I think the main thing is that Alabama not overlook the obvious choice. For instance, to me it isn't so much about Stallings vs. Bowden, as how on earth was Curry chosen in 1987?
I read something about it, and here are three names on the list. Howard Schnellenberger, Bobby Bowden, and Bill Curry. One of these things is not like the others. Curry was a Georgia Tech guy, a far more powerful program than Miami or FSU was at the time, and he did far less than Schnellengerger or Bowden when he started with more to work with. Curry was 31-43 at Georgia Tech, how on earth did that qualify him for the Alabama job? Alabama couldn't even fall back into the logic that at least he's an Alabama guy or one of Bear Bryant's former players because he was neither. He was just a mediocre college coach, for reasons that I will never completely understand that was desirable to Alabama at the time. Alabama had an obvious choice and made a boneheaded one, and it cost them.
Krazy3,
I know I have a few years on you, and I was a senior in HS when we hired Curry. I lived 60 miles from T-Town (Caledonia, MS), my guidance counselor was a UA grad (so we talked football everyday), and I was planning on a journalism future so I read the paper every single day. Plus, my memory is well established, so let me try to go back and describe what it was like at the time as best I can. And as objectively as I can.
I moved to MS in 1984, about 18 months after Coach Bryant passed. Perkins was in place, and he came across as an arrogant and aloof type coach. He was sort of a cross between Bill Belichick and the slickest used car salesman you can think of, the stereotype. He had angered folks by taking down Bryant's infamous tower at the practice field, but his 1983 was almost a carbon copy of Bryant's 1982, which was not a good thing by Alabama standards. In 1984, we had an offense that looked a whole lot like the 2000 offense did. We had some talent (Paul Ott Carruth, Ricky Moore) and we actually did have a pretty good defense that spent way too much time on the field. Perkins had the first losing season since Sputnik and radio talk shows spent much of the fall of 1984 gnashing their teeth and basically wanting to stuff Perkins in a barrel and throw him into the Black Warrior River. Things turned around in the 1985 UGA game, when we first "lost" a game we should have won, but then we won it on Shula's quick comeback drive. We had a team just below national title contender in 1985. Remember, we lost to Penn State and Tennessee by two points each, plus a tie with LSU. We won that unforgettable Iron Bowl and had a bunch of seniors coming back in 1986. Indeed, our name was prominent in the national title talk entering 1986, which is part of why we were more than willing to schedule that Kickoff Classic with Ohio State. Even after Penn State manhandled us in October, we were going to win the SEC. But then we lost a game that to this day I still don't understand to LSU. We outplayed them all night and should have won about 35-7. We lost that and lost to Auburn, and Perkins was back to being an arrogant snit (in the eyes of fans).
Keep in mind that we literally blew the 86 Iron Bowl. We had the lead and lost the game. At the post-game press conference, the VERY FIRST rumor of Perkins to Tampa came up in the form of a question. Perkins denied he was leaving Alabama. This didn't get much press at the time because the bigger issue was that Perkins had suggested prior to the Iron Bowl that since Pat Dye had not played in the Iron Bowl as a player (as Perkins had), he couldn't possibly have the same feeling about the game as Perkins did. (Let's just say Dye was not amused). Keep in mind that even the pro-Alabama factions of the state press didn't look very kindly on Perkins's comment here. (Perkins was also the guy who when asked about the Iron Bowl moving to Jordan-Hare Stadium defiantly said, "It won't happen").
On December 14, CBS commentator Will McDonough (who had contacts everywhere, including the CIA) reported that Perkins was going to take the Tampa job and leave Alabama IF Perkins would be given "full control" of the situation with the Bucs. Perkins came out and denied the report in political speak. He said that he had known McDonough for years and that Will had a lot of resources but that the claim was not true. Perkins further gave the old "I have not spoken with (the owner) about the job" line, and Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse basically said that he HAD spoken to Perkins but NOT about the job. Of course, all that discussion even in 1986 would have been through the agents.
Both sides were maintaining plausible deniability.
President Joab Thomas even came out three days before the bowl game and gave it the old, "I EXPECT him to be here next season" endorsement.
