Question: What was the deal with Bill Curry??

RogueElephant

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Mar 15, 2007
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My brother Tom Stoddard wrote a very good book about Coach Bryant's first season, called "Turnaround". He did personal interviews with many of the players from that year. He was at Bama then, and wrote sports for the Crimson-White newspaper. Later went to the AJC. It's on Amazon...
That was a good book
 

time_4_the_TIDE

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Apr 28, 2009
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Curry recruited some of the '92 team, but Stallings recruited a great deal of the talent as well: Antonio Langham, David Palmer, Jay Barker, Tommy Johnson, James Gregory, John Copeland, Sherman Williams, Chris Donnelly, Michael Rogers, Mario Morris, Willie Gaston, Andre Royal, Sam Shade, Jon Stevenson, Michael Proctor, Chris Anderson, Curtis Brown, Tarrant Lynch.

DL: Copeland and Gregory started
LB: Rogers started with Morris backing him up and starting in his place after the auto accident, Royal was a top LB backup
DB: Langham, Shade and Donnelly started in the secondary with Tommy Johnson being a primary backup and starting 4 games and Willie Gaston playing some.

So, 6 or 7 of the defensive starters were recruited by Stallings, as well as several key backups.

On the OL, as you can imagine, most of the players were older, so only 1 starter was a Stallings' signee: Jon Stevenson.

The WRs were statistically even between Lee and Wimbley and Stallings' signees David Palmer and Curtis Brown, though Palmer was the most important.

The QB was Barker a Stallings signee.

The RBs were Lassic 905/1034, Houston 457/483 and Stallings' signees Chris Anderson 573/916, Sherman Williams 299/?, David Palmer 164/842. So, you can see that Stallings signees were primary offensive weapons.

Also, Michael Procter, All SEC PK was a Stallings signee.

So, actually even much of the talent was signed by Stallings' staff. Of course, even more importantly they imparted a toughness that did not previously exist.

Curry was also disliked because he trashed the Bama fanbase to outsiders - this was conveyed in published reports. He ridiculed its desire for physical football and its inordinate desire for winning. This was unbecoming someone who made his name and took much money from the program. He was also supported by the vast majority of the fanbase. He has even acknowledged that. (IMO, part of ESPN's unfavorable attitude toward Bama has its genesis in Curry's time there after his firing from UK where he posted one of the worst records in program history as he did at GT, his only success being at Bama. I don't know that, it's just an opinion.)

I think that just about does it there...I had no idea there were that many players already in contributing roles that were Stallings recruits. Thanx fr the post it clarifies a lot for me. I think I have a different opinion of Curry now, especially after seeing his lifetime W/L record that someone else posted. Looks like he was a terrible coach and shouldn't even be at Georgia St. now.
 
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GrayTide

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I always had the sense that Curry considered himself, culturally, above folks who lived in Alabama. I also believed he considered Alabama to be a "football factory" and certainly below GT in terms of academics. He was a 1987 version of Chan Gailey.
 

JeffAtlanta

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Aug 21, 2007
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1989, 10-2 record, SEC champs, Sugar Bowl, barely lost 33-25 to Miami and if we had beaten them we probably win the National Championship and we're talking about what a cool statue of Bill Curry we have outside the stadium.
(1) Alabama had no chance of a national title after the loss to Auburn. Alabama was ranked #7 and there is no way that Alabama would have leapfrogged Notre Dame.

(2) Alabama did not "barely" lose. Alabama was physically manhandled by Miami in that game and the final score made the game seem much closer than it actually was.

(3) Alabama had 29 rushing attempts for 38 total yards - typical Curry lack of toughness.
 

CapstoneTider

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In either the 1989 or the 1992 Sugar Bowl, a member of the press, maybe Musteredburger made the comment that it was like a Pro team against a bunch of high school kids. Now I had always thought this was the 1989 team, because I just can't see how anyone in their right mind would call our 1992 team a bunch of high school kids. The 89 team was not loaded with NFL talent like 92. Anyway, is there anyone who is 100% sure of which year it was?
 

TideinNashTn

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Aug 27, 2008
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I was at Bama when he was coach. Great guy, got talent. But never thought he would take us to the promised land. Sort of like a Mark Richt. It did not make me unhappy when he left. Still respected him at the time. Just didn't want to be Georgia.
 

