South Alabama assistant head coach and director of football athletic performance Matt Shadeed is leaving the program for a job on the Alabama staff, AL.com has confirmed.
Football Scoop is reporting that Shadeed will work closely with Kane Wommack, the former Jaguars head coach who left Tuesday to become the Crimson Tide defensive coordinator. However, Shadeed’s position is not expected to involve strength and conditioning, which is where his background lies.
A close friend of Wommack’s dating to their Southern Miss days in the late 2000s, the 37-year-old Shadeed has also worked at LSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas State, Baylor, Massachusetts and Nova Southeastern. He has been the equivalent of a head strength coach at various programs since 2017.
South Alabama is set to hire offensive coordinator Major Applewhite as Wommack’s replacement. Applewhite already had five coaching staff vacancies to fill and now has two more with his own and Shadeed’s positions.
Alphonse Taylor is frustrated.
The former Alabama offensive lineman, affectionately known as Shank, has watched as members of his beloved Crimson Tide have taken off for greener pastures. It isn’t the idea of players transferring for more playing time. He gets that.
It’s different.
“Players transfer every day,” he posted Wednesday on “X,” the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is being one game away from the national championship game and instead of running it back, you transfer. On top of that, you get a coach who was just in the national championship game. It’s no longer about winning.”
