They have duties similar to graduate assistants, but without having to juggle all that school work. They have titles such as quality control coach, administrative assistant and analyst. Analyst was Steve Sarkisian’s job at Alabama until a week before the biggest game of the season when he was promoted to offensive coordinator .

The former Southern California coach will be calling plays for the Crimson Tide, replacing Lane Kiffin when No. 1 Alabama (14-0) faces Clemson (13-1) on Monday in the College Football Playoff national championship game.

”We’d still watch a lot of tape, still try to game plan, then offer up as much advice as I could to the game plan, then to the coaches,” Sarkisian said Saturday. ”Then it was more sit back and analyze how we were performing.”

The NCAA allows just nine coaches to directly instruct players on the field during practice and games. Four graduate assistant coaches are also permitted. Those spots are generally held by aspiring coaches and they must be working on a graduate degree. They are allowed to work with players at practice and be on the field during games, but the bulk of their work is in the film room.

At powerhouse schools such as Alabama and Clemson support staffs have grown in recent years to include coaches who don’t carry whistles. Sarkisian, who was fired by USC during the 2015 season, was hired by Alabama coach Nick Saban as an analyst earlier this year.

Former New Mexico coach Mike Locksley, who was most recently the offensive coordinator at Maryland, is also an offensive analyst for Alabama. As is Charlie Weis Jr., the son of the former Notre Dame and Kansas coach, and former Crimson Tide offensive lineman William Vlachos. Dean Altobelli, a former Michigan attorney who played for Saban at Michigan State, has been a defensive analyst at Alabama since 2010.

They generally make about $45,000 per year, at least at the start. Clemson’s senior analysts make up to $90,000.

”You want to talk about the lifeblood of the operational football part, the X and Os part?” Alabama offensive line coach Mario Cristobal said. ”They are essential and critical.”

Alabama has nine analysts on staff. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has five analysts, including senior offensive analyst Mickey Conn and defensive analyst Kyle Richardson.

Derrick Ansley was a graduate assistant for Saban in 2010 and `11 and rejoined the staff this season as defensive backs coach. He said many of the duties of a graduate assistant are similar to what analysts do. The analysts just have more time to do them.

”When I was a GA I had to break down the entire offensive opponent,” Ansley said. ”The details that we put into it is kind of what separates us a little bit.”

What does an opponent run on third-and-4 or more? Against a four-man front? Against a three-man front? How about on third-and-3 or less? In the red zone? In their own end? All that type of information is gathered and given to position coaches, coordinators and the head coach.

”He’s watching it all, but you come in and give him a little something he may have missed because you’re studying that,” Ansley said.

Alabama wide receiver Gehrig Dieter is a graduate transfer from Bowling Green. After spending two seasons at the Mid-American Conference school and one at SMU before that, Dieter could see the benefit of all the additional input.

”There’s so many people on our staff any time you have a question it kind of gets answered,” Dieter said. ”Not that it doesn’t at Bowling Green, but you just have so many eyes on you at all times so you kind of get the most accurate answers possible.”

The other benefit comes when it is time to hit the recruiting trail. Only the nine full-time assistants can recruit.

”We get done playing Florida in the SEC championship game, immediately we’re on the road recruiting,” Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt said. ”Well, somebody’s got to be breaking down Washington, Ohio State, Clemson. Those guys do a job from a breakdown standpoint so when you walk in they can hand it to it you and say, `Hey, this is kind of what these guys do.”’

Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said the Tigers’ analysts are as involved in the game plans as any staffer and their input during games can be vital.

”The great thing about it is they’re just an extension of your eyes,” Elliott said. ”They understand what the game plan is. They understand what the adjustments are. They understand the things that cause us problems.”

Ultimately, all these extra staffers give programs such as Alabama and Clemson more people to do more tasks more efficiently.

”Manpower,” Ansley said.

And brainpower.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

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More college football coverage: http://collegefootball.ap.org/ and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25

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The Trojans were able to sign a full 25-man recruiting class in February after three years of NCAA sanctions. Add in four blueshirts – non-recruited walk-ons who can receive scholarships on the second day of fall camp – and even second-year coach Steve Sarkisian struggled to keep track of everyone.

”It was fun to see a lot of our new players. It was hard to see them all, there’s a lot of them going at one time,” Sarkisian said Saturday.

Many of those newcomers will be counted on to contribute immediately for a team that was picked to win the Pac-12 Conference in the preseason media poll.

The most glaring need is at tight end. Oklahoma transfer Taylor McNamara and freshman Tyler Petite are trying to bolster a position that returns just one scholarship player in junior Jalen Cope-Fitzpatrick, who was held out of practice to focus on summer school after missing last season because of academics.

Freshmen could also be factors on the defensive line and in the secondary and at running back, where Ronald Jones, Aca’Cedric Ware, and Dominic Davis all caught the eye of senior quarterback Cody Kessler.

”Those guys are just so athletic,” Kessler said. ”I told Sark, `We got some weapons.’ For their first day, they did way above what they probably should have done as freshmen, which is really cool.”

But even at spots where USC has the necessary compliment of players, such as linebacker or on the offensive line, the benefits of added depth were obvious. The increase in talent across the roster resulted in a noticeably more competitive and energetic practice compared to those in Sarkisian’s first season under the yoke of sanctions. Players could go all out and then sub out.

Kessler said walk-on tight end Connor Spears didn’t know what to do with himself after seeing almost every rep in spring practice.

Sarkisian expects those benefits to carry over into the season, where USC will be more capable of handling injuries and better prepared by facing a more talented scout team in practice every day.

”It just feels so different,” Sarkisian said. ”The depth is great, but it’s the quality of the depth … We’re getting the right types of bodies, we’re getting the right types of competitors.”

”You could tell the difference in our legs,” linebacker Su’a Cravens said. ”There was a lot more movement on the field with all these guys running around out here.”

Cornerback Adoree Jackson will limit his running to the defensive side of the ball for the first 11 practices, Sarkisian said, allowing the multi-faceted sophomore to focus as the defense is installed before moving over to wide receiver.

”Once we get through that, those first two weeks, then he’s just going to have to do what he did last year where in practice he’s going to kind of flip back and forth,” Sarkisian said.

Jackson played on offense, defense, and special teams in eight games last season, tallying 49 tackles, three touchdown receptions, and two touchdowns on kick returns to earn Freshman All-America honors.

Jackson also hopes to add Olympian to his resume after winning the Pac-12 title in the long jump and earning All-America honors after finishing fifth at the NCAA Championships, already declaring his intentions to do everything possible to make the U.S. team for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

”If I put my mind to it, that’s a dream of mine and I feel like I can work my way into going to the qualifying and the trials and trying to make the team,” Jackson said.

That quest would almost certainly force Jackson to give up workouts and spring practice with the USC football team next year to focus on track and field, a subject he has yet to broach with Sarkisian after doing both this past spring.

”I got to talk to Sark about that one,” Jackson said. ”Hopefully the season goes great for us so Sark doesn’t have no decisions like this year.”

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