Posted on 11/27/2006 6:26:55 AM PST by MplsSteve
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.
Reached at home, Moore declined comment Monday morning but said he would hold a news conference later in the day.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
The person I heard that from is NOT an Auburn fan so you can cool off on that.
Bear friggin Bryant wouldn't have done any better with that team or any of the others Shula inherited.
Alabama is kidding itself, again.
Sad to see.
The problem for the Bama folks is that they want to do more than win. Bear Bryant was a character. Mike Shula is a nice guy with great looks. But he has no personality. No passion. The most memorable thing he did while coaching at Alabama was to fall on the floor during a post bowl game news conference. That's it.
I've got a better rejoinder now that I think about it.
Chuck Amato is free. He's a character.
I'm sure the Bama boosters would love him.
But fans expect Bama to win bowl games. Not lose to Mississippi State.
Did you see the Shula fall? It was hilarious. But I can barely remember the game preceding it. (now that might have something to do with having 8 children running around me at the time. but i watched the video of the fall several times. espn sure thought it was funny.)
Stuff like that happens when you've fielded a very young team.
That's what Shula had to deal with this year.
They were going to contend for the SEC West next year, and certainly they still may, but it's very likely that there will be two or three more years of 6-6 or 7-5 upcoming for the program as the new coach gets his players and his system installed.
That's just the average. Some coaches, like JIm Tressel, win a NC in two years (but it was with John Cooper's players mainly) and others, like Bill Callahan at Nebraska, bring such a philosophy change that just having the right players is a process of a couple years.
Who is Chuck Amato?
You know. Shula is just too good for Bama. Really. Too nice. Too friendly. Too good-looking. Too meek. Too conservative.
Bama wants a gambler. A poker player. A wily fox. Will they find what they're looking for? We shall see.
Chuck Amato was just fired by NC State. He fits your profile of a gambler though. To a "T".
The cynic part of me says Amato is a perfect fit for them.
However, that would just be TOO perfect if Bama hired him.
"So, paul might just be stirring the old ratings pot, but who knows."
Say it isn't so.......;-)
I know. I was corroberating through another source.
I'll repost some of what i'd written in another topic. As for relictele, being unreasonable only to mediocrity. You can thank Joe Kines for that 05 season, and that talent playing in the NFL.
Can you say Dennis "I'm not leaving" Franchione. Don't give me this crap, about all-in-the-family, they put that to bed in 2001 when they hired man teets francphony, and also Mike "I'm Rollin' Baby" Price IN 2003. Other programs deserve excellence, but so does Alabama, you and others should quit selling the program short. Bill Cury was Ga Tech grad btw, Gene Stallings a Texas A&M grad. So please move onto a subject like who is going to win OSU or USC.
Have you heard about Mike Shula and his out of control football program? He was playing favorites not putting his best players in postion to win i.e. keeping capps in, as he got burned not once but twice on the wilson fumbles that cost them the auburn game. A player slapped a graduate assitant, some players were late for team meetings, I probably could go on. Mike always had that deer in the headlights look. He was a likeable person, but he's not a football coach. Mal Moore told him fire your staff and he refused, so he fired him.
That is horseshiite! This team was certainly better than 6-6. In fact, the QB tied the record for TD passes in a season and DJ Hall set the team receiving yards record with just over 1,000 yards.
Saying that the Bear would not have done better with this team is laughable. He was a winner every year he coached at Kentucky, whcih included their last and only SEC title.
As someone who follows the program closely, I can see that you know not of what you speak.
Colin Cowherd today:
""Alabama is like the boyfriend who calls his girl 12 times a day. At first he's cute, but then he becomes a stalker"
""Alabama looks in the mirror looks in the mirror and sees Brad Pitt but in reality they are Brad Garrett"
LOL
Bear Bryant MIGHT Have gone 7-5 with this team. That Mississippi State game hurt to be sure.
Let's go game by game shall we?
Alabama wasn't beating Florida. That was obvious.
They had Arkansas on the ropes but couldn't finish them off. That is a pure sign of a young team, which this was.
You gave Tennessee a game, but the inexperience on your offense killed you there.
Mississippi State was a killer, but young teams lose games they shouldn't. It can be blamed on the coaches at times, but Bear Bryant lost games he shouldn't have as well.
LSU was going to blow you out either way. They are on a roll.
Rivalry games like the Iron Bowl tend to be closer than they should be and this year was no exception.
Alabama was going to be much better in 2007 than in 2006 because of EXPERIENCE. Now who knows because the new coach might be so totally different than Mike Shula that the players might not be the right pieces for the puzzle.
You can look forward to a 6-6 or 7-5 season next year but instead of being in the hunt for the SEC West title, as you would've been, now that won't happen.
Hope you enjoy it.
LOL
there is an unfortunate right of truth in that.
I think that the huge salaries are precisely the reason that the fans demand good performance from the coaches. I know that the contract extension to the ASU coach was a big reason that the fans were so unhappy with his mediocre performance.
FWIW, more and more of my Auburn sources are saying it's Spurrier.....
We will see next year wont we. I liked Shula, but it was time for a change. Time will tell which of us is right. Though I agree with his firing, I will admit it if I am wrong.
BTW - We will be better than 6-6 or 7-5 next year. In fact, the next coach will have the best talent situation of any of the recent coaches. One thing Shula was very good at was recruiting.
Please let it be Spurrier. I hated Florida when he was there (mainly cause they kicked our butts), but have to admit that he was an excellent coach.
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