William Inge, who formerly worked at Washington as an assistant coach under new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, was hired by UT as the linebackers coach yesterday, according to Austin Price of On3’s Volquest. It was reported that Inge and Deboer were on their way to Tuscaloosa to coach outside linebackers, but for whatever reason, the agreement appeared to fall through.
Inge became the second coach in as many days to decide against working under DeBoer at Alabama after offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb accepted a similar position with the Seattle Seahawks a few days prior. Three coaches have departed DeBoer’s staff since his hiring on January 12th: Scott Huff, the former offensive line coach for Washington and the current offensive line coach for Alabama, also left with Grubb. Unless the city in question is Tuscaloosa, Alabama, nobody wants to see it burn. DeBoer appears to have brought the tinder from Seattle, so bring some accelerant.
The fifty-year-old Inge is a native of Missouri and has coached at many different levels throughout his career. After his playing career ended in 1998, he began working as a graduate assistant and recruiting coordinator at Iowa (four years at Iowa and one year with the Titans as a DE).
After two seasons with the Hawkeyes, he spent the next three with Northern Iowa, where he played his final season as a co-DC. He worked as a coach at five different places between 2006 and 2015, spending a year as Buffalo’s DC and another year as the Bills’ assistant defensive line coach.
From 2013 to 2019, Indiana was the school where he spent the most time, and it seems that there, he moved down the coaching hierarchy rather than up. He spent two years in that role after being hired as a co-DC and LB coach. Subsequently, he worked for a year in each role—special teams and linebacker coach—before spending a year exclusively on LB coaching and a final season on special teams coaching alone.
Inge started working as the STs coach under DeBoer’s direction during his last season at Indiana, where DeBoer was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. After following DeBoer during his time at Fresno State, Inge joined him when he was hired as the Huskies’ head coach in October 2021. Inge was elevated to associate head coach, co-DC, and LBs coach at Washington.
The defense was 79th nationally in points allowed per game in 2010 at Buffalo, his second season as a co-DC, but the first season for which I could locate team stats. Despite this, the defense ended the season well, allowing only 21 points in the club’s final three games. Compared to the previous year, when Buffalo placed 56th in the NCAA in scoring defense, that 30.4 points allowed represented a five-point improvement.
Inge’s debut season as Indiana’s co-DC in 2013 saw the Hoosiers finish 113th in scoring defense, allowing close to 40 points per game. The next season, the team improved to 108th in the country with little under 35 points allowed. Inge’s tenure as a co-DC ended in 2015, and Indiana’s performance continued to deteriorate. With about 37 points given up per game, it was 106th in the NCAA in terms of points allowed.
Inge’s defense gave up 30 points per game during his first stint under DeBoer in 2020, and the team finished the season ranked 66th in the US, one spot ahead of Tennessee. The following season, State made significant progress, placing 20th in the FBS and surrendering only 21 points per game overall—just 14 in the last three games.
The defense placed 65th (27.5 PPG) and 54th (24.8 PPG) while they were at Washington.
Now, I realize that opponents’ points per game isn’t the ultimate yardstick for assessing defenses, and because Inge isn’t the defensive coordinator, it’s unfair to hold him to the standard set by the success of the defenses he oversaw. Although tackles for loss are more difficult to discover overall, as an LB coach, I believe they are a better signal.
He is the main or secondary recruiter for 33 prospects ranked as 3-stars or better by 247Sports. Given that he was born and raised in the Midwest, he has signed a number of players from that region. However, in addition to signing two of the top-five rated athletes from California, he has also ventured into Florida and Georgia.
Although it’s too soon to tell how Inge will do at Tennessee, it’s encouraging that Heupel and Banks didn’t only search inside the usual “boxes” when making this hire. I’m more concerned about whether or not their recruitment will translate to the SEC than I am about the coaching abilities of Inge and RB coach De’Rail Sims, who were both hired yesterday. I believe that when Jerry Mack was hired, we also had similar reservations.
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