Maybe we got too excited about Saban leaving?

[Michael K.]

Mike Price never coached a game for Alabama so how would they know if he was worth keeping or not.

Because he never should have been hired? Had they no doubt about his ability? You honestly think what he did doesn't get shoved under the rug?

[Donn Beach]

No I don't think it does. His behavior was too embarrassing for the school to handle like that. It went beyond going to a strip club.

Record shortest tenure for a SEC football coach

1. Mike Price, Alabama, 2003 (0 games)

Unlike Rein, Price’s demise was entirely of his own making. Left in the lurch by Dennis Franchione following the 2002 season and facing major NCAA sanctions, Alabama pursued several coaches before settling on Price, who was coming off a Pac-10 co-championship and Rose Bowl berth at Washington State. The folksy, 56-year-old Price clearly wasn’t ready for the fish bowl he’d be facing as Alabama’s head coach. In April 2003, reports began to surface on internet message boards and talk radio of Price’s behavior at a charity golf tournament in Pensacola, Fla. It was eventually revealed that Price had visited a topless bar at least once during that week, and one of the dancers had apparently wound up in his hotel room and charged hundreds of dollars in room-service items to his account. Stories of Price’s socializing with students at campus-area bars in Tuscaloosa also came to light amid a university investigation, leading school president Robert Witt to fire him before he’d ever coached a game. Forced to make a coaching hire in May, Alabama tapped longtime NFL assistant (and former Crimson Tide quarterback) Mike Shula as Price’s replacement. Shula went 26-23 in four seasons before he was fired and replaced by Nick Saban in early 2007. Price sat out the 2003 season, but was hired the next year at UTEP. He had a reasonably successful nine-year tenure with the Miners, including 8-4 records and bowl bids his first two seasons. He later came out of retirement to serve as UTEP’s interim coach for the final seven games of the 2017 season.

[Donn Beach]

A reply to a mailbox question on the Athletic asking how much rope DeBoer gets before his seat gets hot

I’d like to think Alabama fans and we in the media will give DeBoer a pass for an underwhelming first season, but “underwhelming” at Alabama is 9-3. If the Tide go 7-5, it will feel like an unmitigated disaster. And the problem with that is, bad first impressions can be hard to erase.

I think back to Rich Rodriguez going 3-9 in his debut season at Michigan. The Wolverines improved by two wins each year from there, but the damage was done. He was gone after three seasons. More recently, Florida State’s Willie Taggart laid an egg in his first game, a 24-3 home loss to Virginia Tech in the ‘Noles’ 2018 opener, and he never recovered. He was fired nine games into his second season. Miami’s Manny Diaz lasted three seasons, and that may have been an upset after losing his first bowl game 14-0 to Louisiana Tech.

If DeBoer struggles that badly, he’s going to need a second-year jump like Saban had back when his first Alabama team in 2007 went 7-6, including a loss to Louisiana-Monroe, but then had a 12-0 regular season the following year.

But I’d also caution against people already assuming the worst for Alabama in 2024. Yes, the Tide have suffered unprecedented transfer defections, but the system is stacked against them. Their players have 30 days to enter the portal, but there’s no one else left in the portal with which to replace them.

DeBoer has gotten a couple of his former Washington players, only because they, too, were able to enter after a coaching change. But I have a feeling Alabama is going to be a very popular destination when the spring window opens on April 16.

[D-train]

A reply to a mailbox question on the Athletic asking how much rope DeBoer gets before his seat gets hot

I’d like to think Alabama fans and we in the media will give DeBoer a pass for an underwhelming first season, but “underwhelming” at Alabama is 9-3. If the Tide go 7-5, it will feel like an unmitigated disaster. And the problem with that is, bad first impressions can be hard to erase.

I think back to Rich Rodriguez going 3-9 in his debut season at Michigan. The Wolverines improved by two wins each year from there, but the damage was done. He was gone after three seasons. More recently, Florida State’s Willie Taggart laid an egg in his first game, a 24-3 home loss to Virginia Tech in the ‘Noles’ 2018 opener, and he never recovered. He was fired nine games into his second season. Miami’s Manny Diaz lasted three seasons, and that may have been an upset after losing his first bowl game 14-0 to Louisiana Tech.

If DeBoer struggles that badly, he’s going to need a second-year jump like Saban had back when his first Alabama team in 2007 went 7-6, including a loss to Louisiana-Monroe, but then had a 12-0 regular season the following year.

But I’d also caution against people already assuming the worst for Alabama in 2024. Yes, the Tide have suffered unprecedented transfer defections, but the system is stacked against them. Their players have 30 days to enter the portal, but there’s no one else left in the portal with which to replace them.

DeBoer has gotten a couple of his former Washington players, only because they, too, were able to enter after a coaching change. But I have a feeling Alabama is going to be a very popular destination when the spring window opens on April 16.

I predict 8-4

[Donn Beach]

Kalen DeBoer likes his quarterbacks to stand a little taller in the pocket while Jedd Fisch clearly prefers a more mobile signal-caller.

So in recent days, the University of Washington football program effectively has traded 6-foot-6, 226-pound Austin Mack and 6-foot-5, 187-pound Demaricus Davis for 5-foot-11, 180-pound Demond Williams Jr. and 6-foot-1, 215-pound Ashton "Dash" Beierly.

That's not to say Fisch wouldn't have welcomed the talents of Mack, who is committed to Alabama and DeBoer once more after spending this past season in Montlake, and Davis, who just entered the transfer portal following the weekend after spending a couple weeks at the UW.


Yet the new Husky coach has flipped Williams and Beierly from their prior Arizona commitments, with the latter, a Southern California quarterback, revealing his plans on Tuesday morning on social media.