Curry Got Caught in a Rip-Tide : Football: After years of second-guessing, despite success at Alabama, coach feels that he belongs in Lexington.

A guided tour is out of the question. Bill Curry barely knows the way to his assistant coaches’ offices, much less around the sprawling University of Kentucky campus.

He can negotiate the 10-minute drive from his downtown hotel to his wood-paneled office at Commonwealth Stadium without much trouble, but after that all requests for UK destinations have to be accompanied by a campus map and time to spare.

“We would find it, but we would take some wrong turns,” Curry said.

Sort of sounds like a description of Curry’s recent Page 1, stop-the-presses coaching career move. After making what turned out to be a wrong turn at the University of Alabama, Curry said he has found something here that was in short supply in Tuscaloosa: acceptance.

Curry and his family were introduced at a recent Kentucky basketball game at Rupp Arena and received a minute-long standing ovation. Witnesses said they never had heard the place rattle as it did when Curry walked onto the court.

On his way to his seat that day, Curry received more handshakes and backslaps than he can remember. One fan, a stranger to Curry and his wife Carolyn, politely stopped the couple, opened a jewelry box and gave them two pairs of Kentucky cuff links.

Perhaps most appealing is that apparently no one here wants him to be the next Bear Bryant, just the same Bill Curry who led the Crimson Tide to a 25-8 regular-season record during his three-year stay at Alabama. Those numbers would be just fine for a Kentucky football program that has been ranked in the top 20 only four times in the last 47 seasons and has won seven or more games only three times since 1954.

“It has such potential as a football power,” Curry said. “They’re hungry for a champion. They haven’t known great success and that’s a great challenge.

“Combine that with the sure knowledge that at some point it became clear to us that the controversy and the conflict (at Alabama) would always be present and was being generated from within, not from without. The very people that we are sworn to serve--our players and our families--were the ones who were being buffeted about by those things.

“That caused me to stand in front of the (Alabama) team and say that the only unselfish thing I can do is remove myself in hopes that you can have a normal college life and still be champions.”

Curry made the stunning announcement Jan. 7, just six days after the Crimson Tide’s Sugar Bowl loss to the Miami Hurricanes, the eventual national champions. He left a team that won 10 games and a share of the Southeastern Conference championship in 1989 for a Kentucky program that hasn’t won an SEC title outright since-- ta-da --Bryant did it 40 years ago.

Strange isn’t it? Buried by Bryant’s shadow at Alabama, Curry comes to Kentucky, where the same Bryant gave the school some of its finest days. At least this time, Bryant’s accomplishments don’t blacken the ground as they did at Alabama. Curry has been hired at Kentucky to create his own legacy, not to reproduce one.

“I think people are going back, trying to find a Coach Bryant kind,” said linebacker Keith McCants, who will forgo his senior season at Alabama for the NFL. “People got to realize there will never be another like (Bryant).”

Which is what Curry has said all along.

“That was right at the root of the fundamental differences I had (at Alabama),” Curry said. “I would not become what they seemed to need in a football coach. I further pray that no coach will, for the sake of the kids there.”

Curry leaves plenty of space between the lines for all to see and interpret. He said his quarrel is not with the fans of Alabama football.

“I’ve got stacks and stacks of letters from supporters in Alabama, expressing their appreciation for the job that was done there and the understanding why we made this decision,” he said.

His problem was with the power structure at the school. Despite his record at Alabama, Curry said he never felt entirely welcome or valued.

“There was . . . a huge negative reaction when we got to Alabama and that has not happened here,” Curry said. “There were those who felt that we hadn’t proven ourselves as football coaches at the time. I suppose now that the feeling is maybe we have.”

Curry will get no argument from the people at Kentucky. To listen to the various radio talk shows, to hear the players tell it, no one still is quite sure how UK managed to lure Curry away. But they’re happy he accepted the job. And they couldn’t be more pleased that it came at the expense of Alabama, a team that last lost to Kentucky in 1922. Since then, the Crimson Tide is 29-0-1 against the Wildcats.

Back at Alabama, reaction to Curry’s departure has ranged from embarrassment to quiet satisfaction.

Curry supporters were outraged over the handling of the situation, charging that a good man essentially was given little choice except to look elsewhere.

“People say Coach Bryant would have rolled over in his grave because Alabama hired Bill Curry,” said Don Lindsey, former Alabama defensive coordinator, to the Associated Press. “I say he would have rolled over in his grave because of the way Bill has been treated.”

The anti-Curry faction claimed that the coach was overly sensitive, that he could have stayed at Alabama had he wanted to . . . but they’re glad he didn’t.

One University of Alabama trustee added to the controversy by asking why any Alabama football coach would want a job at Kentucky.

“I can’t imagine what Bill Curry’s game plan might be,” the trustee told reporters.

All in all, the entire incident wasn’t exactly a public relations coup for the University of Alabama.

At the heart of the matter is the realization that the attempted melding of Alabama, deep-rooted in its football traditions, and Curry, a proud and stubborn man who happened to have gone to Georgia Tech--and was thus, an outsider--was a marriage doomed.

Deprived of his support base when Alabama President Joab Thomas and Athletic Director Steve Sloan, who was hired by Thomas, resigned in 1988, Curry often found himself at odds with the new administration, most notably Athletic Director Hootie Ingram, an Alabama alumnus.

