Football
- Title:
- Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers
- Phone:
- 205-348-3600
Josh Gattis begins his first season in Tuscaloosa after joining head coach Nick Saban's coaching staff in January of 2018 to serve as the co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Gattis brings eight years of experience to Alabama, spending six of those seasons working under James Franklin. The last four seasons, Gattis has served as the wide receivers and passing game coordinator along with leading the offensive recruiting efforts for Penn State. During his time in Happy Valley, Gattis helped the Nittany Lions secure four consecutive top-25 recruiting classes, including a pair of top-15 classes in two of the last three seasons. He was selected by Scout.com as the 2015 Big Ten Recruiter of the Year.
Gattis inherits a young and talented group of wide receivers in 2018, but must replace Calvin Ridley, who entered the NFL Draft after three successful seasons in Tuscaloosa. A trio of sophomores return to lead the way for the Tide, including Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and DeVonta Smith. Jeudy caught 14 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman in 2017 while Ruggs III caught 12 passes with a team-high six touchdowns and Smith hauled in the overtime touchdown to secure the Tide's 17th national championship.
During his time with the Nittany Lions, Gattis tutored numerous outstanding wide receivers. In 2017, senior Juwan Johnson hauled in 54 catches for 701 yards and a score while fellow senior DaeSean Hamilton led the team with 857 yards receiving and nine touchdowns. During the 2016 season, he helped Chris Godwin set the Penn State junior record for touchdown receptions with 11. During that same season, Godwin amassed 982 receiving yards on his to way to earning Second Team All-Big 10 accolades.
In 2015, Godwin and Hamilton both earned All-Big Ten accolades with Godwin catching 69 passes for 1,101 yards and five scores, while Hamilton added 45 grabs for 580 yards and six touchdowns. Hamilton also added 82 catches for 899 yards and two scores in 2014. Godwin would finish his career ranked fourth in Penn State annals for career receiving yards (2,404) and touchdowns (18), while ranking sixth in receptions at 153. Hamilton wrapped his career up in 2017, as Penn State's career leader in receptions with 215, while ranking second in receiving yards (2,842) and tied for fourth in touchdowns (18).
Prior to his time with the Nittany Lions, Gattis spent two years on the Vanderbilt staff with Franklin starting in 2012. Serving as the wide receivers coach for the Commodores, Gattis helped Jordan Matthews to All-America accolades twice. Matthews would end his career as the SEC's leader in receptions (262) and receiving yards (3,759) while also setting the single-season mark for receptions with 107 in 2013 before Alabama's Amari Cooper surpassed it a season later with 124. Matthews caught 94 passes as a junior in 2012 with 1,323 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
Before pairing up with Franklin, Gattis spent one season at Western Michigan as the wide receivers coach, where he coached Jordan White to All-America accolades in 2011. White led the NCAA in receptions with 140 while totaling 1,911 yards during that season and broke numerous Mid-American Conference receiving records.
Gattis began his coaching career as an offensive graduate assistant at North Carolina in 2010.
As a player at Wake Forest, Gattis was twice selected as an All-Atlantic Coast Conference safety in 2005 and 2006. He went on to be selected in the fifth round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Gattis spent part of the 2007 season with Jacksonville before moving on to the Chicago Bears, where he would spend the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
Gattis and his wife, Tesa, have one son, Jace, and a daughter, Reece. Gattis earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from Wake Forest in 2006.
