Breaking News: Greg Byrne, director of athletics at Alabama, is worried about the trend of college coaches quitting to join the NFL, however.

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne is concerned about trend of college coaches leaving for NFL

Greg Byrne expressed concern Friday about coaches leaving the college game for the pros.

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne expressed concern Friday about what he viewed as a trend of college coaches leaving for the NFL.

“Yeah, I really am [concerned about the number],” Byrne said during an interview on Tide 100.9.

Byrne specifically noted the departure of Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley to become the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator.

“It’s certainly one of the less-resourced [head-coaching jobs out] there, and I don’t say that disparagingly at all — they’ve got a great program at Boston College,” Byrne said. “But he left to go become a defensive coordinator in the NFL. You would’ve never thought about that in the past.”

Byrne also pointed out Group of 5 head coaches leaving for assistant jobs at the Power 5 level, including two to Alabama this offseason in Buffalo’s Maurice Linguist and South Alabama’s Kane Wommack. Georgia State coach Shawn Elliott also left last week to become South Carolina’s tight ends coach and run-game coordinator.

“I think you’re going to continue to see more of that as college football, college athletics is under a very challenging transition in so many different ways right now,” Byrne said. “I think the NFL, from a calendar standpoint, from a not having to deal with a lot of the other extracurricular things you deal with in the college ranks — when it comes to NIL area and the transfer portal and the recruiting calendar — I think the NFL lifestyle is becoming more attractive to coaches in general. And when they have a good opportunity to get there, some of them are taking advantage of that.

“And in some ways, I can’t blame them. I do remind them if you do have to go through choppy waters, there’s not a better place to do it than the University of Alabama. But that doesn’t mean that we’re immune from those choppy waters, because we still deal with that on a daily basis.”