Ingram did not return numerous phone interview requests for this story.

Nor did it help Curry’s standing when Alabama, playing at Auburn for the first time in the series’ 54-game history, lost to the hated in-state rival in December, 30-20. It marked the third consecutive season a Curry-led Alabama team was beaten by the Tigers, and it was the 10th time in his coaching career that Curry lost to Auburn. At Alabama, there is perhaps no greater sin.

But the relationship between Curry and Ingram reached its iciest point later in December, when Curry was given the terms of a contract extension he so desperately wanted. Rather than giving him job security, Curry said, the new agreement restricted his power to effectively run his program.

It included no mention of a raise, stripped him of his ability to hire and fire assistant coaches, and relieved the university of all previous commitments to guarantee his outside income should Alabama decide to fire him, which, according to the contract, it could have at any time and without reason.

It was shortly after reading the terms of the new contract that Curry decided to talk about the Kentucky opening with C.M. Newton, UK’s persistent athletic director.

Newton originally wanted Curry to succeed the resigning Jerry Claiborne but was told by Curry’s agent, Robert Fraley, that the timing was inappropriate. Newton then offered the job to Mike Shanahan, of Denver Bronco and Raider coaching fame. Shanahan declined. That’s when Newton tried Curry once more. This time Curry said he was available for an interview.

Curry and Newton briefly discussed the position Dec. 31 in New Orleans at the Alabama team hotel, which, in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best place to conduct a job search. A week later, after several more talks with Newton, Curry chose Kentucky.

Wasting little time, Alabama named Gene Stallings, who better fits the profile of what Crimson Tide followers are used to. Stallings played for Bryant at Texas A&M; and coached for him at A&M; and then at Alabama.

“A good man,” Curry said of Stallings.

As expected, Curry-bashing has become a popular pastime at Alabama. Among the more frequent observations:

--Curry had two years remaining on his original contract. Why did he choose November, 1989, to ask for an extension and, worse yet, why did he go public with the request?

Curry said that persistent rumors regarding his tenuous standing at Alabama were hurting his recruiting efforts. Opposing coaches love to spread rumors, and don’t think they didn’t mention Ingram’s reported disapproval of Curry. Such an extension, argued Curry, would give him and prospective recruits peace of mind.

--Why should Alabama have to be responsible for Curry’s extra income, such as shoe endorsements, football camps, radio and television shows? We pay him to coach, not to wear certain brands of sneakers.

Curry said he reluctantly agreed to the new financial provisions.

“They did change and I did accept it,” he said. “It did not make my attorney happy, but I agreed to them. I wanted (Alabama) to know that I wasn’t in this to become a millionaire.”

--Didn’t he know that once he went to Lexington to tour the campus, his days at Alabama were numbered?

“I didn’t sneak up here,” he said. “I was granted permission graciously, I might even say, enthusiastically.

“When I came up here, I did not (do so) knowing that I was going to accept the job. Why should anybody be so insecure that they’re offended because one of their own looks at another opportunity? What does that say? To go back (to Alabama) and say, ‘I’m staying,’ and have to deal with a little more controversy would have been nothing new. We would have just dealt with it.”

--Since Curry always talks about the importance of academics, how come about two-thirds of the team’s scholarship players were on academic probation at one point in 1989? And how was it that academic performance by Curry’s team was also low during the fall semester of 1988?

“We were not progressing the way we should,” Curry admitted. “We began to progress and that’s a matter of record. There was progress. It should have come faster. I should have done a better job. I take responsibility for that.”

--Curry was too slick for Alabama. He wore expensive suits. His hair was perfect. He didn’t understand how important Alabama football was to the people in the state.

“I sure didn’t when I went there,” Curry said. “I certainly learned how important it was in short order. That does not mean I changed my value system. I didn’t think that winning a football game was the most important thing in the world.”

--Even if Curry would have beaten Auburn or Miami, he still would have taken the Kentucky job. He wanted out.

Curry insisted that he had to be convinced by Newton that Kentucky was the right place for him. Still, when asked if he would have accepted the position had Alabama defeated Auburn or Miami, Curry said, “Probably.”

--How bad could it have been for him at Alabama? He was making big money. He was more popular than he thought he was. Why leave?

“The quality of leadership here . . . C.M. Newton . . . the job Jerry Claiborne had done,” Curry said.

“It is so hard to say this without coming off holier than thou, but there are certain principles that should be most important, like integrity, education. (These) are more important than anything else--more important than winning, more important than any single game in a season--and there is the sense that is the case at Kentucky.”

“The other thing is that there is great momentum to continue the progress of the football program here.”

Since his arrival, Curry has spent most of his time on the road, recruiting players. And before a player can even ask, Curry makes it a point to explain his reasons for leaving Alabama for Kentucky.

Ironically enough, in Curry’s office is a framed mock front page from the Nashville Banner, which names him the SEC coach of the year. Reads the headline: “Curry Cruises to SEC Award.”

Curry glances at the framed award. It will occupy a place of honor on his office wall, this much is sure. But it will also serve as a reminder of dark, frustrating days at Alabama, a university seemingly more interested in Bryant clones than Bill Currys.