Mike Dubose retires

Sep 30, 2002
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I get it from that perspective, and I don't blame Dubious for the fact he got hired. That blame should be pointed at the so-called "Old Guard", who insisted that one of the key points for hiring a head coach was "someone who played for our coach who has been dead for 15 years."
Thank you. My thoughts exactly. The day they hired Nick Saban, there were probably people going, "Whut?! That thar ain't one o' Bear's Boys!!"

If Coach Bryant himself had still been around to ask, he would have told them, "Get yourselves a winner, regardless of his pedigree."
 

Tenntiderman

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Dec 1, 2017
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I doubt he evokes any fond memories from anyone on here. But if he doesn't make a mess of things we are on a different timeline and might not have Saban. So there's that.

I remember DuBose against Auburn in 1974. Auburn was threatening to score near the goalline...Auburn QB Phil Gargis took the snap..turned to hand off to his HB and DuBose was there and accepted the ball 😆😆. I tell ya we had DEFENSE then fellas. Auburn was way better than we wanted to admit too. Won 17-13.
 

4Q Basket Case

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Nov 8, 2004
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Only with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight, I think the Dubose era was sad for everyone involved.

He was a really good DL coach, somewhat overmatched as a DC, and thrust into an historically Top 5 HC position for which he would never be ready….largely on the wave of a fan-initiated fax campaign.

Again, with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight, it’s clear that Dubose would never have been ready for such a job. He simply didn’t have either the organizational skills or the comfort in his own skin.

I’ll never forget Gene Stallings’ comments on radio about the 1997 team, during that season. Talk about damning with faint praise.

So Mike Dubose, the country boy from Opp, under-sized and over-achieving DE during Bryant’s second heyday, was making more money in a more prestigious job than he ever dreamed he would have. Sexual perks were easy to obtain, and he took advantage.

Previously-recruited talent obscured his own weaknesses, and things were looking up. The 1999 season included beating a Spurrier-coached Florida team twice, and winning the SEC Championship.

Then Chris Samuels, and most critically Shaun Alexander, went to the NFL. Dubose’s myriad personal flaws and professional shortcomings were laid bare in 2000.

It’s easy to see now, but wasn’t so easy in December of 1996. Mike Dubose was asked to fill a position he would never be capable of handling. He compounded his own limitations with a healthy dose of well-founded insecurity. A lot of it was because fans wanted, “one of Bear’s boys” and they made a lot of noise in that direction.

Sad for Dubose because we all have limitations, but most of us don’t have them exposed to the world on a public stage.

Sad for the fanbase because the 1997 - 2006 walk in the wilderness was no fun. And the nagging knowledge that if the fax campaign hadn’t happened, we’d probably have been better off.

Sad for the players because they deserved better from their coaches, their athletic and University administration, and yes, their fans.

What a train wreck.
 
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bamaga

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Apr 29, 2002
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Best of Luck. He was a great football player, one of my favorites. whats that. He coached football? I don’t member that.
 
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TIDE24

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Jan 12, 2000
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Only with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight, I think the Dubose era was sad for everyone involved.

He was a really good DL coach, somewhat overmatched as a DC, and thrust into an historically Top 5 HC position for which he would never be ready….largely on the wave of a fan-initiated fax campaign.

Again, with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight, it’s clear that Dubose would never have been ready for such a job. He simply didn’t have either the organizational skills or the comfort in his own skin.

I’ll never forget Gene Stallings’ comments on radio about the 1997 team, during that season. Talk about damning with faint praise.

So Mike Dubose, the country boy from Opp, under-sized and over-achieving DE during Bryant’s second heyday, was making more money in a more prestigious job than he ever dreamed he would have. Sexual perks were easy to obtain, and he took advantage.

Previously-recruited talent obscured his own weaknesses, and things were looking up. The 1999 season included beating a Spurrier-coached Florida team twice, and winning the SEC Championship.

Then Chris Samuels, and most critically Shaun Alexander, went to the NFL. Dubose’s myriad personal flaws and professional shortcomings were laid bare in 2000.

It’s easy to see now, but wasn’t so easy in December of 1996. Mike Dubose was asked to fill a position he would never be capable of handling. He compounded his own limitations with a healthy dose of well-founded insecurity. A lot of it was because fans wanted, “one of Bear’s boys” and they made a lot of noise in that direction.

Sad for Dubose because we all have limitations, but most of us don’t have them exposed to the world on a public stage.

Sad for the fanbase because the 1997 - 2006 walk in the wilderness was no fun. And the nagging knowledge that if the fax campaign hadn’t happened, we’d probably have been better off.

Sad for the players because they deserved better from their coaches, their athletic and University administration, and yes, their fans.

