One Alabama Fan's Thank You To Mike Shula For Helping Us Get No. 13

On May 3, 2003, Dr. Robert Witt, just two months into his job as President of the University of Alabama, fired Coach Mike Price who had not even coached his first game yet and was still trying to put together his first recruiting class.

Witt, with hard resolve that the institution shed the party school image, gave no second chance to its head coach caught drinking and carousing with topless dancers and apparently taking one of them to go, all while on university business.

With January being late coming to the party with a coaching decision, imagine the uproar in the Alabama athletic department on that May day. That was a fitting time alright, mayday!

The football team had just been gut punched when Dennis Franchione left them standing by the curb with a rope in their hand that he was going to hold with them. Then came Price and his aw shucks, humorous grandfatherly ways quickly getting a fragile team to trust him and even start spring practice with him.

Now apparently, he was gone too. And so were the apparent fortunes of a team left twice within mere months by two coaches they trusted. This team was perilously close to breaking. Many wondered who would stay and who would go.

Mal Moore had little time and few choices and turned inward to "family" and called the Miami Dolphin's quarterback coach Mike Shula and asked him to "come home" and help us fix this problem.

Being a former Alabama player himself and son of a coaching legend Don Shula, Mike knew both the problems and glory he was walking into.

The first thing he did was stop the leaking. He met with the team and said that under these conditions the NCAA granted transfers. He said this was the time to do something for Alabama, not for themselves but understood if you wanted to go. He asked anyone who couldn't bear this time with him to leave and there would be no questions asked.

Not a man left the room. The connection with Shula was quick and strongly forged. Here was a man who had worn the same uniform, gone through the same turmoils and like them signed up to play for one man, Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, but ended up as the starting quarterback under Coach Ray Perkins.

With crippling NCAA sanctions upon them, that 2003 team went a dismal 4-9 with so many late game collapses and overtime losses. Many thought Shula was in over his head. But he had kept the team together, put together some good recruits despite limitations and all those close losses gave many hope.

In 2004, the Tide jumped out to out to a 3-0 mark then the wheels fell off. Starting QB Brodie Cryole was injured for the year and one by one Alabama was having as many starters in the hospital as the playing field. By the end of the season they were 6-6 and did get a bowl appearance that they lost to Minnesota.

By the last game Alabama was starting a freshman at tight end, a fourth string running back, a third string quarterback, and two true freshmen receivers Shula brought in. But once again there were so many close losses that the team knew they were close.

In 2005 Shula found had two breaks, one to the leg of his most gifted recruit, Tyronne Prothro, and one from the football Gods who finally let Alabama win some of those close games they had been losing. They finished up the season 10-3 with a big Cotton Bowl win over Mike Leach and Texas Tech.

Alabama was back in the news and headlines were now reporting things like Alabama's leading the nation in 10 game winning season and the Cotton Bowl win added to its lead of bowls played in winning.

In 2006 Alabama jumped out to another 3-0 start, but just like 2004 stumbled hard after that. They continued to lose the close games yet again and after losing their last three games of the year including yet another loss to Auburn the forth in a row.

Alabama felt it was too far a step backward and dismissed Shula with a $4 million buyout clause in his pocket.

That opened the door for Alabama athletic director Mal Moore to snag lighting and convince Nick Saban to come to Alabama. The rest of course is history.

No coach could have managed much better with those NCAA restrictions or crippling lists of injuries that piled up year after year. However, now is the time to look back upon those day and not look at the things that went badly for Shula, but the things that went right.

He held the team together in its darkest period ever. He kept the program clean of major violations, and he recognized and brought in some talent that escaped other coaches around the league.

These were players like Javier Arenas, Greg McElroy, Baron Huber, Michael Johnson, Cory Reamer, Chris Rogers, Marquis Johnson, Justin Woodall, Mike McCoy, and Lorenzo Washington.

All these men had roles to fill in helping this team of today win Alabama's 13th national title. They they will all be gone soon, Mike Shula fingerprints will always be on the team.

He held them together in their darkest moments, and helped us have the quick comeback from the brink that we did.

Each Alabama team builds on the success and slumps from the failures of their predecessors and now in basking from the mirrored colored sunlight streaming through that crystal ball in the Mal Moore Athletic Facility, it's a nice time to pause and say once again, "Thanks Mike!"

You will always be a beloved son.