Gene Jelks Reflects on his decisions to seek Revenge on UA

[BamaInBham]

True, UK is not a football power, but the point is that Bill Curry had the worst record in UK history. And he had the worst record in GT history (5 seasons or more) at his deparature. He may have been at bad places, but he had the worst records these schools had experienced. The context has been considered.

Most forget that Stallings recruited more defensive starters on the '92 D than Curry. Since his recruits were all of the Srs and some of the Jrs they should have dominated the depth chart. His recruiting contribution to the '92 team included David Palmer, Antonio Langham, John Copeland, Jay Barker, Chris Donnelly, Will Brown, Michael Rogers, Andre Royal, Sam Shade, Jon Stephenson, James Gregory, Chris Anderson, Tommy Johnson, Mario Morris, Sherman Williams, Damien Jefferies, Michael Proctor, Curtis Brown. That includes 7 starters on defense - and the QB and primary playmaker on offense (Palmer) among others on offense.

Bama only led 10-7 in the '89 game. AU had a 27-10 lead and looked like it might blow Bama out, but Bama scored 10 to make it 27-20, then AU kicked a late FG to clinch it. AU physically dominated Bama in the game. That was the problem with Curry's approach - not physical enough. Thankfully, Stallings quickly rectified that and beat AU the very next year. Homer Smith did a great job on offense with average talent, but his approach was finesse as was the defense of Don Lindsey.

I really didn't intend to prolong this topic but I have a hard time accepting some of the misinformation that is often associated with Mr. Curry. His expressed contempt for the fanbase and culture is not appreciated either. Especially since he profited so much financially and with his only coaching career success.

 

[IH8Orange]

It would be very unlikely for someone to have thrown a brick through his window.

The window is almost surely a safety glass, many of which have impact resistance well into the hundreds of ft-lbs. A specific notice of acceptance label on a particular tempered glass window references an ASTM method that fires a 9 lb 2x4 board into their window at 50 ft/s and the glass must not allow the projectile to penetrate the window. An average brick weighs about 5 lbs, so to attain the same impact energy as the board, the brick would have to impact the window at about 67 ft/s or almost 48 mph in the horizontal direction. The windows are not at ground level, so someone would have to throw the brick with some vertical component of velocity to get the brick high enough in its trajectory to impact the window, so that requires some additional velocity on the brick. Let's just assume that the brick must have an initial velocity of 55 mph to reach the window with the same energy as the board in the test.

Just for reference, a football weighs just under a pound and most NFL quarterbacks probably throw in the 50 to 60 mph range. A discus weighs close to 5 lbs (about the same weight as the brick) and olympic athletes release them at about 60 mph. So if this brick-thrower truly exists, it seems that we need to find and press them into service as either our QB or put them onto the track and field team.

 

[HartselleTider]

Had Curry beaten auburn at least once..He would've been around longer & would've had our fan support..Winning cures all in college football..Especially against you hated rivals..I miss Homer Smith's Offense during the "Curry Era"..JMO

Me too. I'll never forget our 62 unanswered points against Ole Miss in '88 or '89 I believe it was after being down a few touchdowns. Homer was the best innovator of offensive football I've ever seen. He was the first to predict the rise of the spread offense with the running QB.

I don't hate Curry. It's just not real easy for me to like him all that much.

 

[TideMan09]

Me too. I'll never forget our 62 unanswered points against Ole Miss in '88 or '89 I believe it was after being down a few touchdowns. Homer was the best innovator of offensive football I've ever seen. He was the first to predict the rise of the spread offense with the running QB.

I don't hate Curry. It's just not real easy for me to like him all that much.

I can respect that..Lots of good Bama Folks feel the same way about Coach Curry..And yeah Homer was the best of the best when it comes to the O side of the ball..I consider Coach Smith & Coach Saban the best offensive & defensive minds to coach the game(in my lifetime)..We're privileged enough to have both of them coach at Bama..

 

[TIDE-HSV]

It would be very unlikely for someone to have thrown a brick through his window.

The window is almost surely a safety glass, many of which have impact resistance well into the hundreds of ft-lbs. A specific notice of acceptance label on a particular tempered glass window references an ASTM method that fires a 9 lb 2x4 board into their window at 50 ft/s and the glass must not allow the projectile to penetrate the window. An average brick weighs about 5 lbs, so to attain the same impact energy as the board, the brick would have to impact the window at about 67 ft/s or almost 48 mph in the horizontal direction. The windows are not at ground level, so someone would have to throw the brick with some vertical component of velocity to get the brick high enough in its trajectory to impact the window, so that requires some additional velocity on the brick. Let's just assume that the brick must have an initial velocity of 55 mph to reach the window with the same energy as the board in the test.

