Alabama’s director of sports science Matt Rhea, like most who make a pitstop in Tuscaloosa, is likely making the jump to the NFL. Sources informed Touchdown Alabama’s Stephen M. Smith that Rhea is expected to accept a position with the New Orleans Saints.
The news was first reported by Josh Pate of 247Sports.
Last week Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reported the Saints had interest in acquiring both Rhea and David Ballou, who serves as Alabama’s strength and conditioning coach.
As of right now, Ballou is expected to remain with the Crimson Tide and possibly indicated his decision last week as he tweeted #RollTide.
Shortly following the reports, Rhea confirmed his departure from Alabama with a statement to social media thanking the university.
“Love my Alabama guys and grateful to Coach Saban for the experience,” Rhea said in his statement. “They won’t even notice I’m gone but what an experience for me! Looking ahead to new challenges but I’ll be cheering for (Alabama football) this fall.”
Love my Alabama guys and grateful to Coach Saban for the experience. They won’t even notice I’m gone but what an experience for me! Looking ahead to new challenges but I’ll be cheering for @AlabamaFTBL this fall. #RollTide
— Matt Rhea, PhD (@MattRheaPhD) March 1, 2022
Rhea and Ballou both arrived at Alabama in March of 2020 in hopes to give the Crimson Tide a more scientific approach to injury prevention and strength training. By any metric, the two succeeded as both were consistently praised by head coach Nick Saban as well as the rest of the team throughout their tenure in Tuscaloosa. Saban himself highlighted that soft tissue injuries took a significant decrease during Ballou and Rhea’s short time together at Alabama.
“Last year our injuries we down by about 50%, soft tissue injuries,” Saban said during the 2021 SEC Media Days. “We increased explosive movement by almost 5%, which we had not done for several years.”
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