Former Tusculum coaches looking for national championship with Alabama

Former Tusculum coaches Karl Scott (left) and Pete Golding are on the Alabama football staff and will be playing for a College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday (Alabama photos courtesy of UA Athletic Communications)
Former Tusculum coaches Karl Scott (left) and Pete Golding are on the Alabama football staff and will be playing for a College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday (Alabama photos courtesy of UA Athletic Communications)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. --- Two former members of the Tusculum University football staff will be coaching in Monday's College Football Playoff National Championship Game when top-ranked Alabama takes on No. 2 Clemson at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Former Tusculum assistant coaches Pete Golding and Karl Scott are coaching in their first season with the Alabama football program.  Golding serves as the Crimson Tide's co-defensive coordinator as well as inside linebackers coach while Scott is coaching the Alabama defensive secondary.

Golding spent three years (2007-2009) coaching Tusculum's defensive backs while serving as defensive coordinator in his last two campaigns with the Pioneers.  Scott served on the Tusculum staff for four seasons (2008-2011) where he assumed the duties of recruiting coordinator and mentored TU's defensive backs and linebackers.

The former Tusculum coaching duo were instrumental in Tusculum's 2008 South Atlantic Conference championship season as the Pioneers went 9-4 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II Playoffs.

After Tusculum, Golding spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator at his alma mater Delta State from 2010-2011 where he led the Statesmen to the 2010 NCAA II National Championship Game and a Gulf South Conference title.  He moved onto NCAA FCS Southeastern Louisiana for two seasons (2012-2013) as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.  He led the Lions to a school-record 11 victories and its first league title since 1961.  Southeastern moved onto the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs.  He later coached two years at Southern Mississippi (2014-2015) before taking over as defensive coordinator at NCAA-FBS University of Texas-San Antonio where he coached two years before joining the Alabama Staff in December 2017.

Scott's post-Tusculum coaching journey first took him to Southeastern Louisiana where he coached three seasons (2012-2014), serving as linebackers coach the first two years and replaced Golding as defensive coordinator in 2014.  He helped Southeastern two a pair of Southland Conference titles and two trips to the NCAA FCS Playoffs (2013, 2014).  He moved onto Louisiana Tech where he served as the safeties coach during the 2015 campaign as the Bulldogs posted a 9-4 record and finished second in the Western Division of Conference USA while winning the New Orleans Bowl.  Scott would spend the next two seasons (2016-2017) as the secondary coach at Texas Tech before being named the defensive coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette in late December 2017.

Golding and Scott have helped Alabama to a 14-0 record this year so far, winning the Southeastern Conference Championship and posted a 45-34 victory over No. 4 Oklahoma in last week's CFP National Semifinal in the Capital One Orange Bowl.  Alabama is in quest of its 18th national championship.