Tidergirl

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Sep 17, 2009
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I think that most people were extremely angry that Coach Bobby Bowden, who was ready to take the job, was not offered the HC job. Someone posted the other day on BOL that Curry brought in some of the worst recruiting classes ever at UA. Curry also had the good fortune to have some great football players that Ray Perkins recruited. I am grateful that Coach Curry brought Homer Smith with him but Curry was not mature enough to handle the pressure. Coach Curry bolted for Kentucky although he makes it sound like he was fired. I have lost some respect for Coach Curry over the years and I am glad that he is no longer on ESPN.
 
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derek4tide

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Jan 19, 2005
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(1) Alabama had no chance of a national title after the loss to Auburn. Alabama was ranked #7 and there is no way that Alabama would have leapfrogged Notre Dame.

(2) Alabama did not "barely" lose. Alabama was physically manhandled by Miami in that game and the final score made the game seem much closer than it actually was.


(3) Alabama had 29 rushing attempts for 38 total yards - typical Curry lack of toughness.
True. I was there and it was bad.
 

JeffAtlanta

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Aug 21, 2007
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The point is that Curry's team was physically dominated by Miami and just three years later, Stallings' team physically dominated an even stronger Miami team.

One of the reasons why Miami and the rest of the world took Alabama so lightly in 1992 was due to how physically mismatched the two teams were just 3 years earlier.

Curry's teams were soft by Alabama standards. The only time I ever saw the man fired up was when Prince Wembly showed too much enthusiam on the field.

Curry had nothing but utter contempt for the Alabama football program and tradition. Alabama's program and fans were uneducated savages in his eyes and it was his job to "civilize" them.
 

time_4_the_TIDE

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I honestly have to say thanks for every1's input...I didn't think this thread would amount to much, I figured I would get a few answers to my questions and it would fizzle and die. A lot of information in here I didn't know and appreciate all the points of view.

I am surprised TIDE-HSV hasn't weighed in, he was one of the guys I was hoping to hear from on the subject. If you see this HSV...I would like to hear your view on it as I have come to value your input on matters of history in the program.
 
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capnfrog

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I honestly have to say thanks for every1's input...I didn't think this thread would amount to much, I figured I would get a few answers to my questions and it would fizzle and die. A lot of information in here I didn't know and appreciate all the points of view.

I am surprised TIDE-HSV hasn't weighed in, he was one of the guys I was hoping to hear from on the subject. If you see this HSV...I would like to hear your view on it as I have come to value your input on matters of history in the program.
Don't suck up to him, though may be he knows who flung the brick.
 
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TIDE-HSV

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I honestly have to say thanks for every1's input...I didn't think this thread would amount to much, I figured I would get a few answers to my questions and it would fizzle and die. A lot of information in here I didn't know and appreciate all the points of view.

I am surprised TIDE-HSV hasn't weighed in, he was one of the guys I was hoping to hear from on the subject. If you see this HSV...I would like to hear your view on it as I have come to value your input on matters of history in the program.
Well, now, that's very flattering. :) I saw the thread, but I was so disinterested in anything to do with him, I didn't open it. After it grew to five pages, I thought I should. I'm about 3/4 asleep, so I'll glance back over the thread tomorrow. But, briefly, Curry was sort of like "Shula - Act I." Beautiful facade - not much behind. Like Shula, he didn't have the respect of the team and won enough to hold on. The posters who said that he never bought into "Bama" are correct. I have a couple of friends who were on the team at the time he left and they've told me that the brick is pure fiction and was a pretty typical Curry lie. I'll go back tomorrow and read more of the thread...
 

LCN

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Sep 29, 2005
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Earle , had the brick not stayed on his desk maybe Curry would've punched himself in his face during his futile attempt to gain acceptance through sympathy :D

Several members have expressed many of my thoughts . Especially relating to his recruiting which never cracked the top 20 of any publication . So , I'll be brief . Curry was insecure and became consumed by paranoia . He blamed others - from prominent former players to higher-ups in the AD and even down to his current players - for not being liked or accepted . Like Earle , I used to know a couple of guys who played for both Stallings and Curry . They loved Coach Stallings and hated Curry . If you ever talk to any players from that era , they'll likely tell you Curry was a wimp .
 
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selmaborntidefan

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My Thoughts On Curry

With apologies to George W Bush, I'm am-bill-a-vent


1) For starters, the reports were that Joab Thomas hired him to get rid of the 'football factory' mentality around here. So that didn't help.

2) To make it better, he was from Georgia Tech. Now while that hurt him at the start - given all the Bear Bryant trainees out there - it wouldn't have mattered. If Curry beats Auburn and Miami in 1989, he's in Bryant Company right out of the chute.

