The CheckerBoard

Kirby Smart and Malhzan aren't guaranteed good hires and you can't take the risk of falling even further behind. You have to have a sure hire for this to be good. Remember, Saban already had 2 SEC Championships and a Nat'l Championship when hired. I say Gruden, Peterson, Patterson, and Strong... Or just fight through another year with Dooley.

I really think you have to start with gruden, then maybe Charlie strong. Peterson is not leaving Boise, do not want smart, when has a Sabah deciple worked anywhere else? Saban is why bama is nasty, not Kirby smart. Mullen would be a good hire.

see my next post.

Gary Patterson. If you want up and comers Bill Blankenship is doing a helluva job at Tulsa, but I think that's his alma mater.

I really don't understand the Mullen talk. One, its too close to a lateral move now and two, he's only beaten 2 good teams in his career. He may lose the next 4.

I give Dooley one more year and if he cannot get us competitive I look at Whittingham at Utah or Golden at Miami. We;d be a step up for both. Whittingham isn't having a great year this year but has had a number of good ones taking the scraps of players that didn't go to PAC10 schools and surely Golden would like to coach games in front of some fans.

I agree, Mullen isn't the answer. We need someone who is either a big name to unite the fan base or an energetic young up and comer like Bruce Pearl who can come in and sell sell sell the program to recruits and the fanbase.

I'm not for making a change for anyone who isn't a true, 10 min. SportsCenter leadoff, splash-hire, and that means a national championship or Super Bowl ring. Yes, I'm serious. With our situation, I'm still not convinced any of those guys is an upgrade, and we take a step back to where we were when Kiffin left when you fire Dooley, unless you have the true "star" guy who can walk into a 4 or 5-star's living room and tell Mom and Dad to send little Timmy to UT, b/c they DID stink, but I'm there now.

If we don't save up for and hire the highest paid coach in the history of college football (which, in and of itself, says "commitment to winning" to both fans and recruits), I'm not for the change. If we can afford it now (i.e., Hart gets a donor to privately cough it up), fine; if not, keep Dooley until we can, unless he loses to both Troy and KY. Even then, I'd be for a one-year "interim" hire, until we can or do decide to, with apologies to Ali, "shock the world."

The names? Pie in the sky types, no up and comers--Stoops, Cowher, Gruden, and the like. Be prepared to pay $8 million per year if necessary, w/up to $50 or so guaranteed. The money is more than just a balm for their ego; it's a statement that we mean business.

Even this is no guarantee of success, but it's a much better liklihood than the coaching merry-go-round that Bama itself was on until it did the very same thing I'm advocating.

Otherwise, with a spoiled, unreasonable fan base, we may be looking at 10 coaches over 20 years of losing, and at least 5 ADs in that time, before the law of averages catches up and we finally get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle w/a young, inexperienced coach.