Former KC Chiefs assistant coaches land new jobs in college ranks

A couple former coaches for, the Kansas City Chiefs have furthered their careers in the college ranks with new job announcements this week. Nick Saban announced the newest member of the University of Alabama coaching staff with the hiring of Jay Valai as the team’s new cornerbacks coach. Meanwhile over at the University of Central Florida, new head coach Gus Malzahn has brought David Gibbs on board as the team’s co-defensive coordinator.

While neither coach was a major figure on any coaching staff over the years for the Chiefs, Valai might be the more familiar name of the pair given that he was with the team most recently. He was a defensive quality coach for Andy Reid’s staff in 2018 after serving in the same role at the University of Georgia in 2016-17.

What’s interesting about Valai’s hire in Alabama is that it is his third job change in the last month. He left the University of Texas to join the Houston Cougars coaching staff just a month ago. Yet the Philadelphia Eagles were able to lure him back to the pros with Nick Sirianni’s new coaching staff. Yet that was only two weeks ago, and now Nick Saban has hired him as his own defensive backs coach.

Speaking of DB coaches, Gibbs served in that very role for the Chiefs for three full seasons—from 2006 to 2008—under head coach Herm Edwards. It was just one of many stops over the years for Gibbs in what has been a long and successful coaching career, one that has taken him all over the U.S. at both the college and pro levels. He’s coached the Denver Broncos, Houston Texans and Chiefs in the NFL, but most recently he was the cornerbacks coach for Mizzou the last two years.