Former FB Kyle Bennett speaks about Fran and Shula on local radio show.

Bamabuzzard · Feb 5, 2015

Kyle Bennett was a special guest on the local sports talk radio show here in Shreveport. He is the owner of Kabco Builders and used to play for the university from 2002-2005. His spot was supposed to be about his business and promoting it. But once they found out he used to play for the University of Alabama it went from promoting Kabco Builders to him answering questions about his time at Alabama under Fran and Shula.

Regarding Fran- He said he was "a great coach but a horrible person". He recalled the first day of practice during his freshman year where he lined up with the wrong group for warm ups. He said he didn't realize his name was "Red headed m'effer". Which is what Fran called him for not lining up with the right group. He said the day Carl Torbush told them that Fran had left during the night to leave for aTm. Jarrett Johnson went nuts and went through and tore down every picture of fran and smashed it. He said Jarrett Johnson was a bad, bad dude. Not someone you mess with.

Regarding Shula- Put simply "Just a bad coach". He gave kudos to Shula for being a good person but he said he didn't know what he was doing as a HC.

I thought it was interesting to hear from a player's perspective about those years. He was asked had Coach Saban surpassed Coach Bryant in Tuscaloosa among the "new school" generation. He said "No but if he wins a few more NC's all bets are off."

AlistarWills · Feb 5, 2015

Bamabuzzard said:
He said Jarrett Johnson was a bad, bad dude. Not someone you mess with.

Which is probably why he was able to function in the NFL for so long.

Bamabuzzard · Feb 5, 2015

AlistarWills said:
Which is probably why he was able to function in the NFL for so long.

Yeah, he talked a bit about JJ and said he's the dude on the field that if you were under the pile you wanted him on your team. Because if you weren't he basically was going to kill you. LOL!

Capstone46 · Feb 5, 2015

I certainly agree that Shula was/is a good person but there is no doubt he was in a tough spot as a head coach for which he hadn't been well prepared. I had some good friends on his staff and it was a tough situation for all.

UAinAthens · Feb 5, 2015

I think Shula's record speaks for himself. He's a very good QB coach, average at best OC, and a poor HC. But no question a great person. Its sad it worked out the way it did, because he basically took one for the school during his tenure given the way and reason he was hired, but no question he had to go in the long run, just flat out over his head as HC.

bamaslammer · Feb 5, 2015

I spoke to a player who played during that era. He had nothing negative to say about Franchione or Shula except that he wasn't happy with how Franchione left. He did mentioned that there were some very bad people on the team during that span, people that he described as "not belonging on a college campus".

jthomas666 · Feb 5, 2015

Bamabuzzard said:
Yeah, he talked a bit about JJ and said he's the dude on the field that if you were under the pile you wanted him on your team. Because if you weren't he basically was going to kill you. LOL!

Supposedly during pre-draft interviews, an assistant coach wanted to see what kind of fire JJ had, and went in and starting pushing JJ's buttons. JJ almost put him through a wall.

Bamabuzzard · Feb 5, 2015

jthomas666 said:
Supposedly during pre-draft interviews, an assistant coach wanted to see what kind of fire JJ had, and went in and starting pushing JJ's buttons. JJ almost put him through a wall.

Yeah, you could tell when Bennett was talking about JJ that he wasn't just talking about a "tough guy". But someone that didn't mind going to the point where he could really hurt somebody. Perfect fit for the NFL. LOL!

IM4UA · Feb 5, 2015

jthomas666 said:
Supposedly during pre-draft interviews, an assistant coach wanted to see what kind of fire JJ had, and went in and starting pushing JJ's buttons. JJ almost put him through a wall.

I believe he was interviewed at the Senior Bowl and one of the scouts told him that the general consensus in the league was that Alabama players were soft. JJ took a bit of offense to that and got a bit heated. The scout then went on to say they were just making certain he had a mean streak.

tidefanbeezer · Feb 5, 2015

UAinAthens said:
I think Shula's record speaks for himself. He's a very good QB coach, average at best OC, and a poor HC. But no question a great person. Its sad it worked out the way it did, because he basically took one for the school during his tenure given the way and reason he was hired, but no question he had to go in the long run, just flat out over his head as HC.

I often wonder how Shula's career would have unfolded had Alabama not been his first HC gig. He was clearly unprepared for Alabama, but I wonder if he'd followed the OC to mid-major HC route, would things have turned out differntly?

