Quote:
Originally Posted by ApB86  It is very unfortunate that Mike Shula was not allowed to continue. He will recover, I am sure. However, the egos and attitudes of the rednecks that are responsible for the Alabama program probably will not. Bear Bryant is DEAD and no one at Alabama is willing to admit it. He is from a former time in NCAA football and no one will ever establish a school like that again.
I am a graduate of that school and enjoyed 3 national championships while watching Namath, Stabler, etc. year after year. Alabama's program has serious problems that are, I fear, caused by the very people who are responsible for trying to bring the program back. They screwed it up and won't allow anyone the time to fix it. They think 6-6 is bad.....wait til the next few years. |
Not so fast.....
Alabama has corrected one of its biggest mistakes by firing Mike Shula as its head football coach.It's a shame it came to this because Shula should always have a special place in the hearts of Alabama football fans for his days as a quarterback of the Crimson Tide. The drive he conducted in the final seconds of the 1985 Auburn game to lead Alabama to victory remains one of the classic drives in Alabama football history.
He should be a hero. Instead, he's a symbol of failure and unfulfilled hopes.It is said that athletic director Mal Moore would have let Shula stay if he had been willing to make sweeping changes to his staff, but Shula refused to fire anyone and planning only to shuffle assignments. That might be true. If it is true, then Alabama made the right move but with the wrong motivation.
Shula needed to go. He was a mistake from the beginning. Four years ago Alabama hired an unqualified coach with the hopes that he would grow into the job. He did not. He was just as lost in the Auburn game as he ever was and that was with four years of experience behind him. He never grew. He was still as lost as he appeared the day he was hired and faced the news media in a disastrous opening press conference.There are some that say he did Alabama a favor when he took the job. Alabama was facing the effects of probation and that Shula rode in on a white horse as the salvation of the program. That is, so much fiction. It's not like Shula was the only coach who wanted the job. It is just that he was the most inexperienced coach who wanted the job. And it's not like he donated his services. Shula was paid well beyond his worth from day one. And what does he get now for going away now? Alabama will pay him $63,000 a month for the next four years not to work. Don't shed any tears for Shula. If the truth be known, Shula will be laughing every month when he cashes that check and heads for the golf course.For that kind of money, he can even afford to eat at Shula's Steak House a couple of times a month. Remember the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"? Well Shula fooled 'em twice. Once when he got hired in the first place and second when he got the biggest raise and contract extension Alabama has ever given after having one winning season in his first three years.Shula did not do Alabama a favor by taking the job. Alabama did Shula the biggest favor of his life by hiring him and turning a soon-to-be out of work NFL assistant into a multi-millionaire. Alabama entrusted its program to Shula and Shula turned a team that was 10-3 the previous season into a 4-9 embarrassment, then a 6-6 and finally a 10-2 team in 2005. It was his high point, but he couldn't hold that level and slipped to 6-6 again this season.But Alabama, who has not shown a lot of common sense in hiring coaches over the past few years, did the right thing by pulling the plug on the coach that has taken the Alabama Crimson Tide to the point where it is only the fourth best team in the SEC West.Now that Shula is out, the next question is who will replace Shula? The normal names are being tossed about, but nobody knows for sure in which direction Mal Moore is looking other than Moore's directive that Alabama is going to conduct a national search and hire a proven head coach. Some media pundits would have you believe the Alabama job is not an attractive job any longer, but that's not true. Alabama is still Alabama. The traditions are still there. The facilities are about as good as there is any school in the country. And the first team the new coach will inherit is not without talent. In fact, there is enough talent on hand that with the right leadership Alabama could move back into a position of challenging for the SEC West championship as soon as next season.Alabama needs immediate authoritative leadership and discipline, two things that were missing during Shula's tenure. A proven head coach, not an inexperienced rookie, would immediately infuse these qualities into the Alabama football program, two things that were staples under the Paul Bryant regime and very much in evidence during Gene Stallings' tenure. They have been missing since and the program has suffered for it.If Alabama was content to be a middle of the road, average program in the mold of an Ole Miss or Mississippi State, then it could have given Mike Shula another four or five years to grow into the job, accepting the fact that it would not even challenge to be No. 1 in its own state. But if Alabama wants to be a contender for SEC and national honors again, then this move is about four years overdue.