3) If you look back at his tenure, he continually - on the field - tore the scabs off of healing wounds.

The FIRST horrible thing that happened was the clown lost to MEMPHIS STATE!!!

The fury from the fans was fever-pitched.

But he got away with that because of what happened over the next three weeks. First, we smoked the Vols in a game we led 41-6 at one point. Then, we knocked off unbeaten LSU in Baton Rouge (believe it or not we used to win every year down there).

Unfortunately, he didn't show up for the Notre Dame game and we got routed, 37-6. Or should I say he DID show up and that was the problem?


Keep in mind that Curry inherited a full cupboard of players including Bobby Humphrey, Derrick Thomas, and Keith McCants among others (and we had a lot of talent in guys like Marco Battle, Murry Hill, and several others including Phillip Doyle, recruited I think by Curry).

So we go to the next year

1988

We start 3-0 but the following happened.

1) Curry opted to not go to College Station - going so far as to offer to forfeit the game - because Hurricane Gilbert was threatening Brownsville. If I recall the hurricane didn't even come within 500 miles of A/M, and Jackie Sherrill began his long personal war with us by saying Bryant would've been there.

2) Bobby Humphrey blew out a knee and was out for the year. This made David Casteal and Murry Hill the running corps.

3) That third win was a come-from-behind trailing 17-0 in the fourth quarter lucky win against Kentucky.


The bills for all this came due on October 8, 1988.

That was the day that Ole Miss upset us in a game where our QB had zero yards passing. They scored a run it up TD just for good measure after we gave them the ball back.

You'd think at this point the fan base would be ready to tar and feather Curry, and we were. First he'd lost to Memphis and now he'd lost to a mediocre Ole Miss team (and had needed a fourth down miracle to beat Miss St in 1987).

But he survived. Why?

Because Derrick Thomas played perhaps the greatest DEFENSIVE game in the history of college football against Penn State the next week. We won, 8-3. Then, Curry got right back on the hot seat by blowing a 15-3 halftime lead against LSU and losing on a last second FG.

And then he lost to Auburn again. The final score was 15-10 but the game wasn't that close. I think QB David Smith was sacked something like six times for losses of 39 yards.

The national bowls were so 'impressed' with us that for the THIRD time in six years, mighty Alabama went to El Paso and the Sun Bowl, where we survived an Army team thanks to Derrick Thomas.

(Curry owes his Alabama career to Thomas and Gary Hollingsworth).

1989

1) He kicked Jeff Dunn off the team, opening the door to Gary Hollingsworth. All GH did was win SEC offensive player of the year honors.

2) He fell behind Ole Miss 21-0 five minutes into the game. This must have upset the Tide players because we hung 62 points on Ole Miss that day, including 48 by halftime.

3) He got incredibly lucky when Thomas Rayam kept title hopes alive by blocking a chip shot FG by a Penn State kicker named Tarasi - I think it was a 19 yarder.

So we're hopping along at #2 in the country and 10-0. Only team ahead of us is Colorado, who's trying to win it for their dead QB who knocked up the coach's daughter (that kid btw is a walk-on at LSU).

Then he had to go to Auburn.

For the first time ever.

Folks who think that was a 'close' game are deceiving themselves. It's true that at one point the score was a one-point game. But with ten minutes left Auburn led, 27-10.

We scored twice to make it 27-20.

But we were never a threat.

So now we get to the Sugar Bowl. The TRUTH is that we simply did not have the horses to run with Miami that year. But we did go in at halftime trailing only by a score of 20-17 - and there were two fumbles we got from Miami that the refs gave them back (played today, we probably win that game due to replay overturning them - Miami got 14 points on those drives).

And someone else was right - although the final was 33-25, we scored a TD and a 2-pointer in the last minute when we were trailing by 16. That was our only score of the 2nd half.

Curry then flew the coop. Some of us thought good riddance - until his replacement was hired with a worse record than Curry had.

Bill Curry won ten games at Alabama. But given who we are and our talent base, ANYBODY can win ten games here.

Mike DuBose did it.
Dennis Franchione did it.
Hell, Mike Shula did it while the team was crippled by sanctions.

He couldn't beat Auburn. Gene Stallings did it his first THREE years. Coach Fran did it his first year.

I think - in all seriousness - you could put any of us posters here as head coach of that Bama team of the late 1980s and we wouldn't do any worse than Curry did.

Well, unless Mike DuBose posts here, of course.
 

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