All of the onus does not go on Shula...quite frankly, it can be traced back to Sorensen and Bockrath. Shula should never have been hired, but given the circumstances he was probably the best choice. The fallout after a couple of losing seasons under Croom would probably have added to the perception of racism in Alabama.
A good litmus test is to ask the question "where would we be if?" and try to answer it honestly. If we had hired Frank Beamer in 1997? Gary Pinkel in 2001 (my personal choice when Fran was hired)? Urban Meyer instead of Mike Price?
Those scenarios make for interesting discussion, but how about this...what if we had been able to hire Saban in 2003, instead of Price? Do you think we would (in 2007) have a team lacking mental toughness, core strength, and overall talent? Sure Shula took over during a tough time and we were strapped by probation, but people close to the program will tell you that year after year our recruiting went like this: Shula targets big time athlete (ala-Tebow), lets big time athlete string us along without closing the deal, late in the game big time athlete commits to another team, Shula scrambles to find someone to give a scholarship to...I.E. McElroy. Have you considered that Smelley was better and wanted to go the Bama? One of the first things Saban did in recruiting was to drop the QB Shula was after and take a Miami commit from them. Anyone who doubts Saban's talent evaluating ability needs to look at LSU over the past few years. Shula was a poor recruiter...his best class on paper was the one following the Cotton Bowl win, and we finished 6th in the SEC, and the majority of the signees have not contributed.
MSU has a more physically developed team than we do...maybe not more talent on paper, but they were not "eating ice cream cones" over the past few seasons. They have had to work and since they hired this man:
http://www.mstateathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=90894&SPID=10997&DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=1100852&Q_SEASON=2007
They have improved even more. Shula fired him because he did not agree with his philosophy on S&C...understand...this single episode is the core reason I have little respect for what Shula did. Ben Pollard is the best S&C coach in America today and was about the only holdover from xCMP and xCDF that Shula fired (other than Price's sons). That firing alone should tell you a bit about Shula's decision making. People defend his loyalty to his assistants in order to justify keeping Connelly around, but he fired the best S&C coach in the business! Brilliant!
MSU had more talent than Tulane, UAB, and Maine when Croom was hired, it just took Croom a few years to get his players to the point where they expected to win. Their loss today was a matter of being physically outmatched on the line, not a mental issue. Our loss was the convergence of our mentality and our lowered talent level. Combined with bad habits in the S&C program and you get a disaster waiting to happen.
I don't hate Shula and I am not calling him an id10t or stupid or anything like that. He is catholic, but he is not infallible ex cathedra. He saw us through a dark time and things could have been worse, but not by a whole lot. I had Shula blinders on for a while, but I know too much to ignore what went on under his watch, and deny the consequences we are now facing because of it.
