Be Honest-After Shula Was Fired/Before Coach S Was Hired, Who Did You Want As Coach?

[colbysullivan]

For his job performance or his mouth?

Yes

 

[deliveryman35]

I've never quite understood the fascination with Paul Johnson--even 6-8 yrs ago. He runs an antiquated O with the exception of a few tweeks that hardly prepares players for the NFL. He's a one trick pony that I think would have failed miserably in the SEC if he had ran it here or anywhere else in the league. It might work at the service academies, but it has pretty much gone out of style everywhere else(except Tech, of course)

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Absolutely. Never again.

Breaking News - Nick Saban Calls Press Conference, Announces He Has Changed His Name To Mike, Blames Verne Lundquist

 

[bamanut_aj]

Be Honest-After Shula Was Fired/Before Coach S Was Hired, Who Did You Want As C

I believed the Spurrier talk, and thought if we didnt get him, I'd like for Coach Stallings to come back for a year or two while we executed a 'proper' search.


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[RollinTider1335]

Mike Price! That guy knew how to party!

 

[bamajag600]

I was banging the drum for Tom Coughlin. I had watched him coach for many years in Jacksonville and thought he had done a great job. He also had prior head coach experience at Boston College.

Anyway, in 2006 they were ready to run him off from the Giants after 2 years. There was the whole Tiki Barber thing and NY fans were screaming for him to be fired. I thought Bama would have a better chance of getting him than Saban.

Then Tom Coughlin coached the Giants to a Super Bowl win over the Pats in 2007. I guess it worked out for everybody!

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I thought CNS was the ONLY way to go. I nearly had an epileptic fit (hyperbolically speaking, no offense intended) when I heard on the radio that RichRod was hired. I made my feelings known here in 2009. I think RR is the kind of guy who can thrive in the right set of circumstances that involves avoiding playing tough teams (Hawaii, for instance; Boise State). But I think he's in over his head and overrated.

When I heard Saban's name in the search, I put together why he MIGHT actually come here. I am NOT a salesman at all, but I had worked out part of it. I've said before that when LSU hired Saban, I thought they were out of their minds, that he was another "latest fad" like Hallman and DiNardo. Keep in mind he had just broken through at Michigan St, so I figured he was basically another Ty Willingham (as we found out - Ty ain't that good). I thought he was incredibly arrogant to go to LSU and actually negotiate a national championship salary clause into his contract.


Then he won it all.

So I figured we had a good product to sell:


1) We were coming off the major period of probation on February 1, 2007 (this was before Textbookgate broke, of course). This would free him up to put his own team together.

2) Despite what he had heard about our misguided fans, they simply wanted a winner. And Saban had to know we had the raw material. After all, Shula-DuBose-Franchione-Curry - each of them a coaching misfit - all won ten games at Alabama (Curry's was the most impressive as he went 10-for-10 before losing the 1989 national championship at Auburn; Fran and Shula got 13 games). And his having been at LSU, he had to know the fire we had.


Let me add something else. I am NOT a body language expert BUT.....go back and watch his "I'm not gonna be the Alabama coach" comments. Look at him - when I saw that report, my immediate thought was, "We can get this guy." His eyes looked like a guy who almost wishes he HAD taken the train out of Miami. He has a sort of smirk when he says it that reeks (to me anyway) of insincerity in what he's saying. Go compare all of his other interviews with that. Rather than the defiant and determined coach we all know, he looks like a mouse cornered. (Note: please don't take ANY of this as a criticism of CNS - if he left here this morning, I'd thank him and buy him a beer just for restoring pride to this place).


So I was for CNS. He is the ONLY coach that ON THE DAY WE HIRED HIM I thought it was the right move. Stallings won me over by winning, but I thought his hiring was a pending disaster. I thought Perkins a train wreck, Curry a joke, DuBose unproven, Unmentionable living off LT's great year at TCU, and Price an idiot. (I tolerated Shula ONLY because of the circumstances of his hiring - firing Croom would have been a PR disaster).

