland is so good at developing younger players. He shared it earlier this week. Kelce thinks that Stoutland’s time as a college coach helped mold his philosophy and work ethic. After all, at the college level there’s no free agency. You better develop your freshmen because they’re going to be playing for you soon.

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