Perkins spent the lead-in to the Sun Bowl (on Christmas Day that year) denying he was leaving. In fact, it was Perkins (not the press) who brought it up at a pregame press conference. He addressed it and then word got out that he had had a meeting with the players so the game became "what did he tell the team." Bobby Humphrey, Howard Cross, and (irony of ironies) Mike Shula ALL attested the PC "we don't think he's going anywhere" and Shula even threw in that he heard rumors of Perkins leaving/getting fired since 1984.
Btw - what made this more amusing was that the other candidate rumored to be in Tampa's coaching search was former Eagles Coach Dick Vermeil, the guy who had quit in 1982 due to "burnout."
Alabama went out and whipped Washington, 28-6, wrapping up a year of underachievement. On December 30, Perkins finally met with Culverhouse, and the following day (New Year's Eve) Perkins had a press conference to announce he was "not gonna be the Alabama coach" any longer. To give credit - the story broke in the Dallas Morning News with the always reliable "unnamed official at Alabama."
JUST A NOTE:
Bear in mind this is ONLY what broke in public. I have no idea what actually happened at Firebase Tuscaloosa behind the scenes. One story I've heard that makes some good sense is that Culverhouse (who was a UA grad from Bham) hired Perkins to get him out of Tuscaloosa and replace him with, well, someone else (rumored to be Bobby Bowden). I have NO IDEA if this is true, it's just one of the more logical things I've heard through the years.
.......
For starters, the leading candidate ACCORDING TO PRESS REPORTS was NOT Bobby Bowden but another name: Perkins's former teammate and Texas A/M Coach Jackie Sherrill. Yes, I'm serious. The press picked apart Sherrill's answer at a press conference as he was preparing the Aggies (he'd resurrected them from nothing to a Cotton Bowl with Ohio State coming up), too. Sherrill was rumored to be "the leading candidate" and he basically said that he had a job that wasn't finished at College Station. He also gave a variation of the Steve Spurrier answer ("I'm not gonna talk about a job that's not open") by saying it was only rumor, and that neither he nor Alabama had ever had any contact with each other.
Please note that even in 1986 - long before he oversaw probations at ATM and MSU - Jackie Sherrill's reputation was not very good. He had built Pitt into a national contender that twice fell a game short (of course, he had inherited the success of Johnny Majors) and then left for a bushel of money at ATM in 1982.
Here's the list of names as reported by the AP on December 31, 1986:
Jackie Sherrill - who announced he wasn't going to Alabama even before Perkins's departure was announced
Danny Ford
Steve Sloan
Bobby Bowden
Jim Fuller
Isn't there a name conspicuously missing?
Let me remind everyone that in 1986, Danny Ford was a 38-year old coach who had won a national championship at Clemson in only his third season as coach. His record was 66-25-4. But he had been forever tarnished when Clemson got socked with probation in November 1982, some of the violations occurring under his watch. Players had been given cars, TV sets, and expensive clothing. The sanctions were so severe, in fact, that Clemson did not appear on TV in either 1983 or 1984. And in all honesty that - more than anything else - probably ruled out Ford, who you have to figure would have been the front-runner since he met the criteria of "played for Bryant" and "won national championship."
I honestly think that without the probation - and note that the problems had really been introduced to Clemson by Ford's predecessor, Charley Pell (yep, the same one) but continued - I think Danny Ford likely would have been the front-running candidate to replace Perkins.
Jimmy Fuller was given the tag "interim" as Perkins left (he got the same title when Curry left).
Thomas then made a bold statement that probably signaled his intent: he announced that even though Bryant and Perkins had held BOTH the AD and head coaching jobs, he was going to hire two persons for those positions. After the beginning of the new year, we had another name rumored as a possibility, Howard Schenellenberger. About that time, Sherrill then came out and basically announced that he couldn't/wouldn't go to Alabama because of the substantial buyout in his "rollover" ten-year contract.
