Following Brown's resignation, UAB first intended to promote assistant Pat Sullivan, but the University of Alabama board of trustees blocked the promotion. UAB then had a deal in place with Jimbo Fisher, then offensive coordinator at LSU, who would eventually go on to be the head coach at Florida State. The trustees again denied UAB its desired hire. Following the scuttling of the deal with Fisher, some sportswriters, including "CBSSports.com" reporter Gregg Doyel, noted that Alabama was also looking for a new head coach at the time, adding that Fisher had served as offensive coordinator when Alabama's top candidate Nick Saban had been head coach at LSU. Doyel postulated that because of this familiarity, Alabama may have looked to hire Fisher and thus the trustees did not want UAB interfering with the potential hire and consequently impeded their coaching search.