I do not think this has been posted before, but is this crazy or what?? Alabama coaching search takes bizarre twist Cook's Corner Sunday, December 17, 2006 Ben Cook LindysSports.com The coaching search at the University of Alabama has taken a strange twist, one that could have far reaching effects on three and perhaps four Southeastern Conference schools and one Conference USA school. And it all comes down to a group of power mongers who have no business being involved at all. In fact, their involvement could even lead to trouble down the road for the University of Alabama itself in an entirely unexpected way. The group is the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, a group headed by Chancellor Malcolm Portera and driven by Paul Bryant Jr. There are others of course, but those are the two names most often associated with the Board. All along, members of the Board have hidden behind the excuse that Alabama athletic director Mal Moore and UA president Robert Witt and consultant Chuck Neinas were in charge of Alabama's coaching search. It is becoming increasingly apparent that they are not, that the Board of Trustees is pulling the strings behind one of the strangest coaching searches in the history of college football. Everything came out in the open last week when the UAB Blazers of Conference USA were ready to hire LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher as their head coach. All that remained was ironing out the details. It was to be for $600,000 a year, most of which was going to be covered by some influential UAB supporters. But then the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama system (which includes the University of Alabama, UAB and UAH) stepped in and said that UAB could not hire Fisher. They claimed it was because of financial considerations, but that excuse doesn't hold water since the bulk of Fisher's salary was going to be covered by boosters. Apparently, the Board of Trustees realized UAB was about to hire the most coveted assistant coach in the country. They realized It also could mean that UAB might wind up with a better coach than Alabama, and the idea panicked the Board of Trustees. They decided that couldn't happen, so they stepped in and overstepped the boundaries of a Board. They took the hiring of UAB's coach right out of UAB's hands. Not only did they not allow UAB to hire Fisher, they then imposed their own handpicked candidate on UAB. They strongly suggested Neil Callaway, Georgia's offensive coordinator, was the acceptable choice for UAB. The Board will deny the Callaway link, but after the Fisher debacle there is no other explanation for UAB turning to Callaway, a former Alabama player with no head coaching experience that no other school on the planet was looking to hire. Fisher had no head coaching experience either, but he has been coveted by schools before and will be again; Callaway has not. Fisher is thought to be the next Bob Stoops waiting to happen; Callaway is not. There is one other possible explanation. The Alabama job is still open and there are plenty in Tuscaloosa who believe Nick Saban is going to leave the Miami Dolphins after Miami's season ends. If Saban were to actually take the UA job, perhaps he would bring his old offensive coordinator from LSU with him, and that would be Jimbo Fisher. Then, in four of five years when Saban got the inevitable itch to move on, it would be an easy move to elevate Fisher to the head coaching job at Alabama, which could be what the UA Board of Trustees wants all along. That way they could achieve two goals--they could get one of the hottest coaches in the country at Alabama and simultaneously knock the pins out from under the UAB football program, making sure it continued to struggle along until perhaps just giving up the ghost and dropping football. That would delight the University of Alabama Board of Trustees. Now, I've explained the scenario that includes three SEC schools -- Alabama, LSU and Georgia -- and one Conference USA school -- UAB. So where does the fourth SEC school come in? There is a school of thought that believes Arkansas ultimately could also be involved. There has to be a reason the Nick Saban rumors continue to linger at Alabama. Most believe it is because Saban's agent, Jimmy Sexton, is the man pulling all these strings like a puppeteer. It is also believed that Sexton has another coach in his stable that could be a fallback position for Alabama if -- or when -- Saban says no. At that point, some believe Sexton will say, "Hey, here's an idea..." and pull Arkansas coach Houston Nutt out of his hip pocket for the Alabama job. Sexton accomplishes a couple of things with this scenario: he keeps Saban's name in the news and he rescues Nutt from a troubled situation in Fayetteville. Oh, and finally, there is one other scenario that could come into play. If you will recall, Auburn faced accreditation problems from SACS because of misdeeds from some members of its Board of Trustees, namely meddling in Auburn's coaching situation. Although SACS has recently reaccredited all three of the schools in the Alabama system, that doesn't mean they can't get back involved. At the moment, SACS is watching with interest the shenanigans of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in the Alabama--and apparently the UAB--coaching searches. It could still work out well for everybody. Alabama might wind up with a good coach and Neil Callaway could turn out to be a good head coach for UAB, but the University of Alabama Board of Trustees is only concerned about the first half of that scenario.
