Kyle Flood was just promoted to a senior assistant role last week, taking on the suddenly critical role of game clock management for a coaching staff accused of being lousy at both of those things. Now it appears the Falcons might need to find another coach to take on that role, because Flood may be heading to Alabama.

Flood, the former Rutgers head coach who left a wrecked program in his wake, had joined Steve Sarkisian’s staff as an assistant offensive line coach in 2017 and spent two years in Atlanta. The Falcons’ promotion of the man made perfect sense in the context of his long experience as a coach and past experience as a head coach, albeit at the college level. While that is a promotion of sorts, it’s apparently not one that Flood finds so attractive that he won’t consider other opportunities.

Ex-Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood has emerged as a name to keep an eye on for Alabama's offensive line coach job, per sources. Interviewed in Tuscaloosa yesterday. https://t.co/OQ7meVJTLn — Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 15, 2019

The opportunity in question would be joining Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Alabama. Sark was lured away from Alabama to become Atlanta’s offensive coordinator, and after being fired he’s heading back to resume the old position he held for one game. Flood would reportedly become his offensive line coach at Alabama, getting him back in college and in one of the programs likely to serve as a springboard to something bigger and better going forward. His reasons for taking that job, while not exactly out in the open, are fairly obvious.

If this does happen, it leaves Atlanta in the lurch for a position fans and the team alike identified as a vital one for Dan Quinn. DQ’s in-game management is as bad or worse than a lot of other head coaches in the NFL, and having someone on staff to help with his worst in-game tendencies was going to be a real boon. The Falcons will presumably fill that position with someone else, either currently on staff or outside the building, but it means re-starting a search they thought was settled. At the very least, that’s a pain.

We’ll see if Flood accepts the position or not, but brace yourself for an unexpected change to the coaching staff.