On Friday, January 2, 1987 - the same day as the infamous Miami-Penn State Fiesta Bowl (played that night) - Bobby Bowden interviewed for the Alabama head coaching job. Bowden was already in Birmingham because - as shocking as this is going to seem now - FSU was playing in the second-rate All-American Bowl on New Year's Eve against Indiana. In the post-game press conference, Bowden was asked if he would take the Alabama coaching position if it was offered. He snapped his fingers and said, "It would take me about that long." There is no question that Bowden wanted the job in 1987. None at all.
But after showing up for that interview - an interview I understand he was NOT happy about - Bowden announced publicly that he was withdrawing from consideration and happy at Florida State. The very same day Bowden interviewed, so, too, did a name that hasn't even been mentioned up until this point: Bill Curry, head coach at Georgia Tech. At this point - with Bowden out of the running - two names were prominent, Curry and Schnellenberger.
ETA: Bowden has repeatedly said he would take the job but not interview for it as there was nothing for the to learn they didn't already know. He showed up thinking he was going to be named coach, opened the door, and seventeen people were staring back at him for an interview. One unconfirmed rumor is that Bowden's family was so sure he was going to get it that they went to a local sporting goods store to buy Tide stuff to wear at the press conference.
On Sunday morning, January 4, 1987, we woke up to read in the newspaper that Alabama had called a press conference for 2 pm that Sunday afternoon and were expected to announce Bill Curry as the new head coach
Think about that. Alabama calling a press conference for a Sunday.....on a day with two NFL playoff games going on, including one at the time of the announcement (Giants vs 49ers). At the PC, Joab Thomas managed to tick off almost everyone in the state of Alabama save for the Auburn fans. He announced Curry as the new head coach, going so far as to say Curry was "our first choice without any question," which was amusing given that he also said that the reason he hired Curry first and foremost was because of his "unquestioned integrity." Thomas was hiring Curry to be what Thomas himself wasn't (at least about the hiring), honest. Thomas then - after making a point of noting that he had been inundated with recommendations that he NOT hire a coach with Alabama ties - then turned right around like a politician and announced he had hired Steve Sloan, former Alabama player, as the AD.
Thomas then went on to make one of the more preposterous statements any President of any school has ever made:
"There's a growing constituency of concerned people who will applaud this move.
Two years from now, when we win the national championship, a lot more people will be applauding it - and looking for someone like him."
(One can only surmise what the reaction would have been if Thomas had said, "Nine months from now when we lose to Memphis State..")....
As if what I've told you isn't enough, Thomas then proceeded to blast the angry 99% as "so-called fans" who were happy with "the lowest common denominator." (Folks, I'm not making any of this up.......)
To say that the Crimson Nation as a whole was angry over this hiring is about like saying the Grand Canyon is a big ditch. Thomas admitted during his press conference that he had heard negative things about eight candidates rumored up for the job (I only count seven but okay). The source of the criticism is not hard to locate: Curry's record was 31-43-4 at former arch rival Ga Tech.......and he was 0 for Auburn as well. It was also reported that Ford, Sherrill, and Schnellenberger were NEVER under serious consideration because all three had coaching tenures marked by NCAA investigations. By Thursday, January 8, the story was out that Thomas had received death threats (presumably from Curry's later phantom group, the Alabama Mafia).
And to say that Alabama's admin bungled the coaching search - which basically took all of FIVE DAYS from "appointment of group" to "let's hire the smug, self-righteous one" - is like saying LSU had a poor game plan for the 2012 BCSNCG. In short, Thomas split the job (not necessarily a bad thing - you have to remember that in 1987, Alabama athletics were deep in the red, er, crimson), hired a Bryant player and a guy from the former enemy with the notion that Alabama not be "just a football factory" and play within the rules. Thomas would have spent more time and effort determining a university department head than he did searching for Perkins's replacement.
I know it is common to bash Bill Curry here and Lord knows I've done plenty myself. The ONE thing I will give Coach Curry credit for doing is that the NCAA wasn't sticking its nose around the program, and he didn't let our players devolve into the trash talking, over the top celebrating that was common in the late 1980s (think Miami, Detroit Bad Boyz NBA, and even the Oakland A's in baseball - and it wasn't just these teams). And Curry was not a bad hire in the grouping of the Three A-Mike-os, either.
But let's be honest and admit.....we just plain blew it.