Over the next few days, BamaInsider will provide a breakdown of the Alabama coaching staff. Today we continue the series with Charles Kelly who is entering his third season as the Crimson Tide’s associate defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

Click the video above for a breakdown of Kelly. Below are five things to know about the Tide assistant.

Previous breakdowns: Saban | O’Brien | Golding | Marrone | Wiggins | Gillespie

Kelly is entering the 32nd season of his coaching career. He’s spent 13 of those years coaching in the state of Alabama in some capacity.

The Ozark, Ala. native got his start working at Central High School in Phenix City, Ala. from 1990-92 before returning to his alma mater of Auburn to serve as a graduate assistant in 1993. From there, Kelly spent the next five years at Jacksonville State where he served as a running backs coach (1994), defensive backs coach (1995), offensive coordinator (1996) and defensive coordinator (1997-98). After spending the 1999 season as the defensive coordinator at Henderson State in Arkansas, he returned to the Yellowhammer State where he served as the defensive coordinator at Eufaula High School from 2000-01.

Kelly is the son of Lavon Kelly, who coached high school football in the state of Alabama for 14 seasons compiling a 80-56-4 record. Lavon was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

“I thought it was really really important that he's an Alabama guy,” Nick Saban said during Charles Kelly’s first season at Alabama in 2019. “When I say Alabama guy, he's coached in this state, people in his family coached in this state. He knows the high school coaches in the state.”

Along with his extensive time in the state of Alabama, Kelly is also plenty familiar with coaching in the South having spent time at Georgia Tech (2006-2012), Florida State (2013-17) and Tennessee (2018). His lay of the land has come in handy for the Tide on the recruiting trail as he’s brought in several top targets to Tuscaloosa, Ala. over the last couple of years.

Kelly was the primary recruiter for Will Anderson Jr., Brian Branch, Javion Cohen and Kristian Story in the 2020 class. He followed that up by helping Alabama bring in Terrion Arnold, Anquin Barnes, Kadarius Calloway, Terrance Ferguson, Ian Jackson, Robbie Ouzts and Kaine Williams in this year’s class.

Kelly has already helped secure a pair of commits for Alabama’s 2022 class, serving as the primary recruiter for four-star running back Emmanuel Henderson as well as the secondary recruiter for four-star safety Antonio Kite.

Kelly had yet to work under Saban before joining Alabama. However, he came to the Tide already familiar with the head coach’s system.

Kelly coached linebackers and special teams at Florida State in 2013 when Jeremy Pruitt was the defensive coordinator. He also coached safeties and special teams on Pruitt’s 2018 Tennessee team before coming to Alabama. Pruitt spent multiple stints under Saban at Alabama, working as the director of player development from 2007-09 before becoming a defensive backs coach from 2010-12 and later serving as the defensive coordinator from 2016-17.

“Look, Charles Kelly was a guy that I've oftentimes considered being a coordinator here,” Saban said in 2019. “I thought Pete [Golding] did a really good job last year and should be the coordinator, but I also thought that Charles Kelly would be somebody who could do that because he's been in our system with other people, Jeremy at Florida State, Jeremy again at Tennessee. That's like having a coach that's been on our staff in terms of knowledge and experience and terminology. I just thought he was the best coach, best recruiter.”

Following the 2015 season, Kelly was a top candidate to replace Will Muschamp as the defensive coordinator at Auburn. According to a report from SBNation, Auburn was willing to offer Kelly a salary around $1.3 million to bring the then-Florida State defensive coordinator back to his alma mater. However, he rejected the advances, choosing instead to remain on Jimbo Fisher’s staff at Florida State.

Kelly was rewarded for his loyalty the following year, receiving a $250,000 raise from Florida State which bumped his annual salary up to $833,000 for the 2016 season. Kelly received a contract extension at Alabama this spring that will see him earn $825,000 per year until Feb. 28, 2023.

Kelly is primarily known for being a great defensive mind, but he has also excelled as a special teams coordinator. In fact, he’s one of just three college assistants to have coached winners of both the Lou Groza and Ray Guy Awards.

Kelly served as the special teams coordinator at Georgia Tech where he oversaw punter Durant Brooks during his Ray Guy Award-winning season in 2007. The assistant was also in charge of Florida State’s special teams unit in 2013 when kicker Roberto Aguayo took home the Lou Groza Award. The only other assistants to produce winners in both awards are Sharrieff Shah and Justin Ena, who both served as co-special teams coordinators at Utah where they coached 2016 Ray Guy Award winner Mitch Wishnowsky and 2017 Lou Groza Award winner Matt Gay.