New Alabama football head coach Kalen DeBoer continued to fill his new staff on Thursday, with Wisconsin safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler expected to join. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the news that Hitschler will come to Tuscaloosa in a currently undefined assistant role.

Hitschler is no stranger to the Yellowhammer State. He worked at South Alabama from 2014-2017, beginning as a graduate assistant before taking over as director of football operations and finally coaching the safeties.

While at USA, he worked under new Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, who was in the same job there in 2016 and 2017. Hitschler went on to become an assistant at Cincinnati under Luke Fickell.

Hitschler started as a quality control assistant for the Bearcat defense, then moving to a senior defensive analyst spot, before taking over safeties coach in 2020. He earned the co-defensive coordinator title in 2022.

When Fickell made the jump to Wisconsin before last season, he took Hitschler with him in the same role. Hitschler has a solid reputation in the world of coaching, with 247Sports ranking him the No. 15 recruiter in the country among assistants.

Before he got to South Alabama, Hitschler had early coaching stops at Arkansas State, Widener (Pa.(, Salve Regina (R.I.) and with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.

He is a native of Philadelphia and was a high school football teammate of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.