Shula Documentary: Makes you think a little.

[graydogg85]

I was a long-time Shula supporter because:
— He took the job in a tough time
— He was dealt some tough circumstances beyond his control
— We didn’t have to worry about him understanding the lack of privacy that comes with the job. He’d grown up in a similar fishbowl, and understood the turf.

I finally had to break ranks because of the kowtowing to Brodie and his dad. Blasphemy, I know, but for all his generational work with troubled youth, John wasn’t blameless in the career management of Brodie.



Agreed on the loyalty to underperforming staff. But a lot of that came from his dad. Don and David Shula left scorched earth in Cleveland when David washed out as the Browns GM.

Don and Mike burned bridges in Tuscaloosa, then dropped nukes at the bases of each bridge, then broke up the melted glass and sowed salt 6 feet down. As the country song says, when you leave like that, you can’t come back.

Point of all that being, Mike listened to his dad too much. In hindsight, he’d never even been a coordinator, let alone a head coach. So listening to Don Shula should have been great career advice. Unfortunately it wasn’t, and Mike couldn’t possibly have had the chops to recognize that.

With the admitted benefit of 20+ years of hindsight:
— Shula would never publicly embarrass the program,
— He was a good QB coach, slightly overmatched as an OC, and hopelessly out of his depth as a HC of one of the top programs in the country.
— He was asked to do something that he simply wasn’t ready to do.
— He listened too much to somebody who should have provided sage counsel, but instead acted more like a helicopter dad.

I will conclude with a quote from someone I can’t name, but who had first-hand knowledge of the decision to fire Shula: “It was a sad decision. But it wasn’t a hard one.”

I agree, I was a major supporter of his for a long time….but eventually I heard too much that was going on behind the scenes and it became obvious about midway through the 2006 season that he’d lost the team.

He was a heck of a QB coach though, I thought our QBs punched above their weight during his tenure and JPW actually regressed in 2007. Cam Newton’s best stint in the pros came under Shula’s tutelage. I never thought he was a bad Xs and Os guy, just all the stuff going on in the background really hindered his on-field coaching ability. I remember hearing that Shula, Dave Rader and Sparky Woods would get into shouting matches over the headsets on which play to call and the QB would just have to check into a default play because they couldn’t get it signaled in time…..

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

I was a long-time Shula supporter because:
— He took the job in a tough time
— He was dealt some tough circumstances beyond his control
— We didn’t have to worry about him understanding the lack of privacy that comes with the job. He’d grown up in a similar fishbowl, and understood the turf.

I finally had to break ranks because of the kowtowing to Brodie and his dad. Blasphemy, I know, but for all his generational work with troubled youth, John wasn’t blameless in the career management of Brodie.



Agreed on the loyalty to underperforming staff. But a lot of that came from his dad. Don and David Shula left scorched earth in Cleveland when David washed out as the Browns GM.

Don and Mike burned bridges in Tuscaloosa, then dropped nukes at the bases of each bridge, then broke up the melted glass and sowed salt 6 feet down. As the country song says, when you leave like that, you can’t come back.

Point of all that being, Mike listened to his dad too much. In hindsight, he’d never even been a coordinator, let alone a head coach. So listening to Don Shula should have been great career advice. Unfortunately it wasn’t, and Mike couldn’t possibly have had the chops to recognize that.

With the admitted benefit of 20+ years of hindsight:
— Shula would never publicly embarrass the program,
— He was a good QB coach, slightly overmatched as an OC, and hopelessly out of his depth as a HC of one of the top programs in the country.
— He was asked to do something that he simply wasn’t ready to do.
— He listened too much to somebody who should have provided sage counsel, but instead acted more like a helicopter dad.

I will conclude with a quote from someone I can’t name, but who had first-hand knowledge of the decision to fire Shula: “It was a sad decision. But it wasn’t a hard one.”

I had heard similar from someone who was close to the program and also played there.............who knows where he would have been with different coordinators/staff. Burning the bridges wasnt a smart move but not surprising

 

[bamamc1]

Yeah no retrospective about the 2011 or 2012 teams. or even a retrospective about 2nd and 26. But lets talk about this. LOL

Well, I

of all the Bama stories to tell, that one wouldn’t have made the top 100 of me wanting a deeper dive.

What‘a next - “LSU - The DiNardo Years”?
“Arkansas - Big Bert”?
“Vandy - The 70’s”?

I apologize for posting something that I thought some might want to read and discuss.

 

[STONECOLDSABAN]

Well, I

I apologize for posting something that I thought some might want to read and discuss. Jesus.

I was actually talking in terms of the people who made the video. Not so much you posting it here. Al.com loves to drag up bad memories when it comes to Bama football. My post came out way harsher than I meant for it to sound. My bad.

 

[CajunCrimson]

Well, I

I apologize for posting something that I thought some might want to read and discuss. Jesus.

Lol. Not criticizing the post. Just confused as to why chose that era of Bama football.

you read way too much into that post

 

[CrimsonTheory]

His greatest game he coached I feel is the one where they shellacked Urban and Florida............But his loyalty to his staff was a problem when they couldnt cut the mustard

Two words: Tyrone Protho.

 

[Crimson1967]

I’m guessing that hiring the Dolphins coach didn’t help matters in dealing with Team Shula.