And I'm proud to say I was right. Sure, I was wrong when LSU got him - but so what?

 

[skrayper77]

My memory is faulty, but I think Paul Johnson.

 

[257WBY]

I can't say I had anyone in mind. I don't understand why the SEC can't produce it's own coaches, though. Why does the SEC have to get Ohio coaches?

 

[JBama_in_PCOLA]

Be Honest-After Shula Was Fired/Before Coach S Was Hired, Who Did You Want As C

I wanted Lane Kiffin. Thank God I was not in charge of the coaching search and that was because I didn't think Coach Saban would leave Miami.

Say what? Lame? Kitten?! Why?!


Sent from Jay's iPhone via Tapatalk

 

[Al A Bama]

I can't say I had anyone in mind. I don't understand why the SEC can't produce it's own coaches, though. Why does the SEC have to get Ohio coaches?

How about coaches from the great state of West Virginia? We've got the best one in the SEC and he isn't from the SEC. Where was Frank Thomas from? Where was Wallace Wade from? Where was Gene Stallings from? I just don't care where they are from if they can win BIG TIME at Bama.

 

[KrimsonNinja]

Breaking News - Nick Saban Calls Press Conference, Announces He Has Changed His Name To Mike, Blames Verne Lundquist

:eek2: No! I knew Verne hated us.

Well, Saban has 3 Titles already so I wouldn't be too upset.

 

[CraigMack]

Re: Be Honest-After Shula Was Fired/Before Coach S Was Hired, Who Did You Want As C

I was a Butch Davis guy until I heard about the Saban possibility. I didn't start believing it was gonna happen until the hiring dragged on and I knew we were waiting on someone to finish their season. Never wanted anything to do with Spurrier but, make no mistake, he wanted the job. I thought that he was finished but he's done an outstanding job at South Carolina since then. I didn't think that he still had it in him.

 

[BigAL413]

Re: Be Honest-After Shula Was Fired/Before Coach S Was Hired, Who Did You Want As C

I remember rooting against candidates moreso than for certain ones. I was totally against Grobe and Johnson. Grobe seemed like a flash in the pan type, and after the inept offenses of the past several years I was not convinced that the option would change that.

Rich Rod seemed like a great choice at the time, simply because he was an offensive coach and that was the biggest area of weakness at the time.

 

[GulfCoastTider]

At the time, I was for anybody who was a proven success as a head coach and understood that defense was king in the SEC.

I really, really wanted Saban but I was doubtful that we'd ever get him.

Then McCready published the "Alabama has been passed" column and I knew that January day in 2007 was inevitable.

This place wasn't like some of the other Bama boards, but my... what a time of fear, uncertainty and doubt that was.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I had been getting info from CNS's agent's office, via several avenues, that it was a done deal for weeks. However, I found out later from CMM via BN that it almost didn't happen at the last minute. The two hurdles were the limb he'd gone out on while trying to silence the media and the fear of how it would be viewed, his coming back to the SEC west to a rival school of LSU after only two years. Only Mal's stubbornness and Ms. Terry saved the day...

 

[GrayTide]

Not wanting to start another thread, and since we are talking coaches; I was thinking after reading some of the posts on here, what would have happened if Bill Oliver had not jumped to au. Do you think if he had been patient and stayed he would have been named HC after CGS retired? If that had happened would we have avoided the dark period of Dubose, Francione, Price and Shula? Would he have won at least 1 NC and where would we be today? I will hang up and listen.

 

[Alasippi]

Not wanting to start another thread, and since we are talking coaches; I was thinking after reading some of the posts on here, what would have happened if Bill Oliver had not jumped to au. Do you think if he had been patient and stayed he would have been named HC after CGS retired? If that had happened would we have avoided the dark period of Dubose, Francione, Price and Shula? Would he have won at least 1 NC and where would we be today? I will hang up and listen.

I think he may have been given a shot. He definitely would have fared better than the other four who followed Stallings.
With the probation problems though I think winning a national title would have been extremely difficult.