New Alabama football QB coach hire no surprise to ex-Crimson Tide star
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MOBILE ― Although Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer appears poised to return Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator and play caller, he’s had to shuffle the quarterbacks coach role.
Gone is Nick Sheridan, who joined the staff at Michigan State. In is Bryan Ellis, who’d been UA’s tight ends coach, and has now been charged with tutoring Crimson Tide quarterbacks Austin Mack and Keelon Russell.
Ellis is a former quarterback himself, having played at UAB. And former UA tight end Josh Cuevas saw the change coming before it happened.
“I knew before a lot of people that he’d get bumped up. We did so good as a room last year, as one of the most consistent positions on our team,” said Cuevas, after practicing at the Panini Senior Bowl. “It’d be illogical to not reward him for that because he played a massive role in that.”
Cuevas himself was the primary reason UA’s tight ends were a strength last season. He caught 37 passes for 411 yards and four touchdowns despite missing some late-season action with a broken foot. Cuevas said it was fairly obvious, even as Ellis coached tight ends, that he did so from a former quarterback’s perspective.
And with a former quarterback’s arm.
“When he’d put us through individual drills and threw us balls, the spin was tight,” Cuevas said with a grin.
More relevant to 2026 and Ellis’ work with Mack and Russell, however, is his experience in seeing the game from that position.
“You can tell the way he analyzes plays, the way he thinks through the progressions, you can tell he threw the ball a little bit,” Cuevas added. “The quarterbacks are harder to coach than tight ends. It’s one of the hardest positions to play, it’s definitely more stressful. It’s a bigger mental game with the quarterbacks. But I have no doubt he’ll do well with Austin and Keelon. I know they’ll take to him really well. He’s going to put in the work to see how each guy learns the best.”
Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: New Alabama football QB coach Byran Ellis no surprise to Josh Cuevas
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