I hate that the whole situation left bad feelings for someone who should be remembered as a hero on the field. But that’s part of the game. If Bryant had sucked when he came here and got fired in 1962 I doubt he would’ve had good feelings about “Momma”.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

I supported Shula until issues other than losses became apparent. In fact I was one of the last Crimson Kool-Aid drinkers. I'll just say he is not HC material and leave it there..

 

[CrimsonNagus]

The documentary. Told us nothing new, no new light on anything, same as we already knew. Mike Shula was the coach we needed at the time. I wish no ill will toward him. Was he a good coach? No. But he was a Bama man, when a Bama man was what was needed . His daddy was the problem for me in the end.

Thanks for this post, you saved me from wasting my time. First, it's AL.com, I don't expect quality, in depth journalism from AL.com. Second, I have a hard time calling a 13 minute video a documentary. Good documentaries take that long to set the stage for the subject they are about to explore.

So what we have here sounds like a typical YT video that just regurgitates information we already know, probably with a few ads thrown in for monetization.

 

[We_are_Bama]

Shula was far from innocent. Let's not forget that textbook gate happened under his watch and Saban was left to deal with the fallout that got our probation extended for a few more years, plus any wins from any of the games that those players played in had to be forfeited, including even some of Saban's in 2007. Thank goodness Saban is who he is and knew how to navigate us through that mess that could have been much worse.

 

[Cruloc]

I think my favorite part of the video.....the very end.......great hopeful season and then Jamarcus Russell laser throw TD (I was at that game) and the honk if sacked Brody........yeah, the Shula years, nevermind.

No hard feelings for Shula as a man, but I remember the futility of his offenses against any defense with a pulse. I remember that Florida game in 2005 not as an epic beat down, but Prothro's horrible injury. I remember the post game Shula shows.....and his press conferences......all I ever remember him saying is "for sure"

I remember Joe Kines and "we gotta stop the inside trap" game after Shula was gone in the Independence Bowl against Oklahoma State.

 

[We_are_Bama]

An odd, yet interesting tidbit. The loss to Clemson in the 2018 national championship game was worse than any loss suffered in the Shula era (in point margin) and team performance that night sank far below even the lowest point of the Shula era.

 

[STONECOLDSABAN]

I think my favorite part of the video.....the very end.......great hopeful season and then Jamarcus Russell laser throw TD (I was at that game) and the honk if sacked Brody........yeah, the Shula years, nevermind.

No hard feelings for Shula as a man, but I remember the futility of his offenses against any defense with a pulse. I remember that Florida game in 2005 not as an epic beat down, but Prothro's horrible injury. I remember the post game Shula shows.....and his press conferences......all I ever remember him saying is "for sure"

I remember Joe Kines and "we gotta stop the inside trap" game after Shula was gone in the Independence Bowl against Oklahoma State.

I got a soft spot for joe Kines. He was criticized because of 03 but he ended up being the only thing that kept us competitive in games from 04-06.

looking back it’s no wonder he struggled in 03. Bama lost a lot of talent from a salty and veteran 02 defense, He basically had to learn how to operate under two different bosses in one offseason. He Practiced against one kind of Offense all spring and then a different one in fall camp. That sounds good on paper but in execution can lead to problems.

 

[BamaMoon]

Shula was far from innocent. Let's not forget that textbook gate happened under his watch and Saban was left to deal with the fallout that got our probation extended for a few more years, plus any wins from any of the games that those players played in had to be forfeited, including even some of Saban's in 2007. Thank goodness Saban is who he is and knew how to navigate us through that mess that could have been much worse.

I forget all the details but wasn't the text book thing much to do about nothing? Considering Scam and 180K, it was nothing!

 

[bamacpa]

I think good teams back then didn't so much try to beat us as wait for us to make critical mistakes to lose at crunch time.

 

[TideEngineer08]

I don't care how difficult the circumstances were.

His actions, or inaction, made them all MORE difficult.

So... he gets no sympathy from me. Hope he is doing well now, though.

 

[Joefus]

I don’t see how anyone could possibly have bad feelings for Shula. The guy had no idea what he was doing, but we KNEW that going in. He took the job and did everything he could to right the ship. People shouldn’t be mad at him just because this job was too big for him. He was in a no-win situation, and some people just aren’t meant to be head coaches. I’ll never forget being at the LSU game in 2005 thinking to myself “I can’t believe we even made it this far.” Yes, Shula sucked as a head coach, but he made it very hard to root against him.

Agreed. Taking that job at that time was career suicide. Not to mention that 2005 team was two injuries from going undefeated. Everyone remembers prothro but losing our center is the reason we lost to lsu that year.

 

[cjhadley]

Two words: Tyrone Protho.

That is the first thing I thought of when that game was mentioned. It was the best game he coached at Alabama and also one of the biggest mistakes he made as a coach. Prothro should have never still been in that game and I feel like it losing him cost the team later in the year and took away his chance at a pro career.

 

[TitleWave]

I forget all the details but wasn't the text book thing much to do about nothing? Considering Scam and 180K, it was nothing!

It was at least as mundane and inconsequential to his firing as his perfect record of never, not once, in what? 19-20 games never coaching from behind in the 4th quarter and 'Bama actually winning such a game under his, ahem, leadership. Haters gonna hate, but altar boys ain't gonna alter their non-winning fourth-quarter ways -

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Goodness gracious....20 years later, and Mike Shula is still a divisive topic.