4 Coaches Who Have Tough Acts to Follow

Forget Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Jackie Sherrill and Vince Dooley. That, says a man who should know, is the wisest course of action for Dennis Erickson, Gary Gibbs, R.C. Slocum and Ray Goff.

“If you go in worried about who you’re following, you’re in trouble right off the bat,” said Ray Perkins, who followed the storied Bear Bryant as Alabama football coach in 1983.

“If they’re well organized, know what’s expected of them and work hard, they can be successful. Then, I don’t think they have to worry about the shadow.”

At four major football universities, the shadow looms bigger than life this season. Four of the nation’s most high-profile coaches are gone.

Johnson left Miami to take over as coach of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. Switzer, at Oklahoma, and Sherrill, at Texas A&M;, left programs under siege by allegations of cheating. And Dooley retired after 25 years at Georgia, partially to make a shortlived run at the state’s governorship.

Erickson replaced Johnson after two years at Washington State. The other three -- Gibbs at Oklahoma, Slocum at Texas A&M; and Goff at Georgia -- were assistant coaches.

“I had an inkling of what was coming,” Erickson said. “Expectations are extremely high. Losing is an unheard of word around here, and anytime you follow a successful coach like Jimmy, that’s what you expect.”

Also expect resistance to change, endless comparisons and wave after wave of boosters and alumni with their own ideas.

“I was highly criticized for certain changes, changes that I felt needed to be made,” said Perkins, who left Alabama after the 1986 season and now coaches the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “I was there to do a job and do it the best way I knew how.

“I made some changes. I didn’t go to cocktail parties with certain people,” he said. “I was criticized for that, but I wasn’t a drinker and I had better things to do. I think everybody expected me to come in there and keep everything the same. It was said, ‘He should have kept everything the same.”’

Not only is that not always possible, it’s often not necessary.

“You get a lot of boosters, alumni and other people involved who aren’t actually a part of the team,” Erickson said. “There’s a lot of ‘coaches’ in a lot of places. I think that’s one of their favorite pastimes.

“That’s always going to happen,” he said. “When you take over a program that’s been successful and done the right way, people want to see if you do it the right way because they want it to remain successful. But everybody is different, and there are a lot of different ways to do things right.”

Gibbs was a player under Switzer, then an assistant coach. Like Slocum and Goff, Gibbs does not have to deal with a recognition problem at the school. The team’s fans and the school’s alumni know him.

“I hadn’t thought about replacing coach Switzer or anything of that nature,” he said. “I’m Gary Gibbs and I’ll be Gary Gibbs, and I’m not going to try to be anybody else.”

Gibbs and Slocum have a common problem that probably surmounts any caused by a well-known predecessor. Both schools’ football programs were charged with cheating and stung by scandal.

“What I really would like,” Slocum said, “is for us to have a program at A&M; that, No. 1, is respected as a program with integrity, and, No. 2, is a program recognized as being well coached by myself and my staff. If we can do that, all the rest will take care of itself.

“We won three conference titles in a row with coach Sherrill. I don’t have anything on my mind like having to win three in a row. I haven’t done that to myself, my coaches or anybody. We’ll do things the right way.”

The transition at Georgia has been relatively smooth for Goff. Still, there can’t help but be problems when you replace a man popular enough to be considered a candidate for governor.

“Coach Dooley was here for 25 years, and he built up a lot of relations with people as far as speaking and going places, and when you step in the first year, people expect you to assume all the things he’s done,” Goff said. “I’ve had to limit myself in that regard.”

Following a coach like Dooley can be a two-edged sword, although sometimes the blade is a little sharper on one side than the other.

“The good thing is, things have been going well here, and we just need to carry on the tradition,” Goff said. “The bad part is if you don’t oil it right and it slips, people want to know why.”

That’s what happened to Perkins. The Tide went 8-4 in his first season -- not good enough by Alabama standards -- then fell to 5-6 the following year for their first losing record since 1957. The world had come to an end for fans of the Tide.

“The transition is not complete until you go through a season,” Erickson said, “and it will be complete at Miami when we finish this 1989 season.”

In 1985, Perkins got Alabama going in the right direction again with a 9-2-1 record and a 24-3 victory over Southern Cal in the Aloha Bowl. In Perkins’ last season, Alabama went 10-3 and beat Washington 28-6 in the Sun Bowl.

“At a place like Alabama or Oklahoma, where there have been two or three, or even just one coach that really sets the groundwork for a great tradition, I believe the school and the tradition makes the coach,” Perkins said. “The tradition is already there. Hey, it’s hard for somebody to go to an Alabama and, if they work hard, not be successful.”

Gibbs agrees. It should work the same way at Oklahoma.

“I don’t think a program becomes successful because of the efforts of one man,” Gibbs said. “What we have here is a great program. Sure, there a lot of expectations, but we have those same expectations.”