Alabama has corrected one of its biggest mistakes by firing Mike Shula as its head football coach.It's a shame it came to this because Shula should always have a special place in the hearts of Alabama football fans for his days as a quarterback of the Crimson Tide. The drive he conducted in the final seconds of the 1985 Auburn game to lead Alabama to victory remains one of the classic drives in Alabama football history.
He should be a hero. Instead, he's a symbol of failure and unfulfilled hopes.It is said that athletic director Mal Moore would have let Shula stay if he had been willing to make sweeping changes to his staff, but Shula refused to fire anyone and planning only to shuffle assignments. That might be true. If it is true, then Alabama made the right move but with the wrong motivation.
Shula needed to go. He was a mistake from the beginning. Four years ago Alabama hired an unqualified coach with the hopes that he would grow into the job. He did not. He was just as lost in the Auburn game as he ever was and that was with four years of experience behind him. He never grew. He was still as lost as he appeared the day he was hired and faced the news media in a disastrous opening press conference.There are some that say he did Alabama a favor when he took the job. Alabama was facing the effects of probation and that Shula rode in on a white horse as the salvation of the program. That is, so much fiction. It's not like Shula was the only coach who wanted the job. It is just that he was the most inexperienced coach who wanted the job. And it's not like he donated his services. Shula was paid well beyond his worth from day one. And what does he get now for going away now? Alabama will pay him $63,000 a month for the next four years not to work. Don't shed any tears for Shula. If the truth be known, Shula will be laughing every month when he cashes that check and heads for the golf course.For that kind of money, he can even afford to eat at Shula's Steak House a couple of times a month. Remember the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"? Well Shula fooled 'em twice. Once when he got hired in the first place and second when he got the biggest raise and contract extension Alabama has ever given after having one winning season in his first three years.Shula did not do Alabama a favor by taking the job. Alabama did Shula the biggest favor of his life by hiring him and turning a soon-to-be out of work NFL assistant into a multi-millionaire. Alabama entrusted its program to Shula and Shula turned a team that was 10-3 the previous season into a 4-9 embarrassment, then a 6-6 and finally a 10-2 team in 2005. It was his high point, but he couldn't hold that level and slipped to 6-6 again this season.But Alabama, who has not shown a lot of common sense in hiring coaches over the past few years, did the right thing by pulling the plug on the coach that has taken the Alabama Crimson Tide to the point where it is only the fourth best team in the SEC West.Now that Shula is out, the next question is who will replace Shula? The normal names are being tossed about, but nobody knows for sure in which direction Mal Moore is looking other than Moore's directive that Alabama is going to conduct a national search and hire a proven head coach. Some media pundits would have you believe the Alabama job is not an attractive job any longer, but that's not true. Alabama is still Alabama. The traditions are still there. The facilities are about as good as there is any school in the country. And the first team the new coach will inherit is not without talent. In fact, there is enough talent on hand that with the right leadership Alabama could move back into a position of challenging for the SEC West championship as soon as next season.Alabama needs immediate authoritative leadership and discipline, two things that were missing during Shula's tenure. A proven head coach, not an inexperienced rookie, would immediately infuse these qualities into the Alabama football program, two things that were staples under the Paul Bryant regime and very much in evidence during Gene Stallings' tenure. They have been missing since and the program has suffered for it.If Alabama was content to be a middle of the road, average program in the mold of an Ole Miss or Mississippi State, then it could have given Mike Shula another four or five years to grow into the job, accepting the fact that it would not even challenge to be No. 1 in its own state. But if Alabama wants to be a contender for SEC and national honors again, then this move is about four years overdue.
12-02-2006, 05:39 PM
Re: Mike Shula Responds to Getting Fired 
Re: Mike Shula Responds to Getting Fired 
Linear Mode
