A friend of mine sent this to me a couple of weeks ago...I figured it would be ok to post now.
My nephew still maintains close ties to some of the people in the know
at UA. This came from one of his friends so it is probably pretty
accurate. He received this yesterday afternoon.
Roy
**********
I told ya'll I'd give you a synopsis of what transpired for Alabama to
land Nick Saban. Here it is.
The week after the Alabama vs UT game, Saban's agent contacted Alabama
officials to inform them that Nick would be interested in talking to
them about the head coaching position if it were to come open. At that
time, Mike Shula had full confidence from his superiors and there was no
reason to believe that there would be a coaching vacancy, however there
were beginning to be some rumblings within power circles that Shula was
over his head and it was becoming obvious. Anyone who watched Alabama
underachieve could not deny it. Then came the loss to MSU and that is
when the powers that be started reviewing their options. The week after
that game, Mal met with Shula and told him that there had be signs of
improvement the following two weeks. He didn't dictate that Shula had
better win but back to my point earlier, it was obvious the team was
digressing instead of progressing. Bama played better but lost to a good
LSU team and for the most part it looked like the problems had been
addressed. Then came the Auburn game. Shula horribly mismanaged that
game and Dr. Witt and Mal were both so furious that they stormed out of
their skybox before the game ended.
Let me go back a little. Mike Price brought in an OL coach named Bob
Connelly who taught the zone blocking scheme that is ideal for a spread
offense. Shula retained him when he came and it became painfully obvious
to everyone (except Shula) that the zone blocking scheme was not working
for the pro set that Shula wanted to run. It was clear in 2004 that a
new OL coach was needed and Shula never addressed it. Also, although
Shula had an "OC" in Dave Rader he chose to call the plays himself and
quite frankly was not very good at it. Back to the Auburn loss; Mal held
a meeting with Shula the Monday after the Auburn game and told him that
he needed to address the problems with the O-line and with playcalling
and (or as my source told me, gave him an open book test with the
answers). There were also serious issues in regards to discipline and
S&C that needed addressing. Shula did not demand S&C participation and
left it up to his assistants to oversee player participation, however he
did not back up his coaches when the players were not attending as they
should. They met again the next day and Shula's plan was to move the OL
coach to centers and guards and to move the ST coach (who has never ever
coached the O line) to tackles. He also told Mal that he would not give
up playcalling duties. Mal told him that was not acceptable and to
present another plan to him the following day. Well, Shula came back the
next day and gave him the exact same plan. What was really happening is
that Shula was getting bad advice from Ray Perkins (who was Shula's
coach at Bama and was positioning himself to be AD when Mal retired.)
Perkins was telling Shula to stand his ground because they wouldn't dare
fire him. In the meantime, Mal and Dr. Witt were making contengency
plans. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Shula scheduled a players
meeting for that night and attended that meeting and informed the
players that there would be no changes and that all the coaches would be
back next year. He was fired shortly after that meeting. What many don't
realize is that Shula knew what he was doing and was trying to force
Mal's hand because Mal had been trying to call him all day long and
Shula wouldn't answer his phone. In the days preceeding the firing,
Saban's camp had reiterated that they were interested in the job but
would not talk further until there was an official opening. Once that
opening came, talks progressed fast and Saban told Bama that if they
would wait until the end of the NFL season that he would be theirs. At
that time, Jimmy Sexton started leaking Spurriers name about the job and
that was done in order to try and keep the attention off of Saban for as
long as possible. There was really never any serious flirtation with
Spurrier and contrary to reports he was never offered the job.
There is a group in the Alabama AD that I call the "rats". these guys
consist of a bunch of good ole boys who have jobs because they know the
right people and would rather protect their jobs than do what is best
for Alabama. These "rats" were putting pressure via there powerful (BOT)
friends on Mal to look at other options because they "thought" Saban and
Sexton were just using Alabama to get an extension. The reason I put
"thought" in parentheses is because these guys actually knew that Saban
would come if Bama waited (and Mal and Dr. Witt were willing to wait)
and they also knew that they would be out of a job if Saban came. Mal
went to New York for the NCAA awards ceremonies and while there he met
with three people (and you can call me crazy if you want but my record
speaks for itself) Greg Schiano, Bob Stoops, and Rich Rodriquez. RR was
very interested in the job and he was immediately positioned as the #2
guy if something should fall apart with Saban. Unfortunately, the "rats"
convinced their BOT buddies that we could not take the chance to wait on
Saban and we needed to get RR while we could. We offered him and he
agreed. Now this is where it is pure speculation on my part but I really
believe that Mal helped "sabatoge" the RR deal because he allowed him to
go back to West Virginia to think it over, and thus allowing WV to
counter offer. Thank god RR turned it down because #1 it allowed Mal to
get back in control and it allowed the "rats" to be outed. After RR
decline, Bama got together a powerful group to "support" Mal and keep
the "rats" at bay. That group consisted of Joe Namath, Gene Stallings,
Lee Roy Jordan, and Billy Neighbors (One of those guys is who I was
getting my info from). Saban's camp once again said that things could
happen if we would just wait. So we did. During the meantime, the
contract was essentially drawn up between Sexton and Bama officials with
the only thing holding the announcement being Dec 31. During this time
Nick was already putting out feelers to guys he was interested in
bringing in as assistants. On Jan 1, Mal and Billy flew down and Joe met
them there. They met with Nick and his family and all plans were for a
formal announcement on Tuesday, however, Nick thinks very highly of
Wayne Huizenga and Wayne asked that Nick wait one more day to make the
decision, which was never a decision at that point. Yesterday afternoon
Nick signed some documents that were akin to promissory notes and then
last night around 8:30 Nick signed the contract. Nick is in Tuscaloosa
now and has already toured the facilities this afternoon. Press
conference will be tomorrow at 10 am.
*****
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