Former Alabama assistant Bo Davis will join new Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia's staff as a defensive line coach, the team announced on its official website on Friday.
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Davis spent the past season working as UT-San Antonio's defensive line coach, having left the Tide due to recruiting violations and appealing the NCAA's decision to give him a two-year show-cause.
The assistant was found by the Committee on Infractions to have "acted unethically when he provided false or misleading information about impermissible recruiting contacts" and was slapped with the order as a result.
Here's what the NCAA said about its decision in December:
However, the appellate committee noted that neither NCAA rules nor past cases consider timing other than the announcement of penalties as the start date. The committee also noted the infractions panel provided substantial leniency to the former assistant coach given that he was subject to a show cause order ranging from a minimum of five years to a maximum of 10 years with a prohibition on all athletically related duties. The infractions panel noted in its decision that this shorter show-cause penalty was due to the nature of the underlying recruiting violations and the university's swift action once the violations came to its attention.
Davis' two-year restrictions on off-campus recruiting was set to take place on April 13, 2019. The defensive line coach joined Alabama in 2007 — Nick Saban's first season with the program — and stayed with the Tide until 2010, before accepting the same position at Texas (2011-13).
He rejoined Alabama's staff in 2014, helping the Tide field one of the best defensive lines in the FBS annually, before leaving the program in 2016.
Davis made previous NFL stops working as a defensive intern with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2016) and the Miami Dolphins (2006), where he worked as an assistant defensive line coach under Saban.
