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Coach Bryant's Weaknesses?

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ashleync

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Jun 29, 2001
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Pelham, Alabama
I was watching the 1978 USC-Bama game today on ESPN college classics, and watched Coach Bryant patiently walk the sidelines. It got me to thinking: what were his weaknesses as a coach?

It's hard for those of us who were pretty young or not even alive when he was the coach. We only hear about the legend. He won a bunch of games, and lost quite a few too.

So, you experts out there: What was Coach Bryant's weaknesses as a coach? Winning too much? :) Being too hard on his players? Anything at all?

Been a while since I was around, but here's a huge ROOOOLLLLLLL TIDE!!!!
 
ashleync said:
So, you experts out there: What was Coach Bryant's weaknesses as a coach? Winning too much? :) Being too hard on his players? Anything at all?
Click to expand...

There may have been a few minor flaws, but only one weakness: The inability to live forever. ;)
 
As a football coach, I really don't think Coach Bryant had any glaring weaknesses or failings. There were some teams he didn't seem to have too much success winning against(Texas and Notre Dame), but all of the other wins against big name opponents and the unparalleled six national championships he won make those losses pale in comparison. The only other coach that I think even comes close to having the coaching ability that Bryant had was probably Vince Lombardi, and he would still be a distant second, imo.
 
Well he only won six titles and didn't get to 400 wins?


edit: I forgot that he won in 61!
 
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I don't think he had any. He could get down in the dirt and coach every phase of the game, his organizational and motivational skills were legendary and he could read people like a book. Not only was he the best dang football coach ever, he was also the best AD.
 
We all have weaknesses. Even Bryant.

I was too young and ignorant of the game to observe this myself. But my father was quite knowledgeable, and saw things beyond my experience.

He said that Bryant had games won or lost (obviously, mostly won) at kickoff. Bryant was the best preparer of teams ever. Nobody outworked him or out-strategized him.

But if a game was close at the end (and because of the preparation, not many were), there wasn't a lot of help coming from the bench.

I saw a small amount of evidence of that toward the end of Coach's career. The last two Southern Miss games -- a tie and a loss, both in midseason and both against outmanned teams -- were good examples.

For my money, Ray Perkins was the better manager of tight games in the last seconds. In 1985 against Georgia, LSU, and Auburn, his playcalling and sideline management were magnificent.

In particular, after Al Bell ran for the first down on 4th and 4 or 5, Perkins called "white team". Meaning he had the field goal team all together on the sideline, helmets snapped on, ready to run onto the field. So when Greg Richardson dragged the Auburn DB out of bounds, there wasn't any thrashing around on the sideline collecting folks. That alone bought at least 10 incredibly valuable seconds.

Sounds easy now, 20 years later sitting at a computer keyboard. But if you were there, you'd understand the emotion in that stadium at that moment. To keep one's head with all that going on was truly remarkable. While it's true that Bryant's preparation might probably have prevented the situation from occurring in the first place, I'm honestly not at all sure he would have been able to do what Perkins did in that specific set of circumstances.
 
4Q Basket Case said:
I was too young and ignorant of the game to observe this myself. But my father was quite knowledgeable, and saw things beyond my experience.

He said that Bryant had games won or lost (obviously, mostly won) at kickoff. Bryant was the best preparer of teams ever. Nobody outworked him or out-strategized him.

But if a game was close at the end (and because of the preparation, not many were), there wasn't a lot of help coming from the bench.

I saw a small amount of evidence of that toward the end of Coach's career. The last two Southern Miss games -- a tie and a loss, both in midseason and both against outmanned teams -- were good examples.

For my money, Ray Perkins was the better manager of tight games in the last seconds. In 1985 against Georgia, LSU, and Auburn, his playcalling and sideline management were magnificent.

In particular, after Al Bell ran for the first down on 4th and 4 or 5, Perkins called "white team". Meaning he had the field goal team all together on the sideline, helmets snapped on, ready to run onto the field. So when Greg Richardson dragged the Auburn DB out of bounds, there wasn't any thrashing around on the sideline collecting folks. That alone bought at least 10 incredibly valuable seconds.

Sounds easy now, 20 years later sitting at a computer keyboard. But if you were there, you'd understand the emotion in that stadium at that moment. To keep one's head with all that going on was truly remarkable. While it's true that Bryant's preparation might probably have prevented the situation from occurring in the first place, I'm honestly not at all sure he would have been able to do what Perkins did in that specific set of circumstances.
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Gotta disagree with you. Your premise kinda suggests that Coach Bryant became a spectator on the sidelines, that he prepared well but couldn't adjust to the ebb and flow of a gme. I don't believe anyone could win 292 games in the SEC with such a shortcoming.
 
CPB said of himself that he was not a great coach of great players. He was better and more comfortable at taking average players and getting them to play above their abilities than he was at taking a superstar and getting him to play at his ability.
 
Coach Bryant was not original....

he would take a system and improve on it, but he never came up with original ideas for the O or D.

He was able to hire football minds better then his on the O and the D, and motivate those minds to work harder... and like it was said above, he worked better with average players motivating them to do their best......

I would say he was somewhat successful..... :biggrin:
 
Just two weaknesses: smokes and booze. Probably could've lived another decade or so without those two. But as my grandfather was fond of saying, "Without my vices, why would I want to live longer?" :biggrin:
 
SavannahDare said:
Just two weaknesses: smokes and booze. Probably could've lived another decade or so without those two. But as my grandfather was fond of saying, "Without my vices, why would I want to live longer?" :biggrin:
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Savannah,

Sure, Coach had failings as a PERSON, like we all do. You mentioned two of them that we're fairly well known. It's also well known in these parts that he wasn't very handy around the house doing repair work and such. The old saying," he can't even change a lightbulb", was told to me once by a trusted friend that used to go over to their house at the request of Mrs. Bryant to fix things occasionally. But, again, when strictly talking about him as a football coach, I don't think he had any failings.
 
Coach Bryant was simply the best college football coach in the history of the game. He had weaknesses as a person and a coach. Everyone does.
 
For some strange reason his Bowl Record was not very good. I heard on a radio show that some Big 10 nut was saying how awful the SEC total Bowl record was, about 50%. One guy said that Coach Bryant wasn't a "Good Bowl Coach". I know we lost some close Bowl games, but we still lost them. But I still loved the man and what he meant to all the fans of college football. Bring back the bone!
 
That's an interesting stat, the bowl game record. In fact,unless I'm wrong then one of you old-timers correct me, I think we were winless in bowls from something like 1968-1975.
 
Bowl record

Alabama Larry in Ky said:
For some strange reason his Bowl Record was not very good. I heard on a radio show that some Big 10 nut was saying how awful the SEC total Bowl record was, about 50%. One guy said that Coach Bryant wasn't a "Good Bowl Coach". I know we lost some close Bowl games, but we still lost them. But I still loved the man and what he meant to all the fans of college football. Bring back the bone!
Click to expand...

He had a better record in bowls when there was a shot at the NC. Maybe he treated the bowl trip more like a reward in the non-NC years.
 
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