What a train wreck.
Spot on. After Curry and going back to Stallings, it is really forgotten now the importance, at the time, we stayed with a "Bryant Boy" and he was a fan favorite, especially seen as Brother Oliver bolted.
 

81usaf92

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Apr 26, 2008
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Mike DuBose is 2-1 lifetime against Spurrier. Gotta love that.
Which is baffling as hell because Stallings was 1-5 against him.

But Callaway, Stubbs, and Ellis owned Spurrier for those 3 games.

But ultimately Dubose should be 0-2 vs Spurrier. Everyone loves Auburn luck but man we had it that day in the swamp. Dubose literally punting with no timeouts left late in the fourth with 2 minutes remaining (@selmaborntidefan ?) and the guy muffed it and we got it. Then kemp missed the XP in OT after they did but Florida was flagged and he got another try which looked like he missed it again but he didn’t.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Which is baffling as hell because Stallings was 1-5 against him.

But Callaway, Stubbs, and Ellis owned Spurrier for those 3 games.

But ultimately Dubose should be 0-2 vs Spurrier. Everyone loves Auburn luck but man we had it that day in the swamp. Dubose literally punting with no timeouts left late in the fourth with 2 minutes remaining (@selmaborntidefan ?) and the guy muffed it and we got it. Then kemp missed the XP in OT after they did but Florida was flagged and he got another try which looked like he missed it again but he didn’t.
There was 3:20 left when we punted.
On their previous three drives, they had 3 TDs and 180 yards of offense.
And we had one timeout left.

They actually had more total yards (449) than we did (447).

No better than we had done stopping them, I felt like it was giving up. But Darrell Jackson fumbled, Marvin Brown recovered, and Shaun Alexander executed judgment.
 

TopBamaBloke

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Jun 7, 2021
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Which is baffling as hell because Stallings was 1-5 against him.

But Callaway, Stubbs, and Ellis owned Spurrier for those 3 games.

But ultimately Dubose should be 0-2 vs Spurrier. Everyone loves Auburn luck but man we had it that day in the swamp. Dubose literally punting with no timeouts left late in the fourth with 2 minutes remaining (@selmaborntidefan ?) and the guy muffed it and we got it. Then kemp missed the XP in OT after they did but Florida was flagged and he got another try which looked like he missed it again but he didn’t.
Actually he should be 3-0 against Spurrier. That ‘98 game was a heartbreaker. The ‘99 SEC champ game was a 34-7 win.
 
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Blueguitar

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It's kind of interesting that Auburn just hired a coach who had a 29-22 record at Ole Mess, went 2-2 against the dominant team in the SEC, never won an SEC championship, and got caught in a sex scandal as well as a recruiting scandal. Eerily similar to , but perhaps even more miserable than, Mike Dubose's record (24-23 record at Bama, a 2-1 record agains the then-dominant team in the SEC, won an SEC championship, got caught in a sex scandal and a recruiting scandal). Speaks to what a dubious hire Auburn just made.
 
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JDCrimson

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Feb 12, 2006
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I hold Dubose responsible for changing my opinion of Mike Shula. CMS was in over his head no doubt but he was given a soup sandwich all precipitated by Dubose. I still get angry every time I think about what he did or allowed to happen to our program.
 

We_are_Bama

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Dec 11, 2008
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Curry, Dubose, and Shula were all 3 miserably unsuited to be HC at Bama. Dubose and Shula had ZERO experience. While Curry had HC experience, what on earth possessed Joab Thomas and Steve Sloan to hire that fool? For one thing, what had he ever done at Georgia Tech that was so impressive? Oh, and he was WINLESS against auburn. Now, I've heard the argument made that had he stayed at Bama, he would have eventually beaten them. I could see that. But, he would have NEVER had the upper hand against them. I will say this. He gets unfairly credited with agreeing to play the Iron Bowl at Jordan Hare every other season. But, that was set in place before his time. That was on Perkins. The problem with that whole scenario was, it took WAY too long to work out our end of the home and home. We had to go to the barn's campus every other season, but when we "hosted" them, it was in Birmingham, up until 2000. It just felt like that gave them an edge, getting us on their campus, but they didn't have to come to ours for a LONG time. We should have been hosting them in Tuscaloosa as soon as they made us go to opelika.

All the coaches (post Bryant) outside of Stallings and Saban were duds. Fran was not a good fit, obviously Price wasn't. Perkins actually said that Bama fans would need to get used to 9-3 kind of seasons. He should have been fired on the spot for that. Mike Shula could not recruit. He was weak on discipline. He was weak on conditioning. Off season work outs were optional.If he had coached at Alabama 100 years he would not have won an NC. He turned the success of 2005 into the mediocrity of 2006 and 2007. It is truly a wonder that Saban got a 7-6 season out of that 2007 squad. Shula got more time than he should have because he is one of our own, but he was miserbly unsuited to be a head coach.
 

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