Carl Torbush, Alabama DC under Franchione, dies at 72
Carl Torbush, Alabama’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under Dennis Franchione in 2001-02, has died. He was 72.
East Tennessee State, where Torbush was head coach from 2015-17, announced Torbush’s death on Monday. No cause of death was given, though Torbush had battled cancer in the past.
A native of East Spencer, N.C., Torbush joined the Alabama staff upon Franchione’s hiring in 2001 after being head coach at North Carolina. The Crimson Tide went 16-8 in those two seasons, and finished No. 3 in total defense and No. 5 in scoring defense in 2002.
Franchione left Alabama for Texas A&M after the 2002 season, and Torbush went with him to serve as defensive coordinator for three seasons. He was later assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Carson-Newman (his alma mater) for three seasons and then was defensive coordinator at Mississippi State (2009) and Kansas (2010-11) and linebackers coach at Liberty (2012).
Torbush was hired in 2013 to resurrect the program at East Tennessee State, which had not fielded a team since 2003. His Buccaneers went 11-22 in three seasons on the FCS level before he announced his retirement from coaching.
A linebacker at Carson-Newman in the early 1970s, Torbush was an assistant at Baylor, Southeastern Louisiana (where he was also head baseball coach), Louisiana Tech and Ole Miss before getting his first head-coaching job at Louisiana Tech in 1987. His Bulldogs team went 3-8 in one season before he resigned to become defensive coordinator at North Carolina.
After 10 mostly successful years on Mack Brown’s Tar Heels staff, Torbush was hired as head coach after Brown left for Texas at the end of the 1997 season. Torbush went 17-18 in three seasons as Tar Heels head coach, but was fired after posting a 6-5 record in 2000.