Add another Alabama assistant coach to the rumor mill. This one comes via the Florida 247 Sports website, claiming that new Florida coach Will Muschamp is expected to hire Alabama defensive line coach Bo Davis to his staff in Gainesville:
A source close to new Florida football coach Will Muschamp indicated late Saturday night that Alabama defensive line coach Bo Davis and/or Nebraska defensive ends coach/special teams coordinator John Papuchis are likely to join the Gator coaching staff.
Both Davis and Papuchis have a history with Muschamp, who was named Florida's new head coach Saturday evening. Davis, a former LSU defensive lineman, was on the strength and conditioning staff at LSU when Muschamp was the defensive coordinator (2002-04).
For obvious reasons I'd take the source with a big grain of salt, but I kind of think there may be some legitimate fire underneath all of this smoke. Davis and Muschamp have a previous relationship, and there were some talks of Texas having interest in hiring Davis before Muschamp left Austin for Gainesville. It seems that Muschamp has eying Davis for a while now, so don't be surprised if this one comes to fruition.
If Davis leaves, personally I'll have mixed feelings. He has been with Saban for a very long time now, and as a general rule his defensive lines have played very well in Tuscaloosa. Having said that, though, our defensive line this season was a major disappointment in nearly every facet of the game, and the unit as a whole came nowhere near living up to its potential based on individual talent. On the one hand you would hate to lose a coach with a track record of success, but given some of the development issues that showed up on the defensive line this season, perhaps some new blood would be a good thing.
One way or the other, for 'Bama this latest news literally means that more than half of the assistant coaching staff is in play at other schools. Five of the nine on-field assistants under Nick Saban -- Kirby Smart, Jim McElwain, Curt Cignetti, Sal Sunseri, and Bo Davis -- are at least in consideration for other jobs, with only Joe Pendry, Bobby Williams, Burton Burns, and Jeremy Pruitt (a first-year college coach) going unmentioned in the rumor mill. Now, obviously some of these may not pan out, but I think at this point you can reasonably expect Nick Saban to have to make a replacement hire or two in the coming weeks.