Gene Stallings took over the Alabama football...

Gene Stallings took over the Alabama football program Thursday, indicating he plans to do things in the Bear Bryant tradition.

Stallings, a former player and coach under Bryant, succeeds Bill Curry, who resigned Sunday to become coach at Kentucky.

Stallings, recently fired as coach of the Phoenix Cardinals of the NFL, said wasn’t fazed by any problems that might be looming at Alabama, and that holding the coaching post Bryant held for 25 years was “a dream come true.”