All of the jabber on the sports talk shows regarding the opening at Alabama reminds me very much of the Notre Dame situation a couple of years ago. Granted, there are some different circumstances.....for example, ND was not coming off probation.......but the underlying theme that nobody who is anybody in coaching is interested in the job harkens back to the ND situation before Charlie was hired. Alabama is a great program with a great history, albeit marred slightly by the ill-advised conduct of a relatively few influential and over-exhuberant boosters. I can see why established coaches would not want to risk their legacies under that spotlight, similar to the ND situation. I like Alabama and I hope that they find a real good coach who ultimately will restore the program to its former greatness. I'm happy with the direction in which ND is headed under its new coach. I'm sure the same can happen at Alabama.
Sid, I don't share your optimism. The current Alabama regime has no intention of looking to the long term for the football program. We are coming out of the toughest situation we have ever been in and we gave our coach essentially one year to recover. Remember last year we were 10-2. We gave Shula a contract extension last summer. This year we didn't win and our offense stuttered in the red zone, but there were many indicators that things were looking up and we couldn't wait. We had to make a change. Any established coach would be a fool to come to Alabama. One of the guys at a mid-major may come in make a name for himself (I think whoever comes will win 7 or 8 games next year at least) and then move on. I think we screwed up when we fired Shula this year.
Hey TB, <r><QUOTE author="Terry O'Keefe"><s> </e></QUOTE> At least I have some company on my planet!</r>
Hang with it KP. The Tide will roll again. But I would think that Moore has to take a real hit on this one. PJ in Jersey
I hope you're right. I think Coach Bryant would have been fired in 1970 if the current thinking was in vogue then.
Just a word to those who keep trying to use the quote function as you can see from kp's post it doesn't work you have to do it manually. I don't know why it doesn't work but it doesn't.
The thing that has bothered me about this firing is that it is almost impossible for a team to not have a down period when they have put on a harsh probation. That is what the probation is designed to do. If you hire a guy while coming out of that situation and don't give him the time to do the job yu aren't helping your situation.
some of these people are really stupid <t>I listen to a lot of these shows on the way home from work and I can sum them up this way:<br/> <br/> Rodriguez: Fashionable hire, but winning at West Virginia doesn't prove anything.<br/> <br/> Johnson: Winning at Navy is cute, but it doesn't prove you can win at Bama<br/> <br/> Spurrier: The obvious choice, but half the Bama fans hate him so badly (usually the same half who are ok with boosters handing out money) that they are threatening to jump ship.<br/> <br/> Saban: The 'in' choice. Really the one and only choice that seems to get the 'wink and nod' reply that indicates the cat is in the bag.<br/> <br/> Bottom line, if they dont hire a Spurrier or Saban type of coach, a good number of fans just will not support the new guy if he doesn't contend for an NC right off the bat.</t>
They won't support Spurrier either if he doesn't win off the hook right away. In 2001 Florida had one of his most talented teams and they lost twice....one of those to Tenn for the SEC East championship. Let Spurrier have a great team at Bama....win a bunch of games...and then come up short vs. Auburn for the West. I'll bet that wouldn't go on for long.