Yes, Alabama and their fans have egg on their face right now. We were caught with our pants down around our ankles. But it's easy to kick someone when they are down. I don't expect anything less of the Auburn posters in this thread. If the shoe was on the other foot, I'm sure that there would be a lot of Alabama fans piling on them. The comments that are made about "living in the 1950's" or "the Bear is not coming back" are tired and have been run into the ground. The majority of Alabama fans are passionate about their team just like fans from Tennessee, Notre Dame, USC, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc. I'm sure if you looked under a few rocks at each of those schools you will find delusional fans as well. There is nothing wrong with demanding the best of your coaches. Do I expect Alabama to win 10+ games a year? No... but I expect them to be competitive every time they step onto the field. Coaches today are paid an obscene amount of money to win. That's the nature of the business. If you can't win, there are plenty of deep pocketed fat-cat boosters out there who are more than happy to pull the strings behind the scenes. If you look at Alabama's football coaches since Coach Bryant passed away, in my opinion, the only one that was "run off" was Bill Curry. Ray Perkins took over when Coach Bryant retired but couldn't handle the pressure. I don't know who could? He was replacing a man who had reached god-like status, had won numerous national and conference championships. Hell, he was the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history. Bill Curry came over from Georgia Tech and that was strike one against him in the eyes of many 'Bama fans. Georgia Tech had been a member of the SEC at one time and the rivalry between the two schools was very heated. All Curry did was win one more game in 3 years than Coach Bryant did. He delivered an SEC Championship in 1989, the first in almost ten years. Strike two against him was that he was not Bobby Bowden who as rumor has it was signed, sealed and delivered, but someone in the Athletic Department screwed that up. Strike three was that Curry couldn't beat Auburn, and that was his ultimate downfall. Enter Gene Stallings in 1990. Although he got off to a rocky start, he elevated Alabama football to where it had once been in the late 1970's. Unfortunately, the way the stories are told is that he and the old AD disliked one another and Stallings retired after the 1996 season. In my opinion, the worst mistake Alabama could have made was hiring Mike Dubose in 1997. He played for Coach Bryant in the early 1970's and was a coach on Stallings' staff. Dubose had an affair with one of the football secretaries (Auburn people know what that's all about, right Coach Terry Bowden?) and ultimately was the man who was responsible for the NCAA probation levied against the Tide. Dennis Franchione was hired in 2001 and seemed like a great hire. Apparently he didn't know what he was getting himself into. Coaching at Alabama, as most places in the South, is unlike any other place. You can't go out in public without getting hounded for autographs and picture requests. You are more popular than the governor of the state! Alumni groups want you for speaking engagements, golf outings, etc. He should have realized he wasn't in Kansas anymore, or TCU, or New Mexico for that matter. He left the Capstone... he was not fired. He couldn't handle the pressure, plain and simple. Mike Price was hired to take over in 2003 and appeared to be a good hire. He was energetic and embraced the history and tradition of the university. Apparently he also embraced the bottle as well! While I think he should have been retained, he did publicly embarrass the university and would have made recruiting delicate to say the least in the bible belt. Enter Mike Shula. No head coaching experience, but he was an alumnus and let's face it, Alabama wasn't going to get a "name" hire. I have mixed emotions about Shula being fired. He came in to a very difficult situation. Although he was hired in May, he did not get to institute his offense until two a days in August. Price had brought his West Coast offense with him and was able to institute it during Spring Football. Shula saw us through a tough time, but the bottom line is there was no improvement after four years. He was 4-9, 6-6, 10-2, 6-6. You could see the deer in the headlights look after every game. He was not willing to make necessary changes to his coaching staff when they needed to be made. 'Bama will be back, if not this year, then next year. We are down, but not out. Nobody was up in arms when Bob Davie was shown the door after 5 years at ND, or Tyrone Willingham after 3 years. But that's ok, Alabama football is about PRIDE, HONOR and TRADITION. Roll Tide Roll.
