FootballScoop reported back on Jan. 5 that Jeff Banks was set to stay at Alabama following overtures from Texas. While that was true at that time, Texas wasn't offering him $1 million then.
Multiple outlets reported Thursday Banks is leaving Tuscaloosa for Austin, and CBS Sports reported Banks will become college football's first $1 million special teams coordinator to do so.
Banks is considered one of the top special teams coordinators and recruiters in the game, and the proof is in the dollar signs. Nick Saban hired Banks away from Texas A&M, and Steve Sarkisian saw Banks's value up close in his two years as the Tide's offensive coordinator.
Banks's peers selected him as the FootballScoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year in 2018.
Now he's paying a reported $275,000 increase from Banks's $725,000 to bring him to Austin.
With Banks aboard, Sarkisian's initial offensive staff appears set. Including the head man himself, all of Sark's hires will either be holdovers from the previous staff or come from Alabama*.
OC/OL: Kyle Flood
QBs: AJ Milwee
RBs: Stan Drayton
WRs: Andre Coleman
TEs/STC: Jeff Banks
(* Milwee worked as an analyst at Alabama in 2020 but had previously agreed to become Arkansas State's offensive coordinator -- where he'd work under a fellow former Tide staffer in Butch Jones -- before switching to Texas.)
Terry Joseph, Blake Gideon and Bo Davis will join the defensive staff, but Sarkisian has yet to hire a defensive coordinator (who will presumably coach linebackers). Gideon joins Banks in winning FootballScoop's Special Teams Coordinator of the Year honor, having been chosen by his peers for his work at Houston in 2019.
In the meantime, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.