scooter1369
HTTR Forever.
Just mentioned on Mike & Mike. I haven't seen an article confirming this yet. I'll keep looking.
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scooter1369
HTTR Forever.
Report: Alabama fires Mike Shula after 6-6 season
Associated Press
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama fired coach Mike Shula less than a year after the Crimson Tide finished a 10-2 season, according to a newspaper report.
Shula told his assistant coaches late Sunday night that Alabama athletic director Mal Moore had dismissed him, The Tuscaloosa News reported on its Web site. An official announcement is expected Monday.
The Crimson Tide went 6-6 this season, finishing the season with three straight losses.
Shula, a former Alabama quarterback, was winless in four tries against Auburn, his team's biggest rival. The Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 22-15 on Nov. 18, leaving Shula to answer questions about his job security.
"I haven't even thought about all that stuff," Shula said after the game.
Shula took over the proud but troubled program less than four months before the 2003 season after Mike Price was fired following spring practice for his off-the-field behavior on a night of drinking at a Pensacola, Fla., strip club. Price got the job only after Dennis Franchione bolted for Texas A&M.
Shula, son of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Don Shula, spent 15 years as an NFL assistant before he took the Alabama job but he had no experience as a head coach or on a college staff.
He received a new six-year contract in May worth $1.55 million per year. The deal extended his contract two years through early 2012, with a raise of $650,000 plus a $200,000 signing bonus.
Shula, 41, led Alabama to a 10-2 record and a Cotton Bowl victory in his third season. He has a 26-23 record in four seasons with the Crimson Tide.
Both North Carolina State and Arizona State fired their football coaches on Sunday.
The Wolfpack dismissed Chuck Amato a day after he completed his seventh season at his alma mater. The former N.C. State linebacker had a 49-37 record at the school and led the team to five bowl games. But his squads were 25-31 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and never finished higher than fourth.
Dirk Koetter was out at Arizona State after leading his team to a bowl the last three seasons. Koetter went 40-33 in six seasons at ASU.
Associated Press
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama fired coach Mike Shula less than a year after the Crimson Tide finished a 10-2 season, according to a newspaper report.
Shula told his assistant coaches late Sunday night that Alabama athletic director Mal Moore had dismissed him, The Tuscaloosa News reported on its Web site. An official announcement is expected Monday.
The Crimson Tide went 6-6 this season, finishing the season with three straight losses.
Shula, a former Alabama quarterback, was winless in four tries against Auburn, his team's biggest rival. The Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 22-15 on Nov. 18, leaving Shula to answer questions about his job security.
"I haven't even thought about all that stuff," Shula said after the game.
Shula took over the proud but troubled program less than four months before the 2003 season after Mike Price was fired following spring practice for his off-the-field behavior on a night of drinking at a Pensacola, Fla., strip club. Price got the job only after Dennis Franchione bolted for Texas A&M.
Shula, son of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Don Shula, spent 15 years as an NFL assistant before he took the Alabama job but he had no experience as a head coach or on a college staff.
He received a new six-year contract in May worth $1.55 million per year. The deal extended his contract two years through early 2012, with a raise of $650,000 plus a $200,000 signing bonus.
Shula, 41, led Alabama to a 10-2 record and a Cotton Bowl victory in his third season. He has a 26-23 record in four seasons with the Crimson Tide.
Both North Carolina State and Arizona State fired their football coaches on Sunday.
The Wolfpack dismissed Chuck Amato a day after he completed his seventh season at his alma mater. The former N.C. State linebacker had a 49-37 record at the school and led the team to five bowl games. But his squads were 25-31 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and never finished higher than fourth.
Dirk Koetter was out at Arizona State after leading his team to a bowl the last three seasons. Koetter went 40-33 in six seasons at ASU.
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SanAntonioBuck
RIP Our Friend and Hero
The school & the alumni, boosters don't like it when you can't beat "War Eagle".scooter1369;671204; said:
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ntd
Hall of Fame
osugrad21;671210; said:
The only ones on that list I see as the type that would risk going to Bama are the ones I don't think the boosters would want (Johnson and Grobe namely)...Tuscaloosa is too much of a backwater for Spurrier, there is no reason for Beamer to leave VaTech...Petrino and Rodriguez should want to go into a less volatile situation (but who knows really)...and I have no opinion on Gailey
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redstatebuckeye
Junior
I can tell you that Alabama fans are the most delusional in the country. Note that the Rivals list (Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Frank Beamer, Bobby Petrino, Paul Johnson, Rich Rodriguez, Jim Grobe and Chan Gailey) contain some big names. Importantly, these guys have little to no connection to Alabama, but that doesn't dissuade these fans from thinking everyone wants to coach Alabama. Beamer turned them down before they hired Shula. They should have hired Jim Leavitt (South Florida) instead of Shula, but he wasn't right for Alabama (he was recently divorced).
