Alabama
Alabama football expected to move on from offensive line coach
Alabama football will have a new offensive line coach next season. The Crimson Tide is expected to move on from Chris Kapilovic, AL.com confirmed on Friday.
The news was first reported by 247Sports.
Kapilovic spent two seasons with UA, after jumping over from Baylor to join Kalen DeBoer’s first staff in Tuscaloosa. He joined the Tide after Scott Huff jumped ship for the NFL after initially following DeBoer from Washington.
Under Kapilovic this season, the offensive line had more than its share of struggles. The unit used a huge rotation of players early in the season, and even after finding a regular five up front, it never became one of the top lines in the SEC.
In the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, the issues became readily apparent. Ty Simpson was under duress before he was injured in the first half, and the run game struggled mightily, just as it did for much of the year.
Kapilovic will become the first Alabama assistant to leave the staff this offseason without another job offer in hand. Wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard took the head coach job at Oregon State, while wide receivers coach Nick Sheridan headed to Michigan State, where he got an offensive coordinator gig.
Before his brief stint at Baylor, Kapilovic worked at Michigan State from 2020 through 2023 under. He was both offensive line coach and run game coordinator for the Spartans, and also held an assistant head coach title.
Kapilovic spent the 2019 season at Colorado, after working in various roles at North Carolina from 2012 through 2018.
Alabama will be looking for a new offensive line coach to take over a unit that will turn over most of its starters from last year. Michael Carroll is the lone remaining stalwart up front, after Kam Dewberry, Jaeden Roberts and Geno VanDeMark ran out of eligibility, Parker Brailsford and Kadyn Proctor went to the NFL Draft early and Wilkin Formby transferred to Texas A&M.
Alabama
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) – Pauline Love, the new head coach of the Alabama women’s basketball team, says her late college coach, Joye Lee-McNelis, is the reason she got into coaching.
Love played for Lee-McNelis at Southern Miss, describing her as a second mother. Lee-McNelis passed away last summer after a long battle with breast cancer.
A relationship that changed her path
Love said she once told Lee-McNelis she would never go into coaching, a conversation the two laughed about often.
“I used to tell her all the time, I would never do this. I would never put up with somebody like me or I would never work for somebody like her. I was like coach, you’re crazy. We used to laugh about it all the time and she was like you’ll see one day, you’ll see,” Love said.
Love had planned to work in the tech industry. Instead, she has spent 15 years in coaching.
“She pretty much paved the way for me. There’s no way I’d be sitting here if it wasn’t for her,” Love said.
High expectations at Alabama
Love returns to Tuscaloosa after previously serving as an assistant at Alabama. She was introduced as head coach in April, and was brought to tears when she mentioned Lee-McNelis during that introduction.
Her goals for the program are clear.
“I’m going to have a passion about it. I want to bring a Final Four to the University of Alabama and make Tuscaloosa proud,” Love said.
This year’s roster includes Spring Garden’s Ace Austin, back for her sophomore season.
Love said she wants her players to know that difficult times are part of the process.
“I can say for them, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. Just learn how to figure out and fight through hard things. You gotta do something hard and fight through it and I promise you it’s rewarding at the end of it,” Love said.
Love said she also wants to be a source of support for her players off the court, the same way Lee-McNelis was for her.
“I know we always get caught up in the money part of it, but I got a group of girls that doesn’t care about that. They want to care about making the fans happy and giving them something good to watch,” Love said.
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Alabama football fans are invited to a preseason pep rally Aug. 4 at the Tuscaloosa River Market.
The pep rally is part of the annual fall kickoff event hosted by the Tuscaloosa County chapter of the University of Alabama National Alumni Association.
The family friendly event will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the River Market, 1900 Jack Warner Parkway. Tickets, which include a barbecue dinner, cost $30 for adults and $15 for children ages 8 to 12. Children 7 years old and younger will be admitted for free.
The pep rally will feature live entertainment, a silent auction and a range of family-friendly activities. There will also be a cash bar with wine and beer.
Tickets can be purchased on the chapter’s website, tuscaloosacountyuaalumni.com. Membership in the local alumni chapter is not required for attendance.
University of Alabama President Peter Mohler and UA baseball coach Rob Vaughn will be part of the festivities.
Mohler began his duties as UA president on July 21, 2025.
Before being named UA president, Mohler spent nearly 15 years at Ohio State University, where he held senior leadership roles overseeing research, innovation and economic development. He also served as OSU’s acting president, providing leadership during a pivotal period for one of the nation’s largest public universities.
Mohler earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wake Forest University and a PhD in cell and molecular physiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Duke University Medical Center before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Vaughn has been UA’s head baseball coach for three years, leading the Crimson Tide to the College Baseball World Series in 2026.
The Humble, Texas, native served as head baseball coach at Maryland for five seasons before coming to Tuscaloosa.
Vaughn played collegiate baseball at Kansas State, where his position was catcher.
Alabama begins the 2026 football season on Sept. 5 with a home game against the East Carolina Pirates. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Other Alabama home games include Florida State on Sept. 19, South Carolina on Sept. 26, Georgia on Oct. 10, Texas A&M on Oct. 24, Chattanooga on Nov. 21 and Auburn on Nov. 28.
Reach Ken Roberts at ken.roberts@tuscaloosanews.com. To support his work, please subscribe to The Tuscaloosa News.
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