BigEasyTider · Feb 5, 2015

The stories of Johnson trashing the Fran-related stuff at the UA football complex are true and were pretty well publicized at the time all of this went down.

Johnson was, and is, just a tremendous competitor, definite fire-in-the-belly type. He's a pretty marginal guy by NFL standards, yet he has played 12 years in the league (and still counting) and has a Super Bowl ring to boot. You don't do that with some unreal drive and dedication.

gtgilbert · Feb 5, 2015

UAinAthens said:
I think Shula's record speaks for himself. He's a very good QB coach, average at best OC, and a poor HC. But no question a great person. Its sad it worked out the way it did, because he basically took one for the school during his tenure given the way and reason he was hired, but no question he had to go in the long run, just flat out over his head as HC.

Agree with most of this, but I give Shula a lot of credit for at least stabilizing the situation. We didn't have a whole lot of options, but when mama called, he came home and did the best job he could with the cards he was dealt, which were pretty bad.

Jessica4Bama · Feb 5, 2015

BigEasyTider said:
The stories of Johnson trashing the Fran-related stuff at the UA football complex are true and were pretty well publicized at the time all of this went down.

Johnson was, and is, just a tremendous competitor, definite fire-in-the-belly type. He's a pretty marginal guy by NFL standards, yet he has played 12 years in the league (and still counting) and has a Super Bowl ring to boot. You don't do that with some unreal drive and dedication.

Who did he win a ring with?

Bamabuzzard · Feb 5, 2015

Jessica4Bama said:
Who did he win a ring with?

I think the Ravens.

Special K · Feb 5, 2015

Jessica4Bama said:
Who did he win a ring with?

No one. The Ravens won it in 2000 (before he got there) and in 2012 (after he went to the Chargers).

BigEasyTider · Feb 5, 2015

Jessica4Bama said:
Who did he win a ring with?

Ah, you're right, I forgot that he left Baltimore the year before they won it all.

TiderJack · Feb 5, 2015

Bamabuzzard said:
Yeah, you could tell when Bennett was talking about JJ that he wasn't just talking about a "tough guy". But someone that didn't mind going to the point where he could really hurt somebody. Perfect fit for the NFL. LOL!

Good stuff Buzzard. I still think our D-line with JJ, Antwan Odom, Kenny King and Kendall Moorehead was our best ever. All had good NFL careers also and JJ is still active.

CHATTBRIT · Feb 5, 2015

Capstone46 said:
I certainly agree that Shula was/is a good person but there is no doubt he was in a tough spot as a head coach for which he hadn't been well prepared. I had some good friends on his staff and it was a tough situation for all.

Shula did his job which was to caretake Alabama football until the end of the prohibitive schollie reduction and/or probation. I, too, believe Shula is a good person and was ideal for this scenario -- someone who not disgrace the university (a la previous Mikes) and who would keep the seat warm until a top coach would take the job. When it became known Saban was unhappy in the pros, it was a no brainer that steps would be taken to get him to T Town.

KrAzY3 · Feb 5, 2015

Bamabuzzard said:
Regarding Shula- Put simply "Just a bad coach". He gave kudos to Shula for being a good person but he said he didn't know what he was doing as a HC. "

This was so obvious from the start. Alabama had about 5 quarters of play in which I held out some false hope that he might actually be an adequate coach, otherwise one could tell he didn't even know some basic stuff in regards to coaching college football. I don't think things would have worked out well for Croom or that he was the best option, but I never understood the justification for choosing Shula over Croom. Shula had no business being hired and you could have basically thrown darts at a list of unemployed coaches and done better.

It wasn't like he was a great recruiter or what not, even people defending him can't seem to find anything better to say than he was a nice guy. It was a slight to hire him over Croom, he had a better resume. I don't see how one compared the two and decided Shula was the better candidate. That's always bothered me.

TideEngineer08 · Feb 5, 2015

Are we going to do this again? Shula was not a nice guy at all. This is well documented by highly regarded folks on this message board. You don't treat players the way he did if you're a "nice guy."

He was a bad coach, and a bad person. But, carry on the belief that he was a good guy that answered "mama's call" in her time of need if you must. Frankly, I wish he never would have coached at Alabama, and we could remember him as the QB that led the comebacks against Georgia and Auburn in 1985.

Former FB Kyle Bennett speaks about Fran and Shula on local radio show.

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