Alabama fans are convinced that the head coach at Alabama is the most coveted job in the country. In fact, while no one will go on record with the national media, they think that if they wanted Pete Carroll or Jim Tressel they could get either of them.
Alabama fans are convinced that the head coach at Alabama is the most coveted job in the country. In fact, while no one will go on record with the national media, they think that if they wanted Pete Carroll or Jim Tressel they could get either of them.
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SanAntonioBuck
RIP Our Friend and Hero
IMHO, I think these guys should get a good look.osugrad21;671210; said:
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scooter1369
HTTR Forever.
Personally, I think Bama should go a different route and look to an assistant outside of their program. Florida's Charlie Strong is the first name that comes to mind. Alabama needs to face the fact that at the moment, they are not a major player in college football. A fresh face, a fresh philosophy, and fresh start is what Alabama needs. Not a rehash with a coach who is coming just for the payday.
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WolverineTX
All-American
I wonder if they're kicking themselves for not hiring Sylvester Croom when they had the chance.
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I heard the short list includes Tom Landry, Mike Ditka, Walter Camp and Art Shell. 
That short list from that article is a freakin' joke.
All bullshit aside, Charlie Strong should be at the top of their list - but if Strong has a brain, he won't go near that job.
That short list from that article is a freakin' joke.
All bullshit aside, Charlie Strong should be at the top of their list - but if Strong has a brain, he won't go near that job.
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Unlike some of the big programs that can regain their luster if lost for a brief period, Alabama has ZERO luster now...only people in Alabama talk about their glory days, because no one else does. They are not competitive amongst the elite teams in the SEC, and they really aren't a threat to win their division anymore either. Given that the southeast has Tennessee, Auburn, LSU, Florida, Miami, Florida State, and a handful of other big programs, I don't think Alabama will ever regain the elite status it once had.
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BayBuck
Buckeyes are best
Bill Curry with a good article on irrational CFB firings:
Programs are rewarded with rational decisions
By Bill Curry
Special to ESPN.com
Archive
John Heisman was the head football coach at Georgia Tech from 1904 until 1919. He moved on to other coaching jobs, eventually landing at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, where the Heisman Trophy was originated, then named after him upon his death. On Heisman's departure from Tech, Bill Alexander assumed command, and remained until 1944. Bobby Dodd, an Alexander assistant, became head coach in 1945. He remained head football coach until 1966, retiring after his last team played in the Orange Bowl.
Three head coaches in 63 years ? three that established a program in which each won national titles, produced outstanding graduation rates, and during which all three earned membership in the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
AP Photo/Steve Mitchell
By sticking with Joe Paterno for the long haul, Penn State has been rewarded.
In 1951, Joe Paterno graduated from Brown University and joined his college coach, Rip Engle, as an assistant at Penn State University. Engle enjoyed a successful 15-year run as head coach, and was succeeded by Paterno in 1966. As every U.S. citizen and likely most of the world knows, JoePa remains in place after 41 years, one of the two most successful coaches of all time, along with Florida State's Bobby Bowden.
I could go on, recounting program after program that has prospered because a decision was made to hire a qualified man, set high expectations, practice a modicum of patience, and then stick by him. The decision includes the normal ups and downs one can expect when dealing with teenaged males in intense athletic and academic competition.
Any cursory study of those programs that enjoy a tradition of consistent winning, with dignity, and with concern for players' academic and personal welfare will reveal a similar set of circumstances. Sound judgment from administrators, trustees and athletic boards assures that qualified people are hired as presidents and directors of athletics. In most of these cases, the athletic department is viewed as an integral part of the institutional mission, but is kept in reasonable perspective.
That chain of command and leadership emphasis assure that the revenue-producing operations will be run like a good business. They assure one and all that the most visible aspect of the university's mission will remain out of the hands of immature, overzealous, often dishonest boosters.
Insane Repetition
One definition of insanity is that of repeating the same behavior while expecting different results. Universities that routinely change coaches for capricious reasons appear to fit that definition. The decisions appear even more questionable when those coaches are fired only months after they're awarded expensive contract extensions.
Regular folks who love their schools and who follow such programs ask me every year, "What could they be thinking?"
AP Photo/Butch Dill
Mike Shula was fired before the sanctions against Alabama were over.
