College Football news: Bill O’Brien leaving Alabama, latest on Nyckoles Harbor, more

In our college football news roundup, Bill O’Brien is headed back to the NFL, the latest on five-star Nyckoles Harbor, and more. 

For weeks, there have been rumors about Bill O’Brien heading back to the NFL to work for the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick. Now, it appears that’s finally a reality as Alabama, one of the top programs in college football will be looking for a new offensive coordinator.

The move was reported on Tuesday morning by Adam Schefter and Chris Low of ESPN.

O’Brien previously spent time as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in New England when Tom Brady was the quarterback. He became a college football head coach at Penn State before becoming head coach of the Houston Texans.

O’Brien led the Texans to numerous playoff appearances but eventually was fired and joined Alabama as the offensive coordinator. Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin both used that as a stepping stone to head coaching jobs but O’Brien, despite being rumored for openings such as Nebraska, was never a serious college football head coaching candidate.

Now, he’s headed back to New England to help save a floundering offense — one that has struggled in part because of Mac Jones’s poor development. O’Brien can work with his old pupil and Alamaba football fans can finally get the new offensive coordinator they have been wanting.

It’s a win-win.

More college football news: Nyckoles Harbor doesn’t visit Colorado

Nyckoles Harbor is probably the top college football recruit left on the board in the 2023 class and on Monday, he caused a stir by posting Boulder, Colorado.

College football fans obviously thought that Harbor was visiting Deion Sanders and Colorado but the father of Harbor said that wasn’t the case.

The five-star athlete who is 6-foot-5 and runs the 100-meter dash in under 10.3 seconds is still expected to visit Oregon this week and get in-home visits from Jim Harbaugh and others

I don’t have a crystal ball, but If I did, I would put mine in for Oregon to win this recruitment. But it’s been a tough one to predict so we’ll see.

College football commitments from Monday

Nebraska football had a busy day on Monday when it comes to college football recruiting as the Huskers landed three total commitments. One of them was from Ismael Smith Flores, a three-star tight end in the 2023 class, as well as Jeremiah Charles, an unranked WR from Texas.

Nebraska also landed the commitment of former Georgia offensive tackle Jacob Hood in the transfer portal.

There was a slew of other college football commitments on Monday but in terms of the 2023 class, only one other ranked recruit committed and that was three-star IOL Sean Na’a to Arizona State.