Just for reference, a football weighs just under a pound and most NFL quarterbacks probably throw in the 50 to 60 mph range. A discus weighs close to 5 lbs (about the same weight as the brick) and olympic athletes release them at about 60 mph. So if this brick-thrower truly exists, it seems that we need to find and press them into service as either our QB or put them onto the track and field team.

Good analysis. Also, the window is not on the ground floor...

 

[bamacpa70]

Me too. I'll never forget our 62 unanswered points against Ole Miss in '88 or '89 I believe it was after being down a few touchdowns. Homer was the best innovator of offensive football I've ever seen. He was the first to predict the rise of the spread offense with the running QB.

I don't hate Curry. It's just not real easy for me to like him all that much.

'89, in '88 they beat us on homecoming weekend. Vividly remember because I was dating a "hottie" toddy who came down for the game.

 

[GrayTide]

I don't know, maybe because he lied and ran down Alabama for 20 years?

I understand the dislike for Curry based on what he said during his years as a broadcaster; my comments were meant why would anybody hold a grudge because he left us for UK? IMO the main reason there was so much disdain for Curry was because the general perception of him, by a large majority of fans, was that he thought he was better than us and he looked down on the Alabama football program, plus of course he could never beat AU.

 

[rhunter]

I think in 87 the anti GT feelings were probably still very strong stemming from the 1960's. Although CPB and Dodd "made up" and renewed their friendship and even renewed the football series with games in the early 80's, I'm sure some folks didn't like CBC because of that. I was a freshman at Bama in 1989 and those first ten games that season were an amazing time to be on campus- the weekend of the AU game and the weeks after, not so much....

 

[Roll Tide Roll 17]

Why all the Homer Smith love? To me he was at best a average offence co.
His numbers in his career were not very good at all vs rank teams.

 

[dirtroadlizard]

Homer Smith was one of the most brilliant football minds in the country and a great teacher of qbs .

 

[dirtroadlizard]

Article on Jelks from 1993...... http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/a...reats-jelks-sticks-to-claim-against-alab.html

 

[selmaborntidefan]

It would be very unlikely for someone to have thrown a brick through his window.

Why? A cinder block just got thrown through Jerry Sandusky's window.

The window is almost surely a safety glass, many of which have impact resistance well into the hundreds of ft-lbs.

"Almost surely" translating into "might be, might not be, we don't really know and that was 1988 and things change..."

A specific notice of acceptance label on a particular tempered glass window references an ASTM method that fires a 9 lb 2x4 board into their window at 50 ft/s and the glass must not allow the projectile to penetrate the window. An average brick weighs about 5 lbs, so to attain the same impact energy as the board, the brick would have to impact the window at about 67 ft/s or almost 48 mph in the horizontal direction. The windows are not at ground level, so someone would have to throw the brick with some vertical component of velocity to get the brick high enough in its trajectory to impact the window, so that requires some additional velocity on the brick. Let's just assume that the brick must have an initial velocity of 55 mph to reach the window with the same energy as the board in the test.

All of this statistical physics, however, ASSUMES your initial point - which none of us knows.

Just for reference, a football weighs just under a pound and most NFL quarterbacks probably throw in the 50 to 60 mph range. A discus weighs close to 5 lbs (about the same weight as the brick) and olympic athletes release them at about 60 mph. So if this brick-thrower truly exists, it seems that we need to find and press them into service as either our QB or put them onto the track and field team.

Interestingly enough, Curry agrees with you.

http://www2.dothaneagle.com/sports/2010/nov/17/bill-curry-recalls-brick-ar-1098988/


Let’s start with the brick story. Yes, it really did happen. A disgruntled idiot lobbed a brick through then-Alabama coach Bill Curry’s office window the day after the Ole Miss game in 1988.To this day, Curry is looking for that person. Not for revenge, but for a tryout.
“I thought that since we completed zero passes the day before, had we been as accurate as the guy with the brick, it wouldn’t have been required that he throw it,” Curry said


Let me add just one point - given all this what "everybody knows," let me point out something obvious - let's ASSUME the brick was thrown through the window. How does anyone know - since nobody was ever caught or arrested - how does anyone know it was an Alabama fan who did it?

That's a safe assumption, but that's hardly proof of anything.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Why all the Homer Smith love? To me he was at best a average offence co.
His numbers in his career were not very good at all vs rank teams.

Say what?

True, his head coaching record was horrific. There are lots of guys who were terrible head coaches who were Hall of Fame level
assistants.


He was OC at UCLA from 1980-86.

