Neil Callaway (born November 15, 1955 in Macon, Georgia) is the current head coach of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Blazers college football team, the third coach in the program's history.

Callaway, a 1974 graduate of Central High School in Macon, Georgia, played collegiately at the University of Alabama for legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant as a lineman and linebacker before graduating in 1978.

Callaway is married and has three children.

Coaching career

Callaway began his coaching career as a part of Pat Dye's staff at East Carolina University and the University of Wyoming before following Dye to Auburn University. In twelve years with Auburn, the team won a share of four Southeastern Conference titles and Callaway coached four All-Americans.

In 1993, Callaway became offensive coordinator at the University of Houston, where the team won a Conference USA title, before returning to his alma mater as offensive line coach for the Tide in 1997 and coordinator from 1998-2000. In 2001, he joined Mark Richt's staff at the University of Georgia as line coach and coordinator, where the team won three SEC division titles and two conference championships in six years there.

Callaway left Georgia in January 2007 to take the UAB head coaching position. He had not been widely linked to any other head coaching jobs, and was considered a sleeper choice by UAB. UAB was rumored to have initially offered the job to Pat Sullivan (then UAB offensive coordinator) and later to Jimbo Fisher, leading many to speculate that the UA Board of Trustees vetoed the contract offers preventing UAB from hiring more sought after coaches and instead appointing Callaway as the new head coach as a ploy to keep the program in a lower status than Alabama's own.

References

External links

• Biography from UGA
• UAB News Release