A former Auburn football defensive coordinator target has been linked by Bama Hammer’s Ronald Evans to the vacant Alabama Crimson Tide DC role under Nick Saban in the aftermath of Pete Golding’s departure to Ole Miss.
Former Wisconsin interim head coach Jim Leonhard — who was mentioned for the Auburn football DC job back in November by Auburn Daily’s Lance Dawe — was floated by Evans as a potential Golding replacement in Tuscaloosa.
Leonhard left the Wisconsin football program after Luke Fickell was hired instead of him. The Ladysmith, Wisconsin native has only ever been a part of the Badgers organization since retiring from the NFL and has been in Madison since 2016. Here’s BH’s take on Leonhard as a DC target:
"“Jim Leonhard is in high demand after being spurned by Wisconsin for its head coach opening. Whether Nick Saban keeps his possible DC list in his head or tucked away under lock and key, Leonhard would not be a new name on the list.”"
The path of least resistance for Auburn football with next Alabama DC hire
Quite frankly, Auburn football fans should be cheering against Jim Leonhard becoming the next Alabama Crimson Tide defensive coordinator. Leonhard’s defenses were holding up underwhelming Badgers offensive attacks for years, and Wisconsin showed a pulse after Paul Chryst was fired and Leonhard took over.
It’s likely Leonhard would bring a new energy to Alabama’s locker room, and nobody reading Fly War Eagle should want that. What would be an ideal alternative, you may ask? One of Bama Hammer’s other suggestions, Todd Grantham.
Though Grantham has paid his dues across the SEC as a defensive coordinator at Georgia, Mississippi State, and Florida, he’d represent minimal change as an internal option — Grantham is current an analyst on Saban’s staff — and be seen as more of the same by a Tide fanbase that is yearning for wholesale changes from a leadership standpoint.