Yeah, Salty posted it in another thread, but it deserves a topic of its own. We've seen this business about the politicians getting involved with coach hiring before . . . and its never been good. The LSU Board of Supervisors ran off Charlie Mac in 1979, to the long-lasting detriment of the program. Auburns politics are apparently wielded by one trustee in Bobby Louder. He embarrassed Auburn and almost derailed Tuberville by courting Petrino a few months before Tuberville had an undefeated season. The Bama BOT should have let Jimbo go to Alabama-Birmingham and they should have let the AD hire a good man right now for Alabama-Tuscaloosa and try to salvage the recuting season. Even if they lure Saban there in January, he'll only stick a few years before some othe NFL or college comes calling. Nick has happy feet, you know. Bama needs long-term stability very badly.
The mindset and priorities of the entire state of Alabama are severely out of whack. Most of all I feel bad for Jimbo Fisher, I would have hated to see him go, but he has wanted the opportunity to be a HC somewhere for sometime and is a deserving candidate. Now he is probably out of luck as far as a head coaching job is concerned, unless he is a candidate for one of the few remaining vacancies, which I am not sure of. UAB had a chance to hire one of the more promising young coaches in the country. That would have been a good catch for their program and here comes big bad Alabama waaay over stepping their boundries. I can't wait until January, Alabama will have to scramble to hire someone else when they finally realize Saban is stringing them along, rush the hiring of Steve Kragthorpe or some other unsexy candidate, end up losing most of their recruits setting the program back even more. Everytime their board of trustees tries to meddle with the program they do even more damage. Alabama is like a painting that the artist just couldn't stop making brush strokes on, until eventually he ruined the whole thing. What they should have done (other than not firing Shula in the first place, 10 wins should grant you at least 2 more years to turn things around i'd think) is hire a young, promising assistant or smaller head coach instead of throwing money at unattainable commodities. Mark Richt, Bob Stoops, and Greg Schiano were once unproven as head coaches, and look how that worked out for the schools that took a chance on them. Why wouldn't they try to hire Jon Tenuta, Jimbo or Pelini, or any of the the dozens of other great coordinators in college football instead of setting the wishlist at Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban? Because Alabama thinks three decades behind, that's why. Hiring an a non-"name" guy hurts initially but if you do it early enough you can still sell recruits on the future of the program. What kid is gonna want to go there now after seeing them get rejected by every coach they have offered so far?
No need to paint the entire state with the same brush .... or, would you have folks think the same way about LSU because of mistakes made by another of the state's universities? Baby out with the bathwater, IMO. No, I'm afraid the Bama delusion makes all other universities pale by comparison. It's a travishamockery ... Here's the dead giveaway ..... the BOT okays a payout plan for Shula and staff that was far in excess of the money they were discussing for CJF. Their motive was clear, and it was well stated in the article:
LSU does it the right way. They don't let any of their other system schools have football teams period. I.E. UNO, LSU-A, LSU-S etc. :hihi:
Caddy, Just my opinion, and I could be wrong, but I think when he said everyone in Alabama, he really meant all the Tide fans, and their thinking on the head coach situation, not the non-Tide fans. That's the way I took it anyhow. Don't look at what he wrote, but guess what he really meant. Just my .02 ...
Yeah, my apology to you Caddy. I mean those in Alabama who are affiliated with Universtiy of Alabama.
The board of trusties is really screwing Alabama into the ground. It may take the Tide years to overcome their stupidity and meddling.
Alabama likes to think of themselves as the sleeping giant about to be re-awakened. Sadly, as Caddy pointed out, most of it is dillusion. Bama thinks they can snap their fingers and any coach or recruit will come running. They have spent 10's of millions of dollars to upgrade their facilities with the mind set of "build it and they will come". Aint happening folks. Bama is so living in the past that it doesnt matter today how many SEC or NC titles they have. To the average joe public college football fan, Alabama is nothing more than a glorified ole missy or south carolina. Their fan base is so far out of the mainstream thinking its pathetic. I cant stand living around these gomers.
I agree the process has been real ugly, liking making sausage in public, but it they come down with Saban, all the ugliness will be forgiven and quickly forgotten. It just depends how it comes down. I still view Saban as a longshot for the Tide, but I give it better odds now than I would have 2 weeks ago. The dead silence from the press on the Bama search tells me something unusual is going on. Like the guy has a deal, but nobody can talk about it. Or they don't have a deal, but are willing to wait 2 or 3 weeks to land a big fish, and are willing to lose the time and a couple of smaller fish in the mean time. 3 weeks ago, I'd have put the odds on Saban to Bama at 1% and now I'd put it at 10%, maybe even 20%. His past with LSU will not even be a consideration for him, its a coaching job; he'll evaluate whether he has the ingredients to win, the ability to recruit, hire good assistants, that's all.