1980 - beat 9-3 Purdue, 9-3 Ohio State, and 8-2-1 USC
1981 - beat Rose Bowl champ Washington and Arizona State, lost to USC and Iowa
1982 - only loss to 10-2 Washington, beat 8-4 Michigan twice, 8-3 USC, and 7-4 Cal
1983 - loss to top five UGA team, lost to #2 Nebraska, lost to BYU (but scored 35 points),
beat 8-4 Washington, drilled 10-2 Illinois, 45-9, in the Rose Bowl
1984 - had a pretty soft schedule, lost 42-3 to Nebraska, beat 9-win USC and 8-win Miami
1985 - beat defending national champ BYU, tied SEC champ Tennessee, beat Arizona St and Arizona,
strangely enough, lost to 6-6 USC and 7-5 Washington, killed one-loss in Rose Bowl
1986 - lost to defending national champ Oklahoma, Rose Bowl champ Arizona State, and 8-4 Stanford,
beat two winning teams.

Let me hasten to point out that in several of those losses UCLA had no prayer. They gave up 42 points to
Nebraska twice and 38 points to Oklahoma. You cannot seriously suggest that Smith - an OFFENSIVE
COORDINATOR - is to blame for the DEFENSE giving up that many points.

So now let's move on in Smith's career:

He did a year - with a strike no less - with the KC Chiefs. Then he came to Alabama.

1988 - Alabama played all of two ranked teams in 1988, and lost to both of them - 19-18 to LSU
and 15-10 to Auburn. Two things: 1) the Tide blew a 15-0 lead against LSU (again, you can't blame
Smith for that), and 2) Smith was handicapped by the season-ending knee injury of Bobby Humphrey.
Both of those losses are likely overcome if he simply has a running threat. Smith didn't have that in 1988 -
David Casteal and Murry Hill were fine backs, but they were not Bobby Humphrey.

1989 - Alabama hung 47 points on Tennessee (whose only loss was to us) along with 62 on Ole Miss. Auburn
had a VERY GOOD defense in 1989. The only teams that got more than Smith's 20 against Auburn were Tennessee,
Florida State (22), and La Tech (23), who got some against the reserves late.

And guess what? Alabama's offense with Homer Smith scored MORE POINTS against the incredible 1989 national
champion Miami defense than any other team did that year. Miami's only loss was to Florida State, who scored 24.
Alabama scored 25. Notre Dame, the defending champs, only scored 10. Were it not for two TERRIBLE calls on
fumbles that Alabama took from Miami, the Tide wins that game - because the Canes scored on BOTH of those drives,
and one of those fumbles was in their own red zone.

 

[TideMan09]

Say what?

True, his head coaching record was horrific. There are lots of guys who were terrible head coaches who were Hall of Fame level
assistants.


He was OC at UCLA from 1980-86.

1980 - beat 9-3 Purdue, 9-3 Ohio State, and 8-2-1 USC
1981 - beat Rose Bowl champ Washington and Arizona State, lost to USC and Iowa
1982 - only loss to 10-2 Washington, beat 8-4 Michigan twice, 8-3 USC, and 7-4 Cal
1983 - loss to top five UGA team, lost to #2 Nebraska, lost to BYU (but scored 35 points),
beat 8-4 Washington, drilled 10-2 Illinois, 45-9, in the Rose Bowl
1984 - had a pretty soft schedule, lost 42-3 to Nebraska, beat 9-win USC and 8-win Miami
1985 - beat defending national champ BYU, tied SEC champ Tennessee, beat Arizona St and Arizona,
strangely enough, lost to 6-6 USC and 7-5 Washington, killed one-loss in Rose Bowl
1986 - lost to defending national champ Oklahoma, Rose Bowl champ Arizona State, and 8-4 Stanford,
beat two winning teams.

Let me hasten to point out that in several of those losses UCLA had no prayer. They gave up 42 points to
Nebraska twice and 38 points to Oklahoma. You cannot seriously suggest that Smith - an OFFENSIVE
COORDINATOR - is to blame for the DEFENSE giving up that many points.

So now let's move on in Smith's career:

He did a year - with a strike no less - with the KC Chiefs. Then he came to Alabama.

1988 - Alabama played all of two ranked teams in 1988, and lost to both of them - 19-18 to LSU
and 15-10 to Auburn. Two things: 1) the Tide blew a 15-0 lead against LSU (again, you can't blame
Smith for that), and 2) Smith was handicapped by the season-ending knee injury of Bobby Humphrey.
Both of those losses are likely overcome if he simply has a running threat. Smith didn't have that in 1988 -
David Casteal and Murry Hill were fine backs, but they were not Bobby Humphrey.

1989 - Alabama hung 47 points on Tennessee (whose only loss was to us) along with 62 on Ole Miss. Auburn
had a VERY GOOD defense in 1989. The only teams that got more than Smith's 20 against Auburn were Tennessee,
Florida State (22), and La Tech (23), who got some against the reserves late.

