Even before Nick Saban promoted Tosh Lupoi to defensive coordinator, there were internal questions within the Alabama program about whether he’d be up for the job.

Lupoi, who played defensive line at Cal, had zero experience working with the defensive secondary, a critical component of Saban’s defense. Lupoi was known as a tireless worker and talented position coach during his three years as Alabama’s outside linebackers coach but there were concerns about whether he’d be up to the task in areas like situational play-calling and recognizing what an opponent is doing in-game and being able to adjust on the fly, which had been a big strength of previous Tide defensive coordinators Kirby Smart and Jeremy Pruitt.

However, Lupoi was the staff’s best recruiter -- he’s a big reason stars Tua Tagovailoa, Najee Harris and others picked Alabama -- and he was going to have interest from other programs. If Saban didn’t promote Lupoi to defensive coordinator, he was likely to lose him. And after overhauling his staff to get more aggressive on the recruiting trail following the 2017 title, Saban didn’t think he could afford to let Lupoi go.

Yet, a little more than a year after the bump in title and responsibilities, Lupoi is off to Cleveland to join Freddie Kitchens’ staff as defensive line coach. Why would Lupoi take a lesser role and what is likely a sizable pay cut after making $1.1 million this past year? It was actually a decision months in the making after early struggles as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.

It wasn’t long after Alabama’s disastrous national championship game loss to Clemson that word began spreading Lupoi was unlikely to return to Alabama next season as part of a massive staff shakeup. But the inevitable breakup didn’t happen because of one bad defensive performance on a national scale. In fact, sources had indicated to AL.com for a while that Lupoi was likely to leave for another job after the season.

After some early struggles during the season, Saban stripped Lupoi of defensive play-calling responsibilities and handed them over to co-defensive coordinator Pete Golding, according to sources. Saban had poached Golding from UT-San Antonio in the offseason in part to alleviate concerns about Lupoi’s inexperience with the secondary and as a play-caller. Still, word is Lupoi seemed overwhelmed during practices and didn’t totally grasp situational play-calling. While he was still heavily involved in the defensive game-planning, there was no question Golding taking over play-calling represented a demotion of sorts for Lupoi barely into the start of his defensive coordinator stint. Additionally, it was clear within the program how much Saban valued Golding, especially given he fended off other schools including Ole Miss in order to keep Golding at Alabama. It gave Lupoi reason enough to look for a soft landing place once Alabama’s season ended.

Moving to Cleveland allows Lupoi to focus on and coach a position he is supremely familiar and confident in after coaching the defensive line at California and Washington. He’ll get to work under a well-regarded defensive coordinator in Steve Wilks who should help continue to groom him. Despite his struggles as a first-time defensive coordinator, there is still a strong belief within the coaching community that Lupoi could be a good head coach one day.

For Alabama, Saban will have to replace his staff’s top recruiter amidst multiple other staff openings. Lupoi was incredibly popular with recruits and players and really helped Alabama have success on the West Coast, particularly in California. As long as Saban is the head coach, Alabama’s recruiting machine will keep chugging. Still, Lupoi is a sizable recruiting loss and won’t be easily replaced.

However, it was a move that had to happen. It was clear that Alabama’s defense wasn’t up to snuff this season and that reared its head in the ugly title game loss. Saban knew he needed to make an upgrade as far as defensive staffing, which is why the most recruiting-obsessed head coach in college football history seemingly didn’t fight to keep his best recruiter.