I hate to go out on a limb here, but hear me out. CMM has made 3 head coaching hires at Bama (I believe he didn't hire Dubose).
Think about this,
Dennis Franchione
Fran was a pretty good hire. He brought stability to the program at a time when we were definitely unstable. The program consistently improved under him. We had two winning seasons, and one 10 win season. If it weren't for the sanctions, we would have been in Atlanta at the end of the 02 season. It's hard to complain too much about him as a football coach, besides his recruiting. Would that have caught up with him eventually if he stayed in Tuscaloosa? Nobody will know. Was he a snake-oil salesman? Yes. Did he run a clean program when that was THE MOST IMPORTANT THING he had to do? Yes.
Mike Price
It's hard to argue that Mike Price was not well respected when he was hired on at Bama. For those of us worrying that we were going to get someone like Fran, who could care less for the University, Mike Price's press conference was refreshing. He spoke of how the Bama gig would be the end of the road for him. I really do think that he believed that, and so did we. Everyone was happy, points were scored in the A-day game, we could all sleep well at night. But then, personal issues came up. Did Mal know prior to his hiring Mike Price that these issues existed? Maybe. I don't know, maybe someone on the board does. He had some issues in Tuscaloosa, he was warned. He had some real issues in Florida, and he was finished as the coach. It's probable that Mike Price just didn't understand what he was getting himself into when he took the job. It's also apparent from his work at UTEP that he is a pretty good coach.
Mike Shula
This is where opinions are horribly mixed and people get upset. We had previously gone to two outsiders and both had been total busts. We were in the thick of NCAA probabation, and we didn't exactly have a laundry list of great coaches wanting the job. Some decent coaches turned us down, and it came down to two Bama boys, Mike Shula and Sylvester Croom. Neither had head coaching experience and both were assistants in the NFL. Croom appeared to have great motivational skills. Mike Shula was an unknown commodity as a head coach.
Here's where I go out on a limb - MIKE SHULA WAS HIRED TO BE FIRED. I know it sounds crazy, but imagine for a moment that Alabama had hired Croom and he had the same record as CMS over 4 years. Who would be our coach at this very moment? CMS was hired and given the opportunity to do great things. If he turned out to be a winner, everybody wins. If he turns out mediocre, well, we survive probation and can then go pursue a very good coach. If Sly were hired and things had gone well, everyone would be happy. If we had decided to fire him, things could have gotten VERY ugly.
Remember that Gene Stallings wasn't the most popular hire at Bama. It's not as simple as looking at what a person has done prior to taking the job. You have to look at work ethic, dedication, ability to adapt, ability to work well with others, ability to deal with Alabama's wonderful state media
and our fans , and ability to please EVERYBODY ALL OF THE TIME. I think CMM deserves this last shot to make things right with the Bama Nation.
RTR (sorry about the long post)
