He was so OTL that he had the entire team drug-tested, coming back from the ARK game, because he was convinced that had to be the answer. At the same time, his assistants were wandering around the practice field during practice, glued to their cell phones, making their own deals, instead of coaching. There's "stupid," and there's monumentally, incurably "stupid"...
I didn't know this, but it doesn't surprise me.
I did not see the UCLA game, I was visiting family out in the country. But we looked horrible against Vandy even though the scoreboard suggested wipeout.
But that USM game was the nadir of my time as an Alabama fan. Worse than losing to Auburn in 89, worse than any of the probations, worse than Mike Price getting caught at the club. We literally did not even put up anything resembling a fight that night. Sometimes - and it was common during the Shula years - the other team is just that much better than you are. LSU in both 97 and 03. No big deal. But the lack of effort, motivation, or anything in that game...at that point I was ready to just jump teams it was so bad.
Ivan Maisel wrote a book about that season and after that game Dubious was sitting on a chair crying about how he couldn't get anything done even though he was doing the same stuff that had worked in 1999. That should have been the end of him that night, and I think if Mal was not concerned with looking like he was over-reacting to a coach only four games removed from an SEC championship, he would have.
So once UCF was actually giving us a game, I was loudly cheering for them to beat us. I had a church function I was dipping in and out of, and I got in my van to listen to the fourth quarter. When UCF won, I was raising arms and telling the (mostly) MSU fan base at the church, "Enjoy your win this year because Dubious is gone now." And even they agreed it was the end.
