after serving as a graduate assistant under butch davis at north carolina for one season, gattis was hired as the wide receivers coach at western michigan in 2011. while on the broncos staff, he coached consensus all-american wide receiver jordan white. in 2012, he was hired by vanderbilt as wide receivers coach and offensive recruiting coordinator. wide receiver jordan matthews was awarded first-team all-sec in both years gattis was wide receivers coach at vanderbilt. gattis followed head coach james franklin as he moved from vanderbilt to penn state in 2014, and assumed the same role with the nittany lions. on january 25, 2018, it was announced he had been hired as the wide receivers coach at alabama. he served as co-offensive coordinator (with mike locksley) and wide receivers coach during the 2018 season at alabama, helping to oversee the third-highest scoring offense in the country. in his role as wide receivers coach, he oversaw jerry jeudy, who became the second consensus all-american wide-out to be coached by gattis, and first to win the biletnikoff award as the nation's best wide receiver. on january 10, 2019, gattis was hired to be the offensive coordinator at michigan.