Tide must not squander this opportunity

…coaches will leave sooner or later, and we can only hope that none of our current (or future) players makes a poor decision that jeopardizes the program. UT is still a bit of a mess, but I will give a nod to Auburn for improving their lot in the past year.

However, our facilities and — more importantly — our recruiting are second to none. As long as CNS and Mal Moore are around, those two major components of our success are highly unlikely to change. I’m expecting Mal to retire in the near future, so let’s hope we nail the next hire there.

And I’m expecting CNS to coach well into his 90s. That’s reasonable, right?

I think another problem, in retrospect, was the sense of complacency that fell over the program (fans, players, coaches, and administrators). I think a lot of people just assumed that Alabama would go back to dominating college football again, and people felt a sort of sense of destiny, as opposed to remembering all the hard work it took to get there. I cannot think of any group that more embodied that then Mike Dubose’s teams.

Moreso, we have seen even in the recent past how complacency can harm a program. There has never been a championship team that returned as many starters as the 2009 Florida Gators did, and yet players admitted after the Alabama game how they took things for granted. The USC teams of the earlier decade looked certain to win multiple national championships, with literally no one West of Texas to compete against. Yet, USC consistently overlooked smaller PAC-10 schools, and cost itself a shot at another national title, and with the recent changes at USC and the improved play in the PAC-10, USC looks like a long shot for the first time in nearly 8 years to even win the PAC-10.

Greatness, especially in college football is a very fluid thing. Things tend to change very quickly, and the slightest mis-step will lead way to another better, hungrier team passing you by.

The reality of the situation for Alabama is that we play football in the most competitive confrence in the country, and in the most competitive division in the country. It is going to be difficult every year to win the SEC West, much less the SEC. The only good news is that if Alabama can do both of those things, Alabama has a great opportunity to play for national championships.

all starts at the top. As long as Saban wants to coach Alabama, I firmly believe we will be a national powerhouse. Saban is a program builder. He does it at all levels; recruiting, facilities, coaching staff, administration etc. He builds a program from the group up so that it can sustain success over time. One doesn’t have to look far (LSU) to see other examples of this. With the recruiting, facilities and elite coaching/leadership that exist on the Capstone, I simply have no reason to think Alabama won’t sustain a high level of success. Expectations are certainly high right now, they couldn’t be higher. But as you said, continued success has to be earned. We must not fall into the same entitlement mentality that many fans have fallen into in the past. Its one of the few criticisms by outsiders that I do think has some merit. If anyone can manage expectations its coach Saban. Alabama gets everybody’s best game, that’s no secret. It was the case even in down years and it will only intensify going forward. Losses happen, you can’t win every game forever. But I believe as long as Saban leads this program, Alabama will be in the championship conversation on a regular basis. And that’s as good anybody can ask for.

I’m genuinely excited to see what Saban can do with a team full players he recruited especially for his system. I’m hoping we are set to see a team that is unprecedented in college football with a defense that absolutely shuts down whatever is put in front of it, and an offense that methodically moves the ball down a defense’s throat.

Does anyone else foresee this? Is this too much to expect?

I would really like to know in detail what went wrong with the program in the 1990s. Specifically, I want the full story about the Albert Means fiasco; what, if anything, did Mike Dubose or his staff know and when did they know it? What boosters were involved and how? What was Logan Young’s role? Was he insane and what of the bizarre circumstances of his death? Whatever happened was apparently so egregious as to almost get Bama football SMU’ed out of existence yet I feel wholly ignorant as to how exactly this epic shyt sandwich was made. Might someone here at RBR help a brother out and recommend some book or other source of information that will answer these and other questions I have?

Thanks.

OTS, I think the one program you overlooked was the Gators. While we may have squandered our post 1/1/93 opportunity, even at that time it seemed like Spurrier was on the verge of turning Florida into a powerhouse. And, of course, that not only happened, in a sense it happened at our expense. We kept losing to them in conference championships, anyway.

On the flipside, I think you can make an argument that Florida now might be tantamount to Alabama then. I’m not necessarily talking about that in terms of facilities or probation, but as a powerhouse whose time is passing. We’ll see, of course. Meyer (or whomever is coaching/recruiting) could very well right the briefly wobbling ship. But, if they don’t, you damn well know they’ll look back at this very period as the tipping point.