I confess to a bias in the Mike Shula situation at Alabama. His father, Don, became my head coach with the Baltimore Colts at a time when my playing career was very much in question. He and his staff are the reasons I was allowed to continue in the National Football League. Mike was a little fellow running around our training camp. Years later, as head coach at Georgia Tech, I would try to recruit Mike to be a part of our program. We were unsuccessful, and we competed with him during his outstanding playing career at Alabama. When we moved to Tuscaloosa in 1987, he was just graduating, and was among the first to warmly welcome us.
Putting aside personal loyalties, the facts of young Shula's employment situation bear review. When he was hired, Alabama was staggering from a series of coaching changes (Shula was the fourth in as many years), the Mike Price situation, severe NCAA probation with scholarship reductions and the fact that spring practice had already been completed.
Two cruel ironies that would seem to demand an explanation are that NCAA sanctions end in January 2007, and that Shula received a huge contract extension this past spring.
Would it have made sense to give the coach who inherited nightmare conditions a chance to coach beyond the NCAA probation/scholarship reduction period? If that thinking was not a part of the rationale, then why extend his contract in the spring?
Does the decision-making process appear rational?
At Arizona State, athletic director Lisa Love fired Dirk Koetter. Koetter came on board after Bruce Snyder, who, like Koetter, had a winning record and a bowl bid at the time of his firing.
Koetter, like Shula at Alabama, received a hefty multiyear contract extension less than a year ago.
Does the decision-making process appear rational to you?
Perspective
When football matters become impossible to understand, I call on Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches' Association. Teaff had an incredible career as the head football coach at Baylor University, and has been serving the AFCA since 1993. I asked if college decision makers were really losing their minds.
Manny Millan/Icon SMI
Everything the Tide does is compared to Bryant.
"Tell those folks in Tuscaloosa that he's not coming back!" Grant responded.
I didn't have to ask who he meant. Bear Bryant's long shadow looms across the Alabama landscape, and is usually blamed for the huge expectations in the program. But Bryant cannot be held accountable for decisions he never would have made. For those of us who coached against him, we learned the hard way that he was rational above all else. His players remember him for always making the decisions that would be best for the program.
I told Grant that much more than a longing for Coach Bryant was involved here. He got serious and reflected from his unique vantage point. I paraphrase: "Most of the people making decisions about coaches these days have no football background. They did not play our sport, they did not coach it, and they simply do not understand it. So they work from their sports business school model, often ignoring the most important aspects of the situation: student-athlete welfare and fiscal responsibility."
Two types of situations are in play here. The one above involves a person, however well-intentioned, that has no possibility of understanding the complex dynamics of a major college football operation, with its 100 teenaged males and myriad issues related to their well being.
The second, equally devastating scenario is one in which the director has football credentials but is not allowed to actually make key decisions. Boosters who provide the hundreds of millions of dollars required to fund the facilities arms race manipulate decision making. I have no direct information indicating that this is the case in Alabama, but sources close to the program believe it with all their heart.
Stability
When stability is dictated by quality leadership, good football players gravitate toward the program, the local chapter of the Fellowship of the Miserable (moaners and complainers) shuts its mouth, student-athletes study, graduate and produce championships and programs prosper. In the midst of behavior that appears to be insane, the rational alternative is all the more appealing. With The U.S. Congress looking on, it would seem that the millions of rational alumni of our great universities would do well to get involved and force sound hiring practices.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=curry_bill&id=2679695
Programs are rewarded with rational decisions
By Bill Curry
Special to ESPN.com
Archive
John Heisman was the head football coach at Georgia Tech from 1904 until 1919. He moved on to other coaching jobs, eventually landing at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, where the Heisman Trophy was originated, then named after him upon his death. On Heisman's departure from Tech, Bill Alexander assumed command, and remained until 1944. Bobby Dodd, an Alexander assistant, became head coach in 1945. He remained head football coach until 1966, retiring after his last team played in the Orange Bowl.
Three head coaches in 63 years ? three that established a program in which each won national titles, produced outstanding graduation rates, and during which all three earned membership in the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
AP Photo/Steve Mitchell
By sticking with Joe Paterno for the long haul, Penn State has been rewarded.
In 1951, Joe Paterno graduated from Brown University and joined his college coach, Rip Engle, as an assistant at Penn State University. Engle enjoyed a successful 15-year run as head coach, and was succeeded by Paterno in 1966. As every U.S. citizen and likely most of the world knows, JoePa remains in place after 41 years, one of the two most successful coaches of all time, along with Florida State's Bobby Bowden.
