AD Battle explains head coach search

From what I have been told, Cohen has no interest in coming to Bama. Although he is from Tuscaloosa and his father was a professor in the law school here, he didn't play at Bama. In fact, he played at Mississippi State after transferring there from Birmingham Southern.

If Mark Calvi is our 'last resort' guy then we will be just fine.

Mickey Lake

I don't think Calvi will be a "last resort" guy. He may not be the first name on the list, but he will be far from the bottom of it. The big question is whether Calvi would come here. I would like to think that Bama is a better job than USA, but there are many who have said that Dan Heefner won't leave Dallas Baptist because he is happy there. Calvi may be in the same boat.

HolyCow said:

I like what he said about someone with head coaching experience. But not what he said about "see who you can afford". Sounds like he will hire someone like Calvi at South Alabama. Not the homerun big hire like a Cohen. We shall see.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2016/06/alabama_ad_bill_battle_explain.html#incart_river_index

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I'm sorry, but I'm just not impressed with our AD. His statement does not give me confidence.

MikeD said:

I'm sorry, but I'm just not impressed with our AD. His statement does not give me confidence.

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That AD hired Avery Johnson. Not sure where you are coming from on the confidence thing based on that statement.

TiderJ said:

That AD hired Avery Johnson. Not sure where you are coming from on the confidence thing based on that statement.

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I thought he mis-handled the basketball hire. Avery fell into his lap after he let the guy from W. State play us for a pay raise. Avery sought him out, lucky for us.

Longtime South Alabama AD Joe Gottfried described on the radio a typical coaching search. Joe said that almost always what happens once you dismiss a coach is that you start getting calls from the representatives of people interested in the job. From those calls you bring in a few guys for interviews and make a choice.

Of course, friends of the program always throw names out there, but Joe said that it was really pretty rare that you pursue a coach the way we did with Marshall, and apparently the way we found Coach Avery is more the norm than the exception. I thought it an interesting look into the business of coach-hiring.

Rtr

MikeD said:

I thought he mis-handled the basketball hire. Avery fell into his lap after he let the guy from W. State play us for a pay raise. Avery sought him out, lucky for us.

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The guy from W. State was never coming and I thought most of us figured that out. You can only roll out so much money. Anyway, my point stands that I don't how you can lose confidence based on that statement.

MikeD said:

I thought he mis-handled the basketball hire. Avery fell into his lap after he let the guy from W. State play us for a pay raise. Avery sought him out, lucky for us.

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I'll agree him going to Kansas and leaving without an answer is kinda odd, but you have to realize in the 4 major men's sports the AD at Alabama is only expected to make sure 1 of those is elite at all times. Baseball, basketball, and soccer fall into that making the tournament more often than not is good enough category. So we aren't going to throw CNS numbers at an equivalent in those sports. What we threw Marshall last year to come here was very odd. I expect pretty much a middle tier or up and coming proven coach to be our man next year.

81usaf92 said:

I'll agree him going to Kansas and leaving without an answer is kinda odd, but you have to realize in the 4 major men's sports the AD at Alabama is only expected to make sure 1 of those is elite at all times. Baseball, basketball, and soccer fall into that making the tournament more often than not is good enough category.

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I'm not sure I can completely agree with that. I mean it is true that Alabama football is expected to be elite, period and that will be a focal point, but Alabama is a top 5 athletic department in terms of revenue. Not just that, but historically they're the #2 SEC program in basketball.

To give an example, Michigan/Texas/Ohio State combine for 36 Elite 8 appearances. Alabama has 1. To look closer to home, Florida, a program that was inferior in just about every way has 8 Elite 8 appearances. Texas fired their head coach because just making the tournament every year wasn't good enough. The revenue is coming in, basketball is a revenue generating sport, the failure to properly invest in it was a mistake and shortcoming on Alabama's part, not some part of an acceptable plan. Alabama is a big time program in a big time conference, they need to be more than a one trick pony.

In terms of the baseball hire, it isn't a revenue sport, but the just made a sizable investment and with the SEC Network exposure is higher. Now is a good time to bring in someone they know can win, not just someone that might win. The situation with Alabama baseball has been crappy enough it might have kept some football players away, time to finish sorting that out. If I'm Battle, two top priorities are of right now are getting someone who can get the baseball program on the right track, and giving basketball the facilities they need. The department runs at a surplus, the best way to continue that is to continue to invest in the program.

KrAzY3 said:

I'm not sure I can completely agree with that. I mean it is true that Alabama football is expected to be elite, period and that will be a focal point, but Alabama is a top 5 athletic department in terms of revenue. Not just that, but historically they're the #2 SEC program in basketball.

To give an example, Michigan/Texas/Ohio State combine for 36 Elite 8 appearances. Alabama has 1. To look closer to home, Florida, a program that was inferior in just about every way has 8 Elite 8 appearances. Texas fired their head coach because just making the tournament every year wasn't good enough. The revenue is coming in, basketball is a revenue generating sport, the failure to properly invest in it was a mistake and shortcoming on Alabama's part, not some part of an acceptable plan. Alabama is a big time program in a big time conference, they need to be more than a one trick pony.

