RBR Reading Room: Crimson Storm Surge
by kleph on Apr 26, 2011 9:00 AM CDT
in Reading Room
Email
Print
It was the dust jacket of Crimson Storm Surge that deceived me. I picked up Christopher J. Walsh’s 2005 book on Alabama football expecting a minutely reported overview of Alabama football and, indeed, that’s how it started.
For eight chapters and 64 pages that’s what I got; a brisk and entertaining sketch of the program’s history from the days of William G Little to the Crimson Tide players hoisting Gene Stallings on their backs in the Superdome. And I was happy.
After that what I got was Logan Young. A LOT of Logan Young. And I wasn’t happy at all.
I guess I should have expected it. Walsh worked for the Tuscaloosa News covering Alabama football until 2009 when we left to write for the Rivals site BamaOnLine (now part of 247sports). Crimson Storm Surge, published in 2005, focuses on the period he worked covering the team.
What he covered was a lot of the sturm und drang that descended on Tuscaloosa in the wake of the entire Albert Means case. Crimson Storm Surge goes into all of the messy details of the lawsuits and trials that spun out the NCAA investigation into Alabama.
This is what we used to call a "notebook dump" back when I worked in newspapers and Walsh carries it to the point of just reprinting his old articles verbatim. Not exactly stylish but, hey, writing books it a pain in the ass, dammit.
All of which is fine, if you are interested in rehashing a god-awful unsightly mess yet again. And you’d have to be some kind of sadist to want to do that. Be honest, do you really need to get a refresher on the specifics of how Phil Fulmer is an odious lowlife? (Although the two-page-long list of Tennessee players legal woes is still very amusing.)
Crimson Storm Surge is much more helpful in its description of the start of Mike Shula’s tenure as Alabama’s head coach. With the arrival of Nick Saban and the program’s ensuing success it’s simple to simply write off everything that came before.
Yet Shula stepped into a very difficult situation and dealt with a host of obstacles completely beyond his control. It’s worth remembering that simply keeping the program moving forward (particularly in the realm of recruiting) was an accomplishment and Crimson Storm Surge provides a good look at the particulars of that.
The biggest problem with Crimson Storm Surge is the unpleasant frequency of inaccuracies. For many generalized books about Alabama football this isn’t an overly distressing issue but the selling point of Walsh’s effort is as factually authoritative effort. Some of these mistakes are pretty innocuous but some are not. It was Alabama assistant coach Hank Crisp that lost a hand as youth in a farm accident, not Head Coach Wallace Wade.
Still, Walsh knows his subject matter inside and out. One of the real assets of his efforts has to be the less-than-apparent connections you simply cannot find in a box score or season win-loss column.
In the end, Crimson Storm Surge doesn’t provide anything about the history of Alabama football you can’t find done much better elsewhere. But if you are looking for a good resource to understand the turmoil in the program that followed the Dubose era, particularly the legal battles that ensued following the NCAA probation, this book is a must read.
Next week: Oh, How They Played the Game
6 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
after writing this review
i had the pleasure of meeting mr. walsh and he was kind enough to explain some of the reasons for the book’s more egregious issues. in a nutshell, crimson storm surge was produced on a difficult deadline and a host of requested revisions went unaddressed prior to publication. he described the process of publishing the book as a rather painful learning experience.
Remember the Rose Bowl: The Story of the Alabama Crimson Tide & the Grandaddy of Them All
Shula...
…a very heated subject. I despised him (as a coach). His incompetence alone cost us the 2004 and 2005 seasons; and 2005 was a joke. And I wouldn’t exactly compliment him on his subpar recruiting skills either. The only recruits he landed were the recruits THE UNIVERSITY recruited — those who were destined to play for us since the beginning. When it came to recruiting battles, naturally he lost 80% of the time.
Shula was a great QB, but a horrendous head coach.
F-U and ROLL TIDE ROLL!
Bullshit.
Shula did an awesome job considering what he had to work with.
I get so sick of people giving Shula crap, when Shula jumped in at Alabama during a time when the likes of Saban would not have even considered coming to Alabama.
In 2004 we started out 3-0 in his second season. In the 3rd game, we lost our starting QB(Croyle) for the entire season. We lost the next game and a few after that.
In 2005, we started out 9-0. That was the year Protho get injured against Florida. Still, despite those troubles we eventually made it up to the top 5 in the rankings. We lost a total of 2 games that year, 1 to LSU and 1 to Auburn. LSU in overtime.
In fact, the 2005 season was BETTER than Nick Saban’s last season.
All this after the 2003 season where we went like 4-8 in his first year after being handed a freaking mess. Still we only lost to #1 Oklahoma by 7 points and were respectable for the most part, just not able to finish the games.
2006 was the bad year. It started out with promise. But pretty much fell apart after the OT loss to Arkansas.
And falling apart after the first loss isn’t much new for Alabama. Our goal is always the national championship, and when that goal gets out of reach we all lose interest even if just a tiny bit.
Did Shula leave Alabama in better shape than the program was given to him? Yes, much better shape. And you want to sit around and blame and despise him because he didn’t win national championships? He took us to the top5, had us back in the spotlight after a VERY HARD TIME.
That top 5 was as high as we had been since the embarassing season of 2000 when we started out #3 and that was only 1 less than how many games we won. Maybe the most over-rated team in history.
You’ll have to go back to the early 90’s under Stallings to find another team ranked that high that actually deserved it.
Anyway, blaming Shula is just plain stupid.
AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE
enough bad about Shula. i had a crush on him, but that is beside the point.
I'll always have a place
in my heart for Mike Shula…..he did the best he knew how to do under very difficult circumstances…..and in no way did his ultimate failure as a head coach at Alabama diminish my memories of who he was in 1984 and 1985, which was nothing less than the most clutch quarterback in the history of the University of Alabama……go ask auburn fans who were around back then about the Mike Shula who wore #11 – he drove a stake into them in ’84 and broke them in ’85….
That being said, as is the case with most arguments, everyone seems to come down on either the side of him being worthless or him being great but saddled with a no-win situation…..the truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle……yes, Coach Shula did the best he could under the worst situation we’ve ever had at Alabama……however, it cannot be denied that he was disorganized as a head coach, put little to no stock in strength and conditioning, and cost us more than a few games with tactical errors that even the greenest of rookie head coaches should not make……Speaking of 2005, that team before Prothro got hurt was one of the best offenses I’ve ever seen, and it ended up with the defense being great and the offense being worse than bad……but underneath it all, we were not a physical team that year……I think Coach Saban probably wins a National Championship with the ‘05 team…..Instead, once we lost the ability to pass and Coach Shula went in to his typical offensive shell, we didn’t have the ability to run the football and play to our defense…..nor a coaching staff who was willing to make the players work hard enough to be a smashmouth team….
I think he only took the job to help the program.
And there is no reason to have any bad will towards him. I think it comes down to the simple question, did he leave the program in better shape than was given to him. And that is a big huge yes IMO.
As for 2005. 1 word: Depth. 21 scholarships lost in 2002. And we only lost to LSU in overtime, the #5 team in the nation. And then lost by 10 to Auburn, who was also ranked in the top10. Probably a different story if not for the injuries.
Yet, Shula gets no credit. He wasn’t even a head coach before taking the job. As far as I’m concerned, he saved our asses and gave us hope during an overall bad time. I was just happy to not be in the middle of a scandal.
Best coach ever? No. Worse coach ever? No. Did he do anything to Alabama that was damaging and good cause for hate? No.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
