Alabama Replaces Perkins With Curry as Coach and Sloan as Athletic Director

Bill Curry signed a multiyear contract as football coach at Alabama Sunday, and Steve Sloan, a former Crimson Tide quarterback, accepted the athletic director’s job at his alma mater.

Both resigned as coaches at Atlantic Coast Conference schools, Curry at Georgia Tech and Sloan at Duke.

University of Alabama President Joab Thomas, who did not disclose terms of the contracts, said at a news conference that the two would take the posts vacated by Ray Perkins, who resigned Wednesday to become head coach and vice president of operations of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Perkins led Alabama to a 10-3 record in his final season.

Thomas said the jobs of athletic director and head football coach would be divided because they were too much for one person.

Curry, 44, said that until he received the offer from Alabama, he never thought he would surrender the coaching job at Georgia Tech, his alma mater, that he held for seven years, compiling a 31-43-4 record.

“I want to thank the incredible Georgia Tech family that I thought I would never leave,” Curry said. But Curry said that after talking it over with his wife and children, he had an “intuitive compulsion that this is the right thing to do.”

In Atlanta, former Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Dodd, who led the Yellow Jackets for 22 seasons and coached Curry, predicted that the school would quickly have a replacement.

“Homer (Rice, Tech athletic director) will probably have somebody within 48 hours, the way he operates,” Dodd said.

Rice said that “although we are sorry to see him leave Georgia Tech, we wish Bill Curry success. . . . It is indeed a high compliment to our program that people are seeking to hire our coaches and administrators. That is the most sincere form of praise.”

Bill Dooley, who left the head coaching job at Virginia Tech at the end of the season after a contract dispute with the university, said Saturday that he was interested in the Georgia Tech job and would contact Rice as soon as possible.

“And wouldn’t it be ironic to have two Dooleys coaching in the same state,” he said.

Dooley is the younger brother of Vince Dooley, the longtime coach at the University of Georgia.