Possumblog

Well, nothing in this for me...

...other than to sit and be somewhat cheerful as our cross-state opponents continue to dig themselves ever-deeper into a hole.

But this seems to be the story of the moment: Newspapers: Bama seeks talk with Spurrier about head coaching job

I really hate to say this, but despite all my silly trash talk about "Spurrier" being just another name for "Beelzebub," I really have come to have something approaching respect for him the past few years. I think his humiliation at professional coaching focused him and made him a better coach at the college level. He seems to have matured greatly from the experience and this has allowed his natural talent to shine better. He is a formidable talent no matter what college he coaches at, but I have to take him at his word when it comes to the 'Bama job.

He's been courted and passed over before, and that must be more than a bit galling. With the pressure to perform and the general level of distaste amongst Alabama fans for his past successes, it would be a hard job to enter and do well at. And having witnessed how the Bama faithful have treated the past seven coaches (each of whom was seen as the Second Coming of The Bear), it's almost a recipe for disaster to come into the program now.

Maybe that's just wishful thinking--Auburn playing a Spurrier-coached Crimson Tide will most DEFINITELY not see a repeat of the five-finger salute, so maybe I'm just hoping he'll stay at SC where there's not as much potential for mischief. But I can't fathom why any successful, mature, stable, highly-compensated coach would take the Alabama helm, unless he had some sort of killer golden parachute. Maybe they're willing to offer it to Spurrier just to get him, but as with every other coach since Bryant, one too many mistakes, and everyone will be calling for his head no matter how much they might be slobbering to get him now.

The game has changed. Parity is the deal now, and it's nearly impossible to have the sort of dynastic programs that once ruled football. You can't bring 150 boys with you on road games. Everyone has the same number of scholarships. There is more pressure for athletes to actually go to a school and graduate, meaning there are more talented players who follow what's not only best for them in sports, but academically as well. And the NCAA is much less willing to let the good ol' boy, wink-and-a-nod pass as a substitute for compliance.

Alabama was fortunate to have had one of the geniuses of football as its head coach for many years during a time when the structure of the game was much more wide-open, but were he coaching today, it's doubtful he would be as successful in bringing home national championships. He would also have been hard-pressed to have done much better with the team this year, given the impact of the NCAA sanctions against the team. That's why Franchione bailed a few years ago. There have been a couple of reports lately that he told more than a few people that Alabama would be lucky to have six wins this year because of the impact of the punishment. He got while the getting was good.

I guess my advice is to have some patience with whomever is finally chosen, and don't set an unattainable level of perfection based on an outdated model. Otherwise you're going to be going through the exact same thing in four years hence.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at November 30, 2006 10:11 AM