Tider27 said:
BAMAFSTBACK said:
MIKE SHULA cleaned up the mess. Franphony left in the middle of the night. A loser he will always be.
If we want to be technical, Coach Saban cleaned or is cleaning up the mess...the players leaving in the 07' and 08' seasons were indications of that. Mike was a great guy and I have a ton of respect for him, but he was let go for not cleaning up properly. Ultimately not making the changes needed to the staff, but with that said...we rode his back through the all the "mess", not Fran's.
Mike rode out the storm - and did a fairly good job at it...the problem was his recruiting was getting worse and the noted changes he refused to make were only compounding the matter.
Had Saban been the coach hired in 2001, we would never have suffered a .500 or below season post-DuBose. Of course Saban would not have left LSU so quickly, just using him as the bar.
Honestly, Fran had a good staff and was a good coach when he was at Alabama. The way he left ruined him. His assistants lost respect and players at TAMU never trusted him. He could have won a national title at Alabama...and probably would have.