In terms of the baseball hire, it isn't a revenue sport, but the just made a sizable investment and with the SEC Network exposure is higher. Now is a good time to bring in someone they know can win, not just someone that might win. The situation with Alabama baseball has been crappy enough it might have kept some football players away, time to finish sorting that out. If I'm Battle, two top priorities are of right now are getting someone who can get the baseball program on the right track, and giving basketball the facilities they need. The department runs at a surplus, the best way to continue that is to continue to invest in the program.

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Not to stay on basketball on a baseball thread, but if we count accomplishments like we do in football then we are around 6th best since there are 3 teams that have a ncaa title, and 2 that have final four appearances in the SEC. Sure we can say we are 2nd in wins (behind Kentucky) but is that a real accomplishment and a real sign of progression when Coleman is voted on a consistent basis the worst arena in the SEC, and teams like MSU and LSU have final 4 appearances.

Now to baseball, under Wells we enjoyed a lot of success, and he did it with all of the disadvantages in recruiting and a dated stadium. The problem facing Alabama in baseball is that they have severe recruiting disadvantages in comparison to the rest of the SEC. To counter that we either need to throw bookuus of money at the top tier coaches until one sticks or get a great game day coach and a decent recruiter out of the middle tier of coaches. The problem with the latter is that he may have an entirety different philosophy in countering the SEC and it just doesn't work. Then we are stuck in the same place we have been under Gaspard. But my point is that there isn't too much expectations at Alabama in sports other than football, softball, gymnastics, and golf. In basketball and baseball the only expectation is to get to SEC tourney every year, and the NCAA tourney most years.

You can talk about revenue all you want you, but all I saw this year in baseball were empty season ticket holder seats in a top 5 SEC stadium,and it's one of the easiest season tickets to get in Tide Pride. Basketball is pretty easy to get as well.Softball has sold out every year since 2011, and they have the best stadium in the country. Pat Murphy has been leading the SEC in coaching salaries while Mitch Gaspard was 13th in the SEC at 300,000. Yes Gaspard got paid more, but mal went head over heels to get murph back from his week at LSU, and take into account this is before he won the title.

My point is that revenue doesn't tell the whole story, because if it did then your school ,USA, would've never had been relevant because we blow them away in revenue

TiderJ said:

The guy from W. State was never coming and I thought most of us figured that out. You can only roll out so much money. Anyway, my point stands that I don't how you can lose confidence based on that statement.

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Without going into a lot of detail, two things. One, it depends on your expectations for Bama sports. I would like to see us competitive in all sports. Using Florida as an example, they get the best coach they can for each sport and the results speak for themselves. Why not us?

Second, what is Battle's next big thing for football? We can't sit still. What major improvements does he plan? We need to stay ahead of other teams and let them play catch up to us. I have not heard of anything from him and that worries me.

One more note, if Grant did not step down I believe Battle was going to keep him. That also gives me concern.

MikeD said:

Without going into a lot of detail, two things. One, it depends on your expectations for Bama sports. I would like to see us competitive in all sports. Using Florida as an example, they get the best coach they can for each sport and the results speak for themselves. Why not us?

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Yeah, Jeremy Foley really knocked the Zook and Muschamp hires out of the water. Right? When Mal hired Grant, he was one of the top up-and-coming coaches. Sometimes the hires just don't work out.

Second, what is Battle's next big thing for football? We can't sit still. What major improvements does he plan? We need to stay ahead of other teams and let them play catch up to us. I have not heard of anything from him and that worries me.

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Really? What do you want him to announce for the football program?

One more note, if Grant did not step down I believe Battle was going to keep him. That also gives me concern.

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Grant didn't step down. He was fired. Do you mean Gaspard?

MikeD said:

Without going into a lot of detail, two things. One, it depends on your expectations for Bama sports. I would like to see us competitive in all sports. Using Florida as an example, they get the best coach they can for each sport and the results speak for themselves. Why not us?

Second, what is Battle's next big thing for football? We can't sit still. What major improvements does he plan? We need to stay ahead of other teams and let them play catch up to us. I have not heard of anything from him and that worries me.

One more note, if Grant did not step down I believe Battle was going to keep him. That also gives me concern.

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Ok Florida, LSU, fsu, and Texas are all very competitive in all sports but aren't the best at any of them for a prolonged period of time. So if you want play it like Florida then you are probably going to get the same result.

MikeD said:

Without going into a lot of detail, two things. One, it depends on your expectations for Bama sports. I would like to see us competitive in all sports. Using Florida as an example, they get the best coach they can for each sport and the results speak for themselves. Why not us?

Second, what is Battle's next big thing for football? We can't sit still. What major improvements does he plan? We need to stay ahead of other teams and let them play catch up to us. I have not heard of anything from him and that worries me.

One more note, if Grant did not step down I believe Battle was going to keep him. That also gives me concern.

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You are too worried about too many things. Like you said with the Avery hire maybe Showalter falls in our lap :wink:.

Not a million a year until he proves he can get Bama to Omaha and win the SEC. But I would get up around $600K for a proven coach. Baseball has a chance to carry its own weight when we have successful runs.