I don’t know if I agree totally with this. Stallings averaged 10 wins a year during his time at Alabama, despite contstant threats of probation. Also, Bama was not put on probation due to Langham’s napkin, but other stuff which came up during the investigation, but mostly due to the hard on the NCAA had for the Tide at the time.

Also remember that this was when Florida was coming into it’s own. Without them in the way, Bama would have likely played for another NC, and would have won a slew more SECCGs in the 90s.

In the end, the constant pressure of the NCAA infractions was the main thing that doomed Stallings, along with a disintristed president and a weak AD. IMHO, things started to turn around when Mal Moore got the AD job. Things have not been perfect since, but as long as Mal remains the head over there, I’m quite confident in our prospects.

Everyone says it’s all about the players. On the field talent is the most important aspect of a championship team. Yes there is an importance of staff and supporting roles, but, it boils down to personnel.

We’ve all seen what a National Title does for recruiting. Experts say you reap the recruiting reward one year later. The Tide’s 2010 class began to form well before the BCS Title game of 2009. This class is prolly going to give Nick Saban his 3rd consecutive top 3 class. If the experts are correct Bama has already turned it’s attention to the 2011 class. Should we expect a #1 class in 2011? It seems to have paid off for The Florida Gators.

Recruiting flopped in 1993 post National Championship. Fingers crossed – I don’t see Saban letting that happen to his teams of the future. The level of exposure a BCS Title brings in 2010 is dramatically increased from, say, 1992-93. Back then there weren’t any recruiting services like Rivals or Scout. Heck the internet didn’t exsist. With the modern BCS title comes great global promotion of your school. All of a sudden Bama has recent history again. Couple that with some of the best facilities in the country and a stadium that will seat 100,000+ and it equals success on the recruiting trail.

It seems The University has learned from the mistakes of the 90’s. IMO

I really questioned Mal’s decisions over the years, but either by luck or his vision UA is in the best position imaginable right now. When he does decide to step down (and he already has handed over day-to-day operations to Dave Hart) I hope we look at Ozzie. I heard him talk a couple of years ago and he basically insinuated that he wanted the AD job at UA when Mal left.

ducks

I love Coach Stallings, BUT, if memory serves me right, he did not go out on the recuriting trail but left it all up to the assistants. This was a new age and Coach Stallings was still hanging on to old fashion ways of doing thinks like when you had unlimited scholarships. This was about the time that recruiting services really began to take off and we were still hung in the 70’s, from our facilitites to our methods.
Also, the offense was becoming ugly and the run and shoot of the gators was taking off. Though we did dominate for a short time, we were looking more like a cloud of dust and 3 yards, and that just did not turn the heads of the young men at the time.

But now with CNS, I do not see that happening. When the first play of the year is running out of the wildcat, then that is enough for me to know that CNS will not let things get stagnet at Bama.

I do think we let a great opportunity get away in 1993. However in 94 we were just 2 points away from beating UF in the Dome and possibly having a shot at #1 again. Barker even had us driving toward a possible field goal at the end of the game when I think it ended with an int. (going on memory of how it ended so i could be wrong.)

But the truth is we 1- Never recruited the elite players and 2- Spurrier was just a better coach back then, 3- our AD was pathetic.

Which brings me to my point. I’m guessing Mal will retire soon. We need to hit a home run with the next AD our we could see the same thing. And I hope it is not Hart.

Saban will stay as long as he wants, but it will not be forever. We need a great AD when he leaves of it is back to 1997.

isn’t in Nick Saban’s vocabulary. Some folks also mention that he couldn’t maintain success at LSU. That isn’t necessarily true because when he left for the NFL, he won a second national title there by proxy with the players and strength of the program he had built. If you want proof, just look at LSU now that Miles is on his own.

Alabama is a football juggernaut, and with Saban at the helm, they’re only going to get better. Those who claim that he always needs a bigger challenge forget that the biggest challenge of all is in Tuscaloosa; its called the shadow of Bear Bryant. Saban is fully aware that he could never eclipse the legacy of the greatest football coach in history, but being mentioned in the same breath with coach Bryant as one the great Bama football coaches will cement his legacy as a legend in future decades.
 
There is no challenge or reward in football bigger than this, and Nick Saban knows it. In other places, greatness in college football will make you famous. In Alabama, it makes you an immortal diety.