Before I rant, thanks to C67 for telling us this - sincerely.
I challenge anyone to turn down their dream job in their profession. He may have struggled, and I did get frustrated, but I have no doubt he loves the University.
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."
However, we are talking about a guy who:
- spent years getting everyone to buy his excuses when we lost
- apparently felt an 11-12 record meant having an affair with his secretary was okay
- had the gall when Alabama started the 2000 season at #3 to say it wouldn't be long before we were #1
- broke down crying in the locker room after the 2000 USM game because "I'm doing everything the same I did last year" (yeah - but you didn't have a senior-laden team recruited by YOUR PREDECESSOR to bail you out!)
- lost TWICE to La Tech
- lost to UCF (I was rooting for us to lose that one just so he'd go away, the season was gone)
- when he got busted fooling around in the wrong pew, he went all evangelist
- was running the show and ran a loose enough ship that even if he didn't personally cheat, he was still the CEO when the Albert Means scandal happened
Believe it or not, I'm fine with "hey, a coach got hired and it just wasn't the right fit, didn't work out." I basically look at Perkins and Curry - and (for the most part) - Shula in that light. And in Shula's case, I decided long ago to separate my memories of him into the (mostly) good ones as a player and the so-so ones of him as a coach.
But Dubious played before I was ever an Alabama fan. As a head coach, he was Gerry Faust without the personal character.
And btw - this whole "if we hadn't hired him we might not have Saban" argument....well, that's like saying if I didn't go through a divorce from someone that I wouldn't have married the second woman, who was better (mostly by comparison) and her best friend oh yeah.