It was a mirage. Loved beating Florida twice, but I hated getting my hopes up for the next season based on 1999 only to have everything collapse at UCLA.
Question: How do you view the 1999 season after nearly 20 years?
- Thread starter 81usaf92
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I was at that game and the IB SO too. I have sat in some miserable weather conditions at sporting events, but the 00 IB was the worst. Not only was it raining, but it was cold and nasty. At least my feet weren’t soaked in puddles like the folks in the row in front of me. Up in U4, row 1 was flooded, but row 2 was wet.
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To answer the original question:
I view the 1999 season as proof that a head coach in over his head can still get a 10 win season at Alabama.
I view the 1999 season as proof that a head coach in over his head can still get a 10 win season at Alabama.
I think the whole Dubose fiasco, which ending so badly in 2000, is why I always get a little antsy about fans saying things like "Well, Saban should do this or that." I know, this is a forum for football discussion, and I have opinions and express them too. But many times we act like we know more than he does, and we clearly don't. It was the fans who got Dubose hired. It was fans taking the 1999 season's results too well that led to his extension. So, we may know what we feel, but we don't know football as well as those guys we are paying to do the job. I wish all fans had stayed out of the Dubose hiring. I know I wasn't in favor of it. My thought at the time was "well, sure, he did an ok job in his ONE season as DC after Oliver left, but I can already see a little bit of a decline. How is he ready to be the head coach of the team that is most important to me?"
He wasn't. I was right about that. The thing I may have been wrong about was my thinking that, if we just HAD to hire a defensive guy, and if he just HAD to have Alabama ties, why not hire the longer term DC of a team that actually was playing defense pretty well who also has at least a little head coaching experience? I was thinking of Mickey Andrews. My choice would have been Neuheisel (I know, I know) because I was so tired of our pitiful offense and wanted to see us be able to keep up with the teams that were putting up big numbers.
He wasn't. I was right about that. The thing I may have been wrong about was my thinking that, if we just HAD to hire a defensive guy, and if he just HAD to have Alabama ties, why not hire the longer term DC of a team that actually was playing defense pretty well who also has at least a little head coaching experience? I was thinking of Mickey Andrews. My choice would have been Neuheisel (I know, I know) because I was so tired of our pitiful offense and wanted to see us be able to keep up with the teams that were putting up big numbers.
1999 was to me a glimpse of hope. We had endured 1997. Awful. Maybe the worst since 1984. Then 1998. We were better but average as a Wednesday wash. Mediocre as all get out. 1999 offered us what 2000 SHOULD have delivered. With the usual Dubose letdowns. What I remember most about The Dubose teams is that we looked bad in pregame drills IMO. Usually were ill prepared to play. Sidelines seemed uninterested much like Shula's teams.
One more thing I'll always remember from that season is from the La Tech game. They had been kicking short Kickoffs to the sideline and had burned us a couple times. We put Shaun Alexander right on that spot and he returned it for a touchdown. I've never looked it up but it is the only kickoff I recall him returning in his 4 years.
I often reference this as the most impressive coaching decision in Mike Dubose's less than stellar career.
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I often reference this as the most impressive coaching decision in Mike Dubose's less than stellar career.
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Not a good sign when your best call of your career was in a loss to LaTech while coaching Bama.
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