🏈 Anniversaries: Ten years ago, this week, in Tuscaloosa ...

[TerryP]

I know I was fuming and done with Shula. Today, if I recall, was the day when the ADMIN remained very quiet about his future. We found out a few days into that week he was out, Kines was catching the interim tag, and the rest ... is history: literally.

 

[Bamabww]

I remember that week very well, a very painful time. I had tried to defend Mike but in my heart I knew he was in over his head. I have an article about the need to replace him from the Tuscaloosa News somewhere if I can find it.

 

[Bamabww]

Found it: Cecil Hurt's article from November 20, 2006

CECIL HURT: Does Alabama have the best coach it could have?

There could be a million questions asked about Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn game and 999,999 of them don’t matter.

Forget about asking the many obvious strategic questions that came up they don’t matter.

The first-quarter decision not to go for a touchdown when the offense bogged down (again) inside the Auburn 5-yard line? It doesn’t matter.

The second-quarter decision to pursue a frivolous 2-point conversion (after a timeout to think about it)? It doesn’t matter.

The fourth-quarter decision to go for a fourth-and-15 at the Auburn 18 with 5:17 remaining, after sending the kicking team on and (again) wasting a valuable timeout to think about it? It doesn’t matter.

The swinging gate at the right end of the Alabama offensive line that allowed two crucial fumble-causing hits on John Parker Wilson? It doesn’t matter.

Debate those strategic decisions what play was called, what players were in the game all you want. They had an impact on the outcome, of course, but are just symptoms that have recurred in one form or another in every single game this season, six less-than-stellar wins and now six dismal losses, including all three games in November.

To continue with the questions...

Should 6-6 Alabama accept a bowl bid, in the increasingly unlikely event that one is extended by the Independence Bowl, or one of the couple of off-brand bowls that might have an opening? It doesn’t matter.

What about the inability to come back from a fourth-quarter deficit for the 19th or is it the 20th straight time? It doesn’t matter.

The staggeringly consistent failure to score more than 20 points in regulation in any SEC game this season? It doesn’t matter.

The 2-8 record in the last 10 SEC games? It doesn’t matter.

The five straight losses to Auburn, including one Saturday that confirmed that the Tigers don’t even have to play at the top of their form to win the game on Alabama’s home turf. Certainly, AU did most of the little things better than Alabama did but their quarterback was hurting, and their defense made some mistakes. It didn’t matter. Auburn now feels it can win, regardless, against Alabama, and while it’s futile to look four years down the road, one can rest assured that the Tigers have Paul Bryant’s series record of nine straight wins prominently on their orange-and-blue To Do list.

Some day, there will be time to reflect on all those things. This morning isn’t that time.

There is just one question that matters today. I can ask it, or you can ask it, but it doesn’t matter unless the right person at the University of Alabama asks it.

Does the Crimson Tide football program have the best head coach it could have?

If the answer is “yes”, then nothing more needs to be said.

If the answer is “no,” then there are a few follow-up questions, like “why?” and “what is to be done about that?”

No other considerations should make any difference. Yes, there is a short list of reasons to keep Mike Shula as the Tide’s head coach in the wake of a 6-6 season and a fifth straight loss to Auburn. Most of them are financial, or perceptual. It would cost a lot of money $4 million, give or take a little to buy him out.

Or it might be that, since Shula took the job when Alabama was in dire straits, it wouldn’t be gentlemanly to make a move, even as the gap between UA and the league’s top programs seems to be widening, not narrowing.

Or it might just be the path of least resistance to simply stick with the status quo, to not go about the tough chore of attracting a proven replacement.

But unless the reason is that he is the best coach Alabama could have right now, do the above considerations really matter?

Will someone at the University of Alabama actually ask the hard question?

One has to hope so. It’s been debated over the past few weeks and, despite what some have said, there was no firm answer reached before the Auburn game.

Shula himself said there would be “an evaluation” of the wreckage of the 2006 season, a reconnaissance of the smoldering ruins that would involve his own evaluation of the coaching staff and would “probably” involve Athletic Director Mal Moore and University President Dr. Robert Witt.

No one is surprised that the higher-ups want answers, ones which should have been demanded before now, frankly. In that process, perhaps Shula can make his case, and explain how things that did not get one iota better from the first week of the season to the last week, will get better with another spring, or another offseason.

Perhaps he’ll recommend staff changes he made a postgame allusion to Tennessee’s improvement from 2005 to 2006 that clearly begged the question of a new offensive coordinator, at a minimum.

Things like staff changes, or philosophy changes, or recruiting changes, are all trivial details, though, when compared to the one important question.

To repeat it: Does the Crimson Tide football program have the best head coach it could have?

It isn’t an easy question, even if increasingly frustrated UA fans have a quick answer ready. It’s tough to factor out all the variables, like Mike Shula being a good person (which he is). But it’ got to be asked. It probably should have been asked and answered already, but the deadline for a response has now arrived, inescapably.

For Alabama’s sake, it better be the right answer. Because if it isn’t, then the question you’ll be hearing a few years from now might very well be, “Whatever happened to Alabama football?” and what is far worse is the answer that might come hauntingly back,

“It doesn’t matter.”

 

[rick4bama]

I remember that week very well, a very painful time. I had tried to defend Mike but in my heart I knew he was in over his head. I have an article about the need to replace him from the Tuscaloosa News somewhere if I can find it.

I was the same way, trying to find away that he would get this program on the going!