Until you live in the state of Alabama, even for a year, you don't understand the Alabama vs. Auburn Iron Bowl rivalry. It transcends gender, race, families and economic demographics. Because there isn't a major pro sports franchise in the state, Alabama vs. Auburn (or Auburn vs. Alabama, depending where you sit) is lived 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
It's a Southern-fried version of Yankees vs. Red Sox.
And because of that, if one team has a stretch of seasons where it is winning division or conference championships, battling for the national title and beating their hated rival every year, there's usually a head coaching job on the line.
For fourth-year Alabama coach Mike Shula, the fact that it may be time to beat Auburn or be fired has been a subject of great debate throughout the state.
There's no doubt that Shula, a former Alabama quarterback from the 1980s, took over a terrible situation. The school fired new coach Mike Price several weeks after spring practice in 2003, following Price's alleged indiscretions at a benefit golf outing in Florida.
Shula also stepped into a program still reeling from NCAA probation caused by the Albert Means recruiting mess incurred under Mike DuBose.
With no head coaching experience, Shula had Alabama in a bowl by his second season (6-6 in 2004), and last year's team went 10-2, including 6-2 in the West, with a Cotton Bowl victory.
Meanwhile, across the state, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville had teams that won or tied for the Western Division title twice, including a 2004 unbeaten league champ at 12-0 that was left out of the BCS national championship game.
And there have been Tuberville's three wins over Shula -- 28-23 in 2003, 21-13 in 2004 and 28-18 last season. No Alabama coach in history has ever lost to Auburn four straight years and kept his job.
This year, Auburn is 9-2 overall, 5-2 in the West, still hanging in at No. 14 in the BCS. The Tigers have balanced crushing league losses to Arkansas and Auburn with quality wins over LSU and Florida.
Alabama is 6-5, 2-5 in the West. It hasn't beaten a team with a winning record this season. It has one of the lowest scoring offenses in the SEC and has scored more than 20 points just twice in league play, with both of those efforts coming in overtime games at Arkansas and against Ole Miss.
If you look inside Shula's 26-22 overall record to date at Alabama (13-18 in the SEC), you'll some eyebrow-raising numbers.
He's a combined 2-16 against Arkansas, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee, and 3-16 against SEC teams with winning records. He's 8-20 against all teams with winning records and 18-2 against all teams with losing records.
Just last summer, Shula received a one-year contract extension through 2009, but didn't receive a raise to his $900,000 annual salary.
A Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll conducted last week surveyed 400 adult Alabama residents (almost half of whom said they were Alabama fans) and found Shula with a job approval rating of 42 percent, More than half of those surveyed rated his job performance as "only fair" or "poor," though a majority said the school should keep Shula as coach for now.
The same poll had 84 percent of the people surveyed rating Tuberville's performance either excellent or good. That was before Auburn was upset by Georgia last Saturday.
Shula said he accepts the pressure of being the coach at a one of college football's historically successful programs. He also knows he would help himself beating by Auburn on Saturday.
"It's important for our whole university, and I'm part of this university," Shula said on Wednesday. "It's important we play and coach our best. We've come close on the road this year. We haven't done what it takes to finish games. That's what we've got to do on Saturday."
A few days before Nov. 4, when Alabama was upset at home by Mississippi State -- a victory that broke a 23-game SEC road losing streak for the Bulldogs -- Alabama athletic director Mal Moore gave Shula a public vote of confidence.
As far as having enough money to buy out the last three years of Shula's contract, that's never a sticking point at a school with a mega-budget and alumni with deep pockets.
It's all a matter of whether Moore wants to pull the trigger or not, whether he thinks yet another coaching change will create more instability and put Alabama's program further behind.
If Moore got to the point where he was looking for a new coach, there wouldn't be a shortage of candidates. But know this: If beating Auburn is a criteria, if Alabama wants to get back its physical, slap-you-in-the-mouth-offensive style that once made it dominant, Moore doesn't have to look far.
There's one coach with a 5-4 record (with an average victory margin of 24.2 points) against Tuberville, including 4-4 with Tubbs at Auburn. There's one coach whose team, at the end of this season, will have led the SEC in rushing four of the last five years, something no league school has done since Alabama's Wishbone attack topped SEC rushing for four straight years from 1971-74.
That coach took an unranked team into No. 3 Auburn this season and won, 27-10.
That coach is Houston Nutt of Arkansas, whose 9-1 team, the only unbeaten squad left in SEC play at 6-0, is ranked No. 5 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the BCS.
By the same token, Nutt, after six straight bowl appearances, then back-to-back losing seasons before this year, is a prime example of what can happen if a school stays patient. He's gone from the outhouse to the penthouse in one season.
So Mal, if Shula loses to Auburn, do you fire him or don't you?
¶ 3:20 PM
Comments:
I think the Bama fan base needs to learn patience. We have gone through some very rough times the honestly have left the program only a shadow of its former self. Shula overall has done a good job and has the team headed in the right direction. Yes, it seems like a big dropoff from last year to this year. But I don't really think last year's record truley reflected how the team played. Most tough games were at home which helped. Got a couple lucky breaks too.
Like the end of the article states, Nutt is a great example of what can happen if the school is patient. Another example is Michigan. Everyone was calling for Carr's head after the 7-5 season last year. Now, 11-0 and headed into the monster game against OSU. Shiano of Rutgers had some rough years...and look where he has that program. College football fans (and the school administrations) need to be more patient. # posted by Anonymous : 4:34 PM
You forgot the fact that Shula is 0-18 in games that Bama was trailing in entering the 4th quarter. It wasn't too awfully long ago (sine I can still remember it) that Bama OWNED 4th quarters! Shula took a 10 win team, his first year, and turned it into a loser, and he had most of the folks back from the 10 win season. Good coaches are continuously evaluating what they are doing and if something's not working, they change it immediately. Capps continuously exhibits poor play and what has this staff done about it? Not a damned thing other than moving Caldwell over during the Auburn game. He's had 2 years now to figure out Capps wasn't working out! This is just 1 example of the current regime's inability to coach adequately.
When Shula was hired, I went on record by telling my Bama buddies that he was not the man for the job but that I would support him like he was my choice. No more. Alabama has now been relegated the status of a second tier school and keeping Shula is only going to exacerbate the problem. The longer he remains at the helm, the longer it's going to take to get the team back on track. While we're at it, Moore needs to go as well.
`Pissed Off in Mobile, AL` # posted by Anonymous : 10:56 AM
All the talk of Spurrier and Saban (especially Saban) bother me though. Maybe Shula is not ready for prime time...but I really don't want someone that'll leave after his first successful season. We need a coach that's in it for the long haul.
I was very disappointed to see Capps out there. Does he have blackmail material on Shula or what??? # posted by Anonymous : 10:53 AM
I too thought Shula was the man for the job. But I was wrong. I was wrong about Dubose, also. So I don't want to pick the the new coach, but someone has to do it. Maybe Mal Moore shouldn't do it either. He has made the same that I made. Shula has to go before we sink any deeper. Sure Nutt has won this year at Arkansas but he wasn't loosing beacause of dumb ass coaching mistakes ( the cause of most of Bama's losses under Shula ). No, don't give Shula another year. Dump him now. Get a real coach; Rodriquez, Patrino, Saban, yes even dare I say it, Spurrier. Surely one of them can do better than 6&6, 0&4 against Auburn. Please get us out of our misery - Dump the Dummy. # posted by Anonymous : 11:41 AM
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