And guess what? Alabama's offense with Homer Smith scored MORE POINTS against the incredible 1989 national
champion Miami defense than any other team did that year. Miami's only loss was to Florida State, who scored 24.
Alabama scored 25. Notre Dame, the defending champs, only scored 10. Were it not for two TERRIBLE calls on
fumbles that Alabama took from Miami, the Tide wins that game - because the Canes scored on BOTH of those drives,
and one of those fumbles was in their own red zone.

Excellent post Selma..I'll also add that Coach Smith's attention to detail is legendary..This may be hard for some to believe..He was even more of a perfectionist than Coach Saban..Here's an interesting article about Coach Smith..That gives a small example of how articulate to detail he truly was..

Here's The Link..CLICK ME

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Homer Smith was one of the most brilliant football minds in the country and a great teacher of qbs .

Continuing:

Smith went to UCLA in 1990. Although they were only 5-6 - and improvement from a 3-7-1 year of 1989 - they DID beat the Washington Huskies team that won the next year's national title. That 1991 Husky defense was about as good as Alabama's 1992 D. To give you an idea, the TOP THREE defenses in 1991 were: Miami, Washington, Alabama. Smith scored 25 on them, and the Bruins won. They were the ONLY team with a winning record UCLA beat in 1990.

1991 - (9-3) - they were 3-2 against teams with winning records

1992 - (6-5) - now I will admit they were pretty bad this particular year. They had four games where they were held to single digits, including a shutout.

1993 - (8-4) - they lost by a single point to the best team in the nation (Nebraska, although they got robbed in the Orange Bowl) and by 2 to 9-4 Cal. However, they were only held to less than 20 points THREE times (losing all 3)


Smith then moved to Alabama for two years.

1994 - (12-1) - there was never an explosive Alabama offense this year. However - give Smith credit. He turned Jay Barker into a consistent threat. Entering 1994, teams could simply play to stop the run and dare Barker to pass. He had one really good game (1992 Ole Miss), and now it was up to Jay to produce. He brought the Tide back from a huge deficit to beat Georgia, 29-28, in one of the greatest games I ever saw. He also lit up LSU for 28 points (7 were on a blocked punt), and trailing MSU by ten with less than eight minutes left, Barker hit a bomb and then led a drive that ended with a Dennis Riddle TD and a Tide win. He torched Auburn's excellent defense for 21 first-half points. And only 2 teams - Auburn and Florida State, both who had much better offenses than the Tide in 1994 - scored more points against the Gators than Smith.

1995 - (9-3) - you have to put a caveat on a lot in this particular year. Smith had a new, relatively untalented QB (Brian Burgdorf), the team had lost Sherman Williams and did not have the running threat of Lassic, Williams, or even of 1996 (Shaun Alexander). And you had the entire program depressed over the sanctions. That was not a very fun year because it was predetermined to end in November. Throw in the ref call that cost us the Arkansas game. The only game where we monumentally stunk that year was the Tennessee game, and they had a decade's worth of frustration. We simply did not have the personnel to get into that kind of a game with the Vols that year.


I'm simply saying that I can't fathom what you're talking about. Homer Smith is a recognized genius of college football at the offensive coordinator position.

 

[Florida Tom]

I have enjoyed everyone's post, I can't go to deep but will sat this, Coach Bryant wanted Stallings, but because the Cowboys were in the playoffs he would not ask Coach Laundry for permission to negotiate. Jacobs being the man he was said Bama don't wait on anybody, several names were given by Coach Bryant, the chose Perkins who in my opinion was a disaster.

Hugh Colverhouse rarely went to a Tampa Bay Bucs game but Never missed an Alabama game he hurt his own team just to get Perkins out of Alabama, I know this as Fact, first hand.

Curry was solely a Jacobs hire, he did a lot of good, he hired back John Thorney & re installed the Crows Nest as a constant reminder of the Respect that should have been shown CPB.

Where Curry went wrong he went out of his way to alinate former Bama Greats.
Earning him the name Chicken Curry after the whole hurricane scare thing before playing LSU, his team just was not Ready.

In all fairness if Mr Jordan & Mr Neighbors wanted to Coach then they shout have applied. But, with all that said Curry grew to Hte Alabma & was acting like a kid not a grown man about it.

As for Jelks, he is just a drug addict that would do or say nothing for Money. I do not feel sorry or forgive him.

A lot of people really like to attack Former Alabama Coaches, but even Gene Stallings had issues with the Alabama Adminstration, that is te only reason Bobby Bowden was not on the sidelines after Perkins left.

Just be thankful that Alabama has the Adminstration now that lets Great Coaches like CNS do what the do best develop talent.