Alabama football has made a key addition to their coaching staff, as Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide have hired former Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt to their staff. Whisenhunt will be the special assistant to Saban on Alabama football's coaching staff, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN. He will be reuniting with former Los Angeles Chargers and Tennessee Titans quarterback Zach Mettenberger, who is married to his daughter and is also an analyst on the Tide's staff.
There was no formal announcement of Whisenhunt's hire by Alabama football, though the former Cardinals and Titans head coach appears on the program's staff directory.
Whisenhunt, 60, has been coaching since 1995, where he started out as a special teams, tight ends and H-backs coach for Vanderbilt.
He made the jump to the NFL coaching ranks for the first time in 1997, serving as the Baltimore Ravens' tight ends coach.
From there, Whisenhunt worked his way up to becoming the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive coordinator, a role he occupied from 2004-06, winning a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh.
Whisenhunt got his big breakthrough after the 2006 season when he was hired to be the Cardinals' head coach. He led Arizona to a Super Bowl berth, though they were bested by his former team, the Steelers, in a thrilling game.
It was during his time with the Chargers and Titans where he worked closely with Mettenberger, who was hired as an analyst by Alabama football last February.
Before his Alabama football hire, Whisenhunt most recently served as an offensive analyst at Penn State for the last two seasons.
His wealth of experience on offense should only serve to help Alabama football, who recently hired ex-Notre Dame play-caller Tommy Rees to be their new offensive coordinator.