Second time in a month Pat Dye makes sense

NoNC4Tubs

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I listened to that segment on PF.

He was actually sober...for a change. :cool2:
 

selmaborntidefan

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https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/s...s-couldnt-catch-alabamas-tradition-500-years/
"We could play football for another 500 years and not catch up to Alabama's tradition"- Pat Dye

I know it's common practice to rip on Dye, and I guess it's to be expected, but he's NOT an idiot, either. Dye understands psychology rather well, which is what birthed his "Jawja's nawt man enough" motivational tool in 2002 (he played there) and his pretentious "we'll show those Bama snobs" fueling the venue change for the Iron Bowl (hiding the motive of - cue the Million Dollar Man music - "money money money money money").

And he coached here (assistant under Bryant 1965-1973) - so HE knows probably better than any Auburn partisan on the planet the reality.
 

uafan4life

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Mar 30, 2001
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A few weeks ago, my boss sent out an email about a pair of pants that were found in one of the company cars.

I immediately replied that he should check the pants for identification to see if they belonged to Pat Dye.
:biggrin:

If nothing else, ol' Pat's been good for at least one, long-running joke!
 

GP for Bama

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We are so fortunate. The Bama football tradition is second to none. The only schools even close are Notre Dame and Oklahoma. Auburn has had several years of good football.. they just happen to live in the shadow of Bama.
 
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Ole Man Dan

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Apr 21, 2008
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I know it's common practice to rip on Dye, and I guess it's to be expected, but he's NOT an idiot, either. Dye understands psychology rather well, which is what birthed his "Jawja's nawt man enough" motivational tool in 2002 (he played there) and his pretentious "we'll show those Bama snobs" fueling the venue change for the Iron Bowl (hiding the motive of - cue the Million Dollar Man music - "money money money money money").

And he coached here (assistant under Bryant 1965-1973) - so HE knows probably better than any Auburn partisan on the planet the reality.
Like him or Hate him... Pat Dye is a hard nosed football guy. Red Neck too. That's not a lot of put on when he talks like a Reel Town bumpkin... ;)
Pat Dye wanted the Alabama job, didn't get it so he signed on at
'Little Brother U'.
Dye worked real hard to rub our noses in the fact he was a Auburn man now.
I have never been a Auburn fan, but I got to hand it to them... The people in that area see him as some kind of Country Royalty. Dye and Tubby represent the only successes Auburn has really sustained in the last 1/4 Century... Pretty sad.
 
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TideEngineer08

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I often wonder what would have happened if there had not been a near 50 year hiatus of the series. For one, I'm certain the series record would not be nearly as close as it is today. They avoided us during our Rose Bowl era of the 20s, 30s, and 40s (mostly; series was resumed in 1948).

But on the psychological side of it, would it be so silly today? IMO, a large part of the inferiority complex lies in the fact that we would never play them and give them legitimacy, even though to my knowledge the decision to halt the series was mutual. Perhaps had we played them all those years, even though the series record would be dramatically altered today, it would simply be a fierce rivalry without the sideshow nonsense that has polluted it over the years. I don't know. Maybe someone like TIDE-HSV could expound on that.
 

uafan4life

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I often wonder what would have happened if there had not been a near 50 year hiatus of the series. For one, I'm certain the series record would not be nearly as close as it is today. They avoided us during our Rose Bowl era of the 20s, 30s, and 40s (mostly; series was resumed in 1948).
But on the psychological side of it, would it be so silly today? IMO, a large part of the inferiority complex lies in the fact that we would never play them and give them legitimacy, even though to my knowledge the decision to halt the series was mutual. Perhaps had we played them all those years, even though the series record would be dramatically altered today, it would simply be a fierce rivalry without the sideshow nonsense that has polluted it over the years. I don't know. Maybe someone like TIDE-HSV could expound on that.
That's an interesting take on it and there might be something to it.

However, you would still have a lesser D-1 program playing in the shadow of another that isn't just in its own State but also in its own division within the same conference. That, in and of itself, could lend heavily to the little brother syndrome.

Even in a State as big as Texas, a school as big as A&M had a bit of it when it came to the Longhorns. And in Mississippi, where neither of the two main football programs are even top-tier in their conference, Mississippi State still feels like the Rebels' little brother.

So, while the paradigm might be somewhat different had the hiatus not occurred, I don't think it would be that much different.

After all, the barn is going to be the barn.

Oh, and S.N.A.S.S.!
 

bamamc1

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Oct 24, 2011
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Like him or Hate him... Pat Dye is a hard nosed football guy. Red Neck too. That's not a lot of put on when he talks like a Reel Town bumpkin... ;)
Pat Dye wanted the Alabama job, didn't get it so he signed on at
'Little Brother U'.
Dye worked real hard to rub our noses in the fact he was a Auburn man now.
I have never been a Auburn fan, but I got to hand it to them... The people in that area see him as some kind of Country Royalty. Dye and Tubby represent the only successes Auburn has really sustained in the last 1/4 Century... Pretty sad.
You could always tell that he and Coach Bryant really liked each other. I've even heard Coach helped him get the AU job. Don't know if it's true or not.
 

