Kevin Steele was shocked when he got the call from Nick Saban asking him to return. Tommy Rees said it was “surreal” when he was presented with his first opportunity in Tuscaloosa.

To some on the outside, the addition of two new coordinators presented a potential shift in mindset for Alabama football. But their arrival shouldn’t lead to an expectation of change. Instead, like the coordinators before them, they were hired for their ability to adapt to the foundation the Crimson Tide had in place.

“Incorporating things that have worked for me into this system is really moot. The system I was running was this system,” Steele said on Sunday. “Now incorporating little nuances, that happens with all of them. We’ve all been with other defenses, studying different defenses. The whole staff will bring ideas to the room. We’re always evolving in that regard.

“So the scheme of how we do things and go about things is Coach Saban, and we obviously help every way we can in that. But we are who we are.”

Steele was with Saban in the coach’s first season 16 years ago as defensive coordinator before returning in 2013. The familiarity follows an era of tempo offense, the popularization of the Air Raid and run-pass options that led Steele to call this time harder than before for defenses.

But speaking at Alabama’s 2023 fall media days, Steele said 80% of his verbiage remained the same. He even joked he wouldn’t need to bring his dictionary from Miami. The principles — pressuring the quarterback, and generating turnovers — remain.

“To say one guy is going to come in here and change everything would be the wrong way to approach it. I wholeheartedly agree with that. The learning curve is what it is. I don’t find it to be too steep at all,” Rees said. I think when you have a general base knowledge of the game, there’s only so many run plays you can run, only so many pass concepts you can have. It’s just training your brain to switch how you call it.

“To come in here and say we’re going to change all these things would be foolish. There’s certain things that we want to do or alter or look at to enhance it, but a wholesale change would never make sense. There’s still times that you’ve got to remind yourself that, ‘Hey, we’re calling it this.’ … For me to come in and learn the system was maybe a smoother transition than maybe I anticipated.”

Former DC Pete Golding (now at Ole Miss in the same role) and OC Bill O’Brien (who’s back in the NFL) were, at times, maligned by fans for either questionable play calls or lack of production. Alabama finished 11th in the nation for total offense and 13th for total offense.

When asked if Saban’s expectations were any different from the 2022 units, both Steele and Rees noted they weren’t around a year ago. But overall, Steele said, it hasn’t altered much since 2007 and 2013.

On the offensive side, wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooks said Rees had more “swag” than O’Brien and has instituted “tweaks” in the gameplan. Rees called any wrinkles personnel-driven, citing his tight-end success with the Fighting Irish and how he’ll take the same approach with the Tide. Just how Saban wants.

“It’s great to have continuity, especially in leadership positions, but this is not something that we don’t have some experience at making sort of adaptations, being flexible, letting people add things that they know will be beneficial to us,” Saban said this past spring. “Contribute to how we can fix some of the problems that we’ve had in the past. New energy and new enthusiasm is always helpful.”

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].