By Stewart Mandel
So you're Alabama. You've got a certifiable crisis on your hands. You're at the center of a national controversy, you've lost two head coaches in five months and, on top of everything else, you're dealing with four more years of NCAA probation.
Is this really the time to be taking a chance on some young, unproven commodity?
Alabama football right now is a ship without a captain. It needs a strong leader in the worst way imaginable, and that leader had better come with certain qualifications.
Experience as a head coach at a major program. Tough, hard-nosed discipline. A demeanor that commands respect.
And, I think it goes without saying at this point, no skeletons in the closet.
The most prominent name among the current list of candidates fitting the above description is Tom Coughlin, a successful head coach at both the college (Boston College) and NFL (Jacksonville) levels. His scrupulous methods are legendary, his morals unquestioned, and he's dealt with every form of adversity imaginable.
His only negative, at least in the eyes of Tide fans, is that he's an outsider, much like estranged predecessors Dennis Franchione and Mike Price. To fall into that logic, though, is to make the same kind of mistake that has been holding Alabama back for going on two decades now.
Anointing someone just because he's got 'Bama in his blood is not going to magically transport the Tide back to the way things were under Bear Bryant, because you know what? Those days are over and they're not coming back.
This is not about piling up national championships. A much more attainable goal right now is to simply to get things headed back in the right direction.
And I can think of at least one man who's proven himself more than capable of accomplishing just that.
