Crimson Pride

Alabama named Mike Shula its 26th football coach May 8, but don’t get caught up in the numbers.

For example, Nos. 24 and 25 have all but been expunged, Soviet-style, from the historical records, banished to the punt, pass and kick gulag.

Punch in Mike Price’s name on the “digital archive” computer screen at the Paul W. Bryant Museum and watch a tiny houndstooth hat icon scurry across the screen and produce ... nothing.

Price was coach No. 25.

Walk into the Bryant Museum’s research wing and ask for information on Dennis Franchione, and watch the receptionist recoil at the sight of a reporter’s notebook as she suggests, “You’re trying to get me fired.”

Franchione was coach No 24.

Although the Bryant Museum represents itself as a monument to Alabama football -- witness the Waterford crystal replica of Bear Bryant’s hat that sparkles and spins on an axis like a car on a showroom floor -- there is not a single item associated with coaches No. 24 and 25.

Accident?

Think again.

The Franchione exhibit was ripped down shortly after the Crimson Tide coach abruptly left Alabama for Texas A&M; last December.

As for his memorabilia, one museum worker said, “We use it to throw darts at.”

Francione’s two huge mistakes were:

* Leaving Alabama for A&M; in a cruel, inverted twist of fate. In 1958, of course, Bryant left A&M; to coach Alabama and led the Crimson Tide to six national titles.

* Not saying goodbye. Franchione never returned to Tuscaloosa to address the team after taking the A&M; job and, thus, has forever been branded a coward.

“Never said anything to the public, just total abandonment,” student Brian Jones said Thursday after picking up tickets for today’s Oklahoma game.

Price, the ultimate outsider from Washington State who was named to replace Franchione, never coached a game at Alabama, having been fired in May for an alleged fling with a strip-club dancer in Pensacola, Fla.

There is one mention of Price’s name in the 2003 Alabama media guide, on Page 293, summing up his stay as you might a death on a headstone: December 19, 2002, until May 3, 2003.

Enter Mike Shula, quarterback at Alabama from 1983 to ’86 and son of the famous Don.

Mike was summoned to this Crimson inferno the way they used to call Red Adair to oil fires.

Alabama football was wounded and embarrassed, the players walking around in various states of moping.

“They had their guts cut out,” one administrator said.

Shula had no previous head-coaching experience and only 115 days from the day he was hired until last week’s opener against South Florida, but those shortcomings could be overlooked in the short term because Shula, more than anything, felt Alabama’s pain.

He was, after all, one of them.

“I just think of myself as an alumnus,” Shula said. “I was that way too. I felt for the players. Here I am, standing in front of my players, first time I ever met them. The seniors, redshirt juniors and seniors, I’m the fourth coach they’re looking at.”

That’s right, four coaches since 1997: Mike DuBose, Franchione, Price and Shula.

Shula, 37 at the time of his hiring, is the youngest football coach at Alabama since Frank Thomas, who was 32 when he got the job in 1931.

Shula will have to get old in a hurry if he is to shepherd Alabama through one of its most turbulent patches.

The program is on probation for the second time in a decade, down 21 scholarships, and serving the second season of a two-year bowl ban.

Shula’s opener was a success, as Alabama rallied from 17-7 down to beat South Florida, 40-17, last week at Legion Field in Birmingham.

Tonight, though, No. 1 Oklahoma arrives for a national TV game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. It will be the first time Shula has trotted on the field here for a game since his senior year in 1986.

Shula says his return has sparked a flood of memories.

“I know we’ve got to win games, and do all those things,” he said, “but it kind of feels, in a sense, that I’ve been in a time warp, a time capsule for the last 15 years.”

Shula has spent his coaching life in the pros, most recently as the Miami Dolphins’ quarterback coach. He said Alabama was the only college job he would have considered.

Shula is up against plenty as he takes over a program reeking in tradition but, more recently, just reeking.

For a school that has won 12 national titles and considers football success a birthright, a 42-31 record since 1997 is not tolerable.

It’s different here; always has been.

Shula’s insider pedigree helps, but it is no guarantee of success.

Alabama’s most recent problems began in 1997 with the hiring of DuBose, who’d played for Bryant. It was under DuBose that the Crimson Tide began to list, on and off the field. It was DuBose who tainted the program, first with an extramarital affair, then as the coach of record during an NCAA probe that led to probation.

Alabama finished 10-3 last season under Franchione, the noted program builder, which made his abandonment tougher to take.

“We wouldn’t be mad if he was a bad coach,” one student said.

Shula will have 26 seniors and some front-line talent to lean on this year, but the program will really feel the brunt of the scholarship losses in 2004.

“Patience” isn’t a word thrown around freely here, but some will be required.

Shula must restore faith in a program the state follows religiously. He must win back the recruiting battles lost while rivals were cherry-picking the state for talent.

He must talk tough and stand tall at a place that bleeds Crimson and where everyone with a “Roll Tide” bumper sticker considers himself an aspiring offensive coordinator.

In his book, “Crimson Slide,” former walk-on player Mike Flax outlined what Shula must do to restore credibility.

“To win at Alabama, Mike Shula must break the corrupt trend, repair the tarnished reputation, restore the moral fibers, and improve Alabama’s reputation as a players-first, tradition-second program. Shula must cater to players and he must reach them. He must restore Alabama’s sense of honor and decency because it has been demolished.”

Flax writes that Shula must stand up to the boosters and power brokers.

“You must become a dictator, a tyrant in the football program,” Flax writes. “If Alabama loses, you lose and the administration will fire you. They will try to ruin you. They will blame you for everything that goes wrong. Treat them accordingly, with the same respect.”

Shula, though, got here so late, he has spent most of the summer trying to learn the names of his players.

At first blush, he seemed uncomfortable in the limelight, not assertive enough in news conferences, but he is said to be improving daily.

Shula says he is not afraid of what he has seen so far and, in fact, has been surprisingly encouraged.

“They were torn a little bit,” he said of his players, “but the word that keeps coming to mind is ‘resilient.’ I think they had a look in their eye. They just wanted someone that they know was going to be there for them, be in their corner, coach them, so to speak.

“There’s a lot of pride on this team. Kids are very proud to be here. To me, that kind of says a lot about them under the circumstance. The seniors -- they all could have transferred. None of them did.”

Shula also isn’t awed by the enormous empire he inherits and the looming specter of Bryant’s legacy.

Instead, he embraces them.

“There’s no other way,” Shula said. “You feel honored to be here.”

At that point, he turned and glanced back at the practice field.

“That’s Coach Bryant’s tower,” Shula said. “You think about him being out here. That -- what’s the word? -- that pride. We all know about the national championships and the standards that he set, but there’s something that you can’t measure that has stayed with the school. Maybe it’s his spirit. Maybe that’s the best word.”

Shula arrived at Alabama in 1983, the season after Bryant had died. Shula played for Ray Perkins and went 32-15-1 as a starter.

No one knows yet whether “Coach” Shula is man enough for this job, but at least there’s no doubt that he wants to be.

As he stood in the late afternoon sun, two days before the Oklahoma game, Shula soaked in the sounds of the Alabama band, practicing on a far-away field.

“You kind of get chills,” he said.

As he spoke, an armada of motor homes started rolling into the parking lot for football weekend -- approximately 49 hours before kickoff.

Thursday, Coach No. 26 had to take the back way to work to get around the invading vehicle rope lines.

“Kind of brings back some good memories,” Shula said.

These days, Alabama football could use a few.