GreatMarch

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You could always tell that he and Coach Bryant really liked each other. I've even heard Coach helped him get the AU job. Don't know if it's true or not.
I don't believe that is true at all. In fact, it is believed that he tried to talk Dye out of the job because he admired him so much as a coach. In fact, about 18 years ago, Wimp Sanderson and Sonny Smith had a radio show in Birmingham and Wimp played a taped conversation with Coach Bryant, that I believe no one had ever heard before from what many people believe was the summer of 1980 before the season started. In the conversation Coach Bryant speaks of a successor that he had interest in but he never named the coach. In listening to him speak some people thought he was speaking of Pat Dye and not Gene Stallings, who was believed to be Coach Bryant's favored choice. I think Coach Bryant even mentioned that the coach had done a heck of a job at some tough places to coach at, at the college level. Remember Coach Stallings was in the pros at that time in 1980 and Dye was at Wyoming. The amazing part was that Bryant was starting to think about stepping down at that point. I always felt that if Dye had not taken the job at Auburn in 1981, then Bryant would have stepped down after the '81 season.
 

selmaborntidefan

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There are AT LEAST three different stories regarding Coach Bryant's successor and probably more that we don't know about.

1) Gene Stallings was supposedly the chosen one and this was suggested by Bryant Jr at the press conference hiring Stallings, when he said, "This is what papa wanted." How much of this was Jr validating the hiring and how much was real - who knows?

2) Ray Perkins was supposedly the chosen one, Bryant's "favorite end." When the insiders told Bryant Perkins was not doing very well in NY with the Giants as head coach, Bryant allegedly blamed the organization of the Giants (Perkins had just taken them to their first post-season since 1963).

On this note, we also have this post from Earle in 2008:

I'll tell you what I heard at the time, and it came from someone personally close to him. You may remember that Coach's public position was that he was staying out of the selection process. If were asked privately, and he was, his second choice was CGS. but his first choice was, in fact, Perkins. The logic was that Coach recognized that the wishbone was passe' - that it had been well dxed and could be defended. One of the reasons he gave publicly for his retirement was that he never wanted to coach kids to pass-block again. Perkins was a respected offensively-minded coach, whereas CGS was the opposite - a defensively-minded coach. He felt that the defense would be fine, but the offense needed revamping totally. I've always accepted this as the truth, both because of who told me and also because it made sense. Whatever the order of choice, it would be unthinkable that Perkins would have been hired without Coach's strong stamp of approval, no matter what he said publicly...

3) "The Uncivil War," a history of the Iron Bowl 1981-94 by one Tide grad and one Auburn grad opens with the tale that Bryant called Pat Dye, who was then coaching Wyoming, to tell him to NOT take the Auburn job. Auburn was trying to land Vince Dooley, who was prepping his team for the Sugar Bowl national title game against Notre Dame. Dooley, who won a ring with Auburn in 1957, turned them down. Dye himself has told this story as well (see below). Allegedly, Dye didn't want to follow Bryant and simply maintain the program, but he also was realistic enough to imply that even if he had wanted it that Bryant had so many assistants out there with better credentials that Dye never could have gotten it.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/12/pat_dye_reminisces_about_bear.html

Of course, Bryant may also not have wanted to compete against Dye (at Bryant's rapidly advancing age and poor health) for recruits, in part because (for those who weren't alive) Bryant was going to be required by state law to retire after the 1983 season anyway due to his age. Dye tore out on the road in 1981 with a list of recruits (and Bobby Lowder's bankroll no doubt) and basically sounded the trumpet of, "Bryant ain't gonna be there anyway."

And when we blew the recruitment of Bo Jackson........we enabled what happened ourselves.
 

day-day

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Like him or Hate him... Pat Dye is a hard nosed football guy. Red Neck too. That's not a lot of put on when he talks like a Reel Town bumpkin... ;)
Pat Dye wanted the Alabama job, didn't get it so he signed on at
'Little Brother U'.
Dye worked real hard to rub our noses in the fact he was a Auburn man now.
I have never been a Auburn fan, but I got to hand it to them... The people in that area see him as some kind of Country Royalty. Dye and Tubby represent the only successes Auburn has really sustained in the last 1/4 Century... Pretty sad.
Are we allowed to use the R-word?
 

81usaf92

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I've met Dye before. My impression is that he more plays the part than actually believes it. I think he understands to be successful at Auburn you need to make Alabama your number #1 priority. I think Tubberville, Bowden, and Chizik wanted to make Auburn a national power, and when things went south fans turned on them. Tubberville is probably the exception with his war with Lowder, Yella Fella, and Milton, but he sure didn't have the fan's support in the end.
 

barrytide

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May 3, 2011
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I sat and talked with Coach Dye for a few hours several years ago. Very approachable and overall nice guy. A couple of things struck me. First he really loved and respected Coach Bryant. Second he does not hate Alabama. Met Coach Superior in St Augustine total opposite. TIFWIW
 

westide

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I always liked Dye. He spent a lot of time at Bama. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it was him that told the story of his interview with Coach Bryant. He went an bought a new suit for the interview. Afterwards, Bryant said he like the new suit. Dye asked how he knew it was new. Bryant said you forgot to take the sticker off.
 

Tideflyer

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I sat and talked with Coach Dye for a few hours several years ago. Very approachable and overall nice guy. A couple of things struck me. First he really loved and respected Coach Bryant. Second he does not hate Alabama. Met Coach Superior in St Augustine total opposite. TIFWIW
Certainly never met Spurrier personally, but to me he projected an image of being a totally egotistical jerk. Don`t know if that`s how he truly is or not.
 

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