NCAA Football: Four Great Coaching What-Ifs?

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

It's 1969, and and fifty-six year old Alabama Crimson Tide coach Paul Bear Bryant is tired. 

Tired of the racially-charged atmosphere of Alabama, an atmosphere that hinders his recruiting.

Tired of the Alabama boosters and the press badgering him.

Tired of his coaching contract—and getting real tired of the same old job.

The Bear has always been restless, migrating from the University of Kentucky to Texas A&M and finally to Alabama, and now he feels the need to move again. He is drinking too much and cranky, and on a hunch he jumps and takes the Miami Dolphins $1.7 million offer to become their next head coach.

During an emotional press conference, he resigns from Alabama.  They quickly sign the man he recommends—his old player, Gene Stallings. The Bear is gone to the bright, big city lights of Miami on the eve of a new decade he would quickly grow to dislike.

Rather quickly, the Bear realizes, despite the millions Miami is a big mistake—but it's too late to back pedal. He bought the ticket; he'd take the damn ride.

Bryant has a rough time dealing with the Miami media which is much more aggressive then Alabama's rather worshipful one. Bryant has a worse time dealing with the highly-compensated pro players who are disinclined to listen to college rah-rah-rah speeches from an old man.

Still, the defense responds and the Dolphins struggle to a .500 season. Bear is drinking more then ever and becoming miserable with the Miami media. The relationship disintegrates even more when a reporter questions Bryant on his boozing and the Bear lashes back viciously.

Some Dolphin players question whether Bryant can deal with African-American players since Alabama limited them. The question angers Bryant, who responds by trading Mercury Morris and two high draft picks to the Oakland Raiders for his old Alabama QB Kenny Stabler.

An angered Bob Griese is traded to the Chicago Bears, back to his Midwestern roots, where he is quickly devoured playing on a poor Bears offense.

Bryant and the Snake struggle through two more disappointing seasons in Miami before the Bear—in poor health, unable to communicate with professional athletes, disliking the Miami fast life, and alienated from the media and parts of his locker room—resigns.

Don Shula, still stung about Bryant snaring his job, refuses to listen to the Dolphins' offer and instead stays in Baltimore winning a Super Bowl with Bert Jones and the Colts in 1977.

Ailing and drinking, Bryant becomes a heavy recluse. He flirts with several college teams and briefly takes the job of rebuilding Maryland football, but his health fails and he dies in 1977. He is still very much beloved in Alabama where Coach Stallings, fresh from a national title, delivers a stirring eulogy.

In 1969, Penn State Coach Joe Paterno strongly considered taking the job, which went to Chuck Noll, of head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Paterno turned Art Rooney down, but in 1972 when the New England Patriots offered him a percentage of ownership in the Patriots, he couldn't resist the offer.

Paterno's top assistant Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky takes the reins at Penn State and begins a highly successful thirty-year run in Happy Valley.

Paterno moves to Boston and quickly realizes his mistake. The players are unmotivated and unimpressed by a college coach, the owners are meddling, the media is annoying, and Paterno finds himself very unhappy, very quickly.

After three painfully-medicore years, an alienated, angry, and exhausted Paterno resigns. The Sullivans sue to regain the ownership they gave Paterno, citing breach of contract.

An angry Paterno, who has come to despise the media and the owners, has a raging press conference and tells the Sullivans to stick their ownership where the sun doesn't shine.

Despite his cankerous dealings with the media Paterno becomes a highly engaging, and successful, television college football announcer. Still, coaching calls Joe always and in 1979 Paterno jumps at the chance of rebuilding Rutgers football.

Paterno, soon called Jersey Joe, becomes much beloved at Rutgers over a successful twenty-five year coaching career. Still, despite being always Bowl bound, Rutgers can't break through to the next, national-championship, level.

Paterno is particularly frustrated losing to his old assistant Jerry Sandusky and his Penn State Nittany Lions. Sandusky, despite losing to Stalling's Alabama Tide in the Sugar Bowl, has won two national titles at Penn State, and late at night Paterno ponders what might have been.

Still New Jersey loves "Jersey Joe"—and that is enough for Joe.

Miami Hurricane Coach Howard Schnellenberger just won the 1983 National Title in a mighty upset over one of the greatest teams in college football history, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and he can feel his Hurricanes growing to a national force.

Still money, and the new Pro League, the USFL, beckons like a wicked sea siren of old. Howard almost jumps, but at the last moment, despite his mercenary coaching soul, he stuffs his ears, blocks the sirens song and stays in Miami.

And he is happy. Multiple National Championship follow, along with a razor-thin loss to Jerry Sandusky's defensive-dominated Penn State Nittany Lions in the 1986 Fiesta Bowl.

Despite winning three national titles in his storied college coaching career, Schnellenberger can not entirely tame his gypsy coaching soul, and in 1989 startles the nation by taking a lucrative contract to coach the Dallas Cowboys under new owner Jerry Jones.

Jones nearly hired his old college teammate Jimmy Johnson, the Arkansas head coach,but at the last minute went with the bigger media splash of snatching the high-profile Howard Schnellenberger.

The first question for Howard—how to properly utilize Hersehel Walker's Cowboy star power?

Oakland Raider owner Al Davis quickly hires Jimmy Johnson, who was struggling with NCAA sanctions at Arkansas, to rebuild his sagging Raiders. After an ugly internal struggle over draft picks, Davis fired Johnson two years later. The engaging Johnson heads to television and fishing.

In 1991 Syracuse Orange Coach Dick MacPhearson nearly jumped to the New England Patriots. After a last-minute call from Rutgers coach Joe Paterno, who said the pros nearly destroyed him and killed Bear Bryant, Coach Mac decided to stay at Syracuse.

Much beloved, Mac begins a high successful twenty-year run in which his masterly  recruiting, enable the Orange to be Bowl bound every single season.

With Syracuse preparing to defend its 2008 Big East crown against rival Rutgers, which is missing newly retired coach Joe Paterno, Coach Mac is often asked when he will retire.

Coach Mac always says Bear Bryant said after retirement only one big event is left for a man and he isn't ready for that yet.

At night he is glad he skipped the pros, at Paterno's suggestion, and when he watches old coaches like Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger battle NFL owners Al Davis and Jerry Jones over draft picks and contracts he's happy at home in the Dome.