New coach search...
- Thread starter TIDE-HSV
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The problem is the competition has upgraded considerably.
I don't know who else is out there, to be honest. But swinging for the fences has left us striking out. I would normally say going for the home run hire is the right move, but not when the guy never wanted to come here in the first place. That is my only complaint. This was Mike Shula begging Tim Tebow to come to Alabama. Tebow was never considering Tuscaloosa, and neither was Marshall. The wasted time has eliminated our chances with other good coaches that would have come here.
In the end though... were any of them in the same league as Marshall? Maybe Smart and who knows if he would have considered us? So, perhaps our chances were never that good to begin with. I don't know. I'm trying not to be really negative but it is difficult at this point.
First, Prohm and White may not be the only ones on the list and secondly, the media is almost never completely right in these situations and often ridiculously wrong.
But you're right that there don't appear to be many good options. I'm not even being critical of Coach Battle, I'm just emphasing the critical nature of the hire, the distinction between various coaches (e.g., Miller vs Prohm) and wanting to press on for the best conceivable hire irrespective of perception. Would Prohm even be considered if not an alumnus ?
Btw, IMO, the press conference means little, nor does how foolish Bama may look to some. All that matters is who Bama hires. That is all that matters. The other will pass or be superseded by the quality of the hire.
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All I'm saying is this. If Battle did not try to get a home run hire, people would be whining about that. We didn't get Shaka quickly, though that only mattered when Marshall wavered. People whined about that. Now that we are getting to what was our more realistic list of choices all along, people are whining about that. Battle can't win. The only win was getting Marshall or Smart? That's my two cents...
I think the timing of the search was thrown off when WSU knocked off Kansas. Hindsight is always 20/20 but maybe we should have expanded our options at that time knowing that Marshall would not be available for at least another week. Had they lost we could have gotten our no from him sooner and possibly have had a shot at Howland. I will say it again, kudos to MSU for such a bold move.
Our "contacting" was done a little differently than in this case - if I recall correctly. Keeping the focus on Saban was hard to do.
I agree with you but CBB obviously thought he could get Marshall. It's not his fault Marshall led us on for 2 weeks. However, not having a backup plan is his fault.
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I've done a bit of research and if Steve Prohm ends up getting the job, I'm not sure it's as much of a letdown as we think. The guy has a 78% career winning percentage in four seasons, which is 12% better than his predecessor (Billy Kennedy). He's won an awful lot of ball games, which is hard to do consistently even at a good program playing in a weak conference. They won 25 straight this past season, and 23 straight in his first year (and a total of 31 that season). He favors a fast-paced motion offense and is an engaged, active sideline coach - basically the polar opposite of Grant. I think he would do a much better job of actively promoting the program.
He's far from a sure bet and could be a complete bust, but I actually like the guy's potential upside.
He's far from a sure bet and could be a complete bust, but I actually like the guy's potential upside.
You know, after hearing more of the story, what disappoints me the most is that we didn't offer over 4 million per year. From what's been reported, we weren't very far away from what WSU came up with. If that report is true, that's a factor - family concerns or no.
By not going over $4 million, we know WSU's offer was within a $800k of Bama's. Why would Battle not make an offer that was untouchable for WSU? Whether he wanted to come to Bama or not, make the offer more desirable to make him struggle to say no.
Agreed. We should've offered him at least $4.25M-$4.50M in my opinion. Seems like we focused too much on an offer based on where he should fit in the ranking of salaries based on his accomplishments instead of taking into account the desirability of our job and what it would take for us to lure a top-notch coach.
Is it confirmed that we didn't offer over $4 million? If that's the case, then we seriously need to consider rethinking the "Battle Plan".
From Cecil's column today...
Tend to agree. However, Battle should have made the offer more appealing. Then again, wonder if he lowered the offer after getting a feel Marshall was playing him.
Who's saying Battle did/does not have a backup plan ? There is no desirable coach that is going to stand in the wings, even for Kentucky. IMO, Battle is now executing his backup plan which is to pursue the next best legit candidates. Some of us just hope the list has more quality than Goodman reported.
(My only criticism of Coach Battle in the narrative thus far is that he did not have the pulse of the program until just prior to the firing. I can think of reasons why but none are justifiable though there may be one. The PR hits, IMO, are mostly meaningless or imagined. Though I have tremendous respect for Cecil, I even disagree with his criticism of Battle's post-Marshall press release. )
Listen, we missed on a very good if not great coach. At least that is what we are going on with the evidence we have. Upon reflection, I think he got a lot of wins in a league that was a 2 team league. WSU and UNI. That is it . They lost 5 games this year,and should have lost at home to us with CAG at the helm. What happens in a league where he has to compete with every team in the league for a win. It is a whole lot easier to get your team up for 6 or 7 games a year than for 20 to 22 games a year(18 conference games and 4 decent out of conference games. I do think he is a good coach and I would have loved to have him, but there was no guarantee he was going to be successful at Alabama. He has a good gig at WSU and can big a big fish there where he might have been a middle of the road coach in the SEC. There is no way to tell. For the record, I think he might have been hesitant because he knew he'd have to produce here and didn't want to compete week in- week out with equal talent.. He has out recruited the sisters of the poor u's in his league which makes winning in his league like UK against everyone else this year.
My point is Prohm may be every bit as good, but there is no way of knowing until we buy in on him and see. We have no more guarantee of success with Marshall than we'd have with Prohm and he is a coach who WANTS the job and will likely work harder than anyone else to be a success. I think we ought to let "Mama Call Him Home". What have we got to lose, he'd be infinitely better than the one we had and he might keep Pettway.
My point is Prohm may be every bit as good, but there is no way of knowing until we buy in on him and see. We have no more guarantee of success with Marshall than we'd have with Prohm and he is a coach who WANTS the job and will likely work harder than anyone else to be a success. I think we ought to let "Mama Call Him Home". What have we got to lose, he'd be infinitely better than the one we had and he might keep Pettway.
I am curious about this as well. Everyone on this board who thinks they are qualified to select our next Head Coach's staff, please give input.
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