Recruiting and the overall state of The Program had begun to erode in the last few years under Coach Bryant. We bottomed out in 84, but rebounded strongly in 85 and 86. Had Perkins stayed, say at least a decade, would UA have notched another Title under his watch?
Ray Perkins could unquestionably recruit. Some of his 1984 woes were the fallout of the final years of Coach Bryant's approach of not generally having guys start until their junior year (and please don't cite me the rare exception - I'm speaking in GENERAL terms). Ken Donahue even admitted this approach helped cost us Bo Jackson.
However.....being a college coach takes more than the ability to RECRUIT, even though you cannot win without those players. And I don't think Perkins was capable of doing the other things necessary to maintain a high enough level to win a national title. Let's spot him 1983, which was Bryant's team, and I'll even be generous and spot him 1984 as a "transition from Bryant's players/wishbone to my players/pro set."
In 1985, he needed a comeback in the final seconds after a lackluster effort from the offense for 59 minutes and a special teams faux pas to beat a Georgia team that tied 3-7-1 Vandy. Despite the old "if we had recovered the onsides kick then Van Tiffin beats Penn State" mantra, the fact is we trailed that game by nine points until the score at the end made it look like a game (not that we played badly). We lost to a Tennessee team that, yes, would win the SEC but was hardly a juggernaut. He then played for a TIE against LSU and damn near lost the game in Baton Rouge when he needed a WIN to even have a shot at taking home the SEC title. He was 5-5-1 in his last two years against ranked teams and at least three of those five wins were against teams ranked higher than their worth - 1985 Auburn might have been ranked #7 but only because they STARTED the year at #1 (they played three ranked foes and went 1-2 and lost to TWO unranked teams at the time of the game); 1986 Miss St played a soft touch schedule and were 6-1 and then ended the year 0-4; and 1986 Florida was ranked highly based on what they did in 1984 and 1985 and went 6-5 in 1986, losing to Alabama AND Miss St.
In short, when Perkins played teams of equal talent in 1985 and 1986, he unfailingly lost every single time.
Perkins's entire 'success' as a head football coach was the 1981 NY Giants team that shockingly made the playoffs. Might want to go look REAL CLOSE at that team before thinking Perk was all that great. In EIGHT seasons as an NFL head coach, he had SEVEN losing seasons.
So let's now look at the sole reason anyone ever thought he was a decent coach. In 1981, the Giants lucked into a guy out of N Carolina named Lawrence Taylor, a guy who would go on to make a case as the greatest linebacker of all-time and a guy who specifically told the
Giants (as the Boz would later to other teams) to NOT draft him.
The Giants went 9-7. I lived through that season as an excited 12-year old. Entering Week 15 - and there were no off weeks back then save for between the title game and Super Bowl - 22 of the 28 NFL teams were still playoff eligible. In other words, there was a ton of mediocrity going on.
The Giants beat:
Redskins (8-8)
Saints (4-12)
Cardinals (7-9)
Seahawks (6-10)
At that point they were 4-3. After losing to the Cowboys in September, they picked up a new running back, Rob Carpenter, from the Oilers.....who then proceeded to have a pretty good year. Playing the Falcons in late October, the Falcons fumbled the ball to the Giants in their own territory and the Giants won on an overtime field goal by Joe Danelo (we were exiting the Exit 62 ramp on I-85 at Opelika when I heard this disaster befall my red and black). Oh, the Falcons ended the year 6-10 after being the Super Bowl favorite.
The Giants were 5-6 when they went into Philly against the rapidly collapsing Eagles (Philly, defending NFC champs, started the year at 6-0 and ended it at 10-6). They won. Then they beat the 6-10 Rams and the Cardinals again.
Entering week 16, the Giants were 8-7 and had beaten ONE team with a winning record, a collapsing Philly team. Every other team they beat wasn't any good anyway. OK, Dallas DID have a little motivation for wanting to win since a win by them and a loss by San Fran would have given them home field. The Giants had to win AND root for the Jets to beat the Packers in order to make the playoffs. Both happened, and the Giants DID outplay Dallas that day.
But the fact is that they only beat TWO teams all year with a winning record and only one on the road (Philly). And so mediocre was their competition that they made the playoffs despite losing Phil Simms for the year in week 11.
Why not just be honest and say even Perk's ONE winning season in the NFL was as much a product of luck (scheduling, falling into LT) as anything else?
OK, I know that's not TOTALLY fair because NFL and NCAA are two different animals. Very few have succeeded at both levels (look at the flops of Spurrier, Erickson, Holtz, and even Saban for reference).
But I'm just saying that analyzing it.........I don't see it happening. In fact, it could be argued that Bill Curry was a better table setter/recruiter than was Perkins. Curry recruited the freshmen that won the 1992 national title as seniors, and he left Tech after building the program through 1986 and they won it all in 1990.
Thus, I must vote no.
