Nick Saban compiled a 206-29 record in 17 seasons at Alabama, winning six national championships, nine SEC titles, and forever altering the course of college football history.
Some 18 and a half years ago, Alabama football was searching for a head coach.
Again.
Once the shiniest apple in the SEC’s vast college football orchard, the Crimson Tide had fallen on hard times by the start of the 21st century. Despite promising seasons in 2002 and 2005, Alabama was often ascribed one of the most dreaded labels a once mighty program could ever be given: “irrelevant.”
By December 2006, Alabama athletics director Mal Moore made the difficult decision to move on from head coach Mike Shula after four seasons in Tuscaloosa, the latter of which resulted in an uninspiring 6-6 campaign and a fifth straight loss to hated rival Auburn.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Moore, an Alabama lifer to his core who had played for the Crimson Tide under Bear Bryant, had coached under Bryant, and had eventually succeeded the ill-fated Bob Bockrath as AD.
But who would Moore hire to replace Shula?
There was Steve Spurrier, who’d built his alma mater Florida into a national champion before briefly dipping his toe into the alluring waters of the NFL with the Washington Redskins. Spurrier was back in the SEC by 2006, only he was happy at South Carolina, content with turning an SEC doormat into a program that reached annual bowl games and occasionally pulled upsets over conference heavyweights like Georgia, Tennessee and the Gators.
West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez was a popular name for the Alabama job and, depending on who’s telling the story, had agreed in principle to a deal to become the Crimson Tide’s head coach before backing out at the 11th hour after appeals from wife Rita and West Virginia governor Joe Manchin.
Rodriguez’s decision to stay in…
Source link : https://rolltidewire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/crimson-tide/football/2025/06/13/alabama-football-nick-saban-hire-biggest-college-football-stories/84186921007/
Author :
Publish date : 2025-06-13 19:57:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