I could go on, recounting program after program that has prospered because a decision was made to hire a qualified man, set high expectations, practice a modicum of patience, and then stick by him. The decision includes the normal ups and downs one can expect when dealing with teenaged males in intense athletic and academic competition.
Any cursory study of those programs that enjoy a tradition of consistent winning, with dignity, and with concern for players' academic and personal welfare will reveal a similar set of circumstances. Sound judgment from administrators, trustees and athletic boards assures that qualified people are hired as presidents and directors of athletics. In most of these cases, the athletic department is viewed as an integral part of the institutional mission, but is kept in reasonable perspective.
That chain of command and leadership emphasis assure that the revenue-producing operations will be run like a good business. They assure one and all that the most visible aspect of the university's mission will remain out of the hands of immature, overzealous, often dishonest boosters.
Insane Repetition
One definition of insanity is that of repeating the same behavior while expecting different results. Universities that routinely change coaches for capricious reasons appear to fit that definition. The decisions appear even more questionable when those coaches are fired only months after they're awarded expensive contract extensions.
Regular folks who love their schools and who follow such programs ask me every year, "What could they be thinking?"
AP Photo/Butch Dill
Mike Shula was fired before the sanctions against Alabama were over.
I confess to a bias in the Mike Shula situation at Alabama. His father, Don, became my head coach with the Baltimore Colts at a time when my playing career was very much in question. He and his staff are the reasons I was allowed to continue in the National Football League. Mike was a little fellow running around our training camp. Years later, as head coach at Georgia Tech, I would try to recruit Mike to be a part of our program. We were unsuccessful, and we competed with him during his outstanding playing career at Alabama. When we moved to Tuscaloosa in 1987, he was just graduating, and was among the first to warmly welcome us.
Putting aside personal loyalties, the facts of young Shula's employment situation bear review. When he was hired, Alabama was staggering from a series of coaching changes (Shula was the fourth in as many years), the Mike Price situation, severe NCAA probation with scholarship reductions and the fact that spring practice had already been completed.
Two cruel ironies that would seem to demand an explanation are that NCAA sanctions end in January 2007, and that Shula received a huge contract extension this past spring.
Would it have made sense to give the coach who inherited nightmare conditions a chance to coach beyond the NCAA probation/scholarship reduction period? If that thinking was not a part of the rationale, then why extend his contract in the spring?
Does the decision-making process appear rational?
At Arizona State, athletic director Lisa Love fired Dirk Koetter. Koetter came on board after Bruce Snyder, who, like Koetter, had a winning record and a bowl bid at the time of his firing.
Koetter, like Shula at Alabama, received a hefty multiyear contract extension less than a year ago.
Does the decision-making process appear rational to you?
Perspective
When football matters become impossible to understand, I call on Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches' Association. Teaff had an incredible career as the head football coach at Baylor University, and has been serving the AFCA since 1993. I asked if college decision makers were really losing their minds.
Manny Millan/Icon SMI
Everything the Tide does is compared to Bryant.
"Tell those folks in Tuscaloosa that he's not coming back!" Grant responded.
I didn't have to ask who he meant. Bear Bryant's long shadow looms across the Alabama landscape, and is usually blamed for the huge expectations in the program. But Bryant cannot be held accountable for decisions he never would have made. For those of us who coached against him, we learned the hard way that he was rational above all else. His players remember him for always making the decisions that would be best for the program.
I told Grant that much more than a longing for Coach Bryant was involved here. He got serious and reflected from his unique vantage point. I paraphrase: "Most of the people making decisions about coaches these days have no football background. They did not play our sport, they did not coach it, and they simply do not understand it. So they work from their sports business school model, often ignoring the most important aspects of the situation: student-athlete welfare and fiscal responsibility."
Two types of situations are in play here. The one above involves a person, however well-intentioned, that has no possibility of understanding the complex dynamics of a major college football operation, with its 100 teenaged males and myriad issues related to their well being.
The second, equally devastating scenario is one in which the director has football credentials but is not allowed to actually make key decisions. Boosters who provide the hundreds of millions of dollars required to fund the facilities arms race manipulate decision making. I have no direct information indicating that this is the case in Alabama, but sources close to the program believe it with all their heart.
Stability
When stability is dictated by quality leadership, good football players gravitate toward the program, the local chapter of the Fellowship of the Miserable (moaners and complainers) shuts its mouth, student-athletes study, graduate and produce championships and programs prosper. In the midst of behavior that appears to be insane, the rational alternative is all the more appealing. With The U.S. Congress looking on, it would seem that the millions of rational alumni of our great universities would do well to get involved and force sound hiring practices.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=curry_bill&id=2679695
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