Before the 1997 football season, talk among some Alabama fans wasn’t centered on the offense or defense, but on the critical matter of new head coach Mike Dubose’s sideline attire. His predecessor, Gene Stallings, cut a distinguished figure in coat and tie, and surely Dubose would follow in his footsteps.
Indeed, for the first game, Dubose walked the sidelines in a white shirt and tie, sweating profusely in the Tuscaloosa sun. It took only a couple of games for Dubose to switch to more comfortable coaching gear. It was the last time he would be comfortable for a while.
Fast-forward a few years, and fans were up in arms about another Tide coach. This time, young Mike Shula was feeling the heat from fans, not about clothing, but about his stoic sideline demeanor. Curse, yell, anything; just show us you care. Soon, Shula more than obliged, and callers to the talk shows were decrying the profanity they were lip-reading on TV.
Fans invest huge amounts of time and money, not to mention emotion and energy, into their team, and having done so, we sometimes have a sense of entitlement. After all, this is our team, and the coach should listen to our concerns and act on them. In fact, the more a fan feels he has invested, the larger the sense of entitlement. Alabama fans in particular have had so little to cheer about for several years, we’ve spent many a Saturday opining on matters such as attire and substitution schemes.
Alabama fans currently are up in arms over the performance of our offense, and rightfully so. John Parker Wilson has shown no progress over the season, and our offensive play calling has shown no imagination. If next week against Ole Miss, the offense first takes the field with Greg McElroy under center, rest assured the cheers would be deafening.
But that likely won’t happen, and we know it. Coach Saban has, for one reason or another, chosen to stick with his starter, and many of us are upset at his lack of consideration for our feelings. But it’s exactly this that makes me more sure than ever that Saban is the right man for this job.
Coach Stallings famously said, “If you listen too much to the fans, pretty soon you’ll be sitting with them.” Saban understands this more than Dubose and Shula ever did. He’s shown no interest at all in discussing how he runs this team, other than the most simple details of The Process. Whether or not he benches Wilson will be a decision made without regard to fan pressure or breathless editorials.
It’s this stubborn nature, this willingness to ignore what fans think they want (ability to influence the coach’s decisions) in order to deliver what they actually want (a disciplined, winning team), that puts him leaps ahead of previous staffs. By following his own counsel, Saban is restoring the correct order of things. He is letting the fans be fans, and demanding they let the coaches coach. And in a couple years, what he wore or whether he benched Wilson will be forgotten, as Alabama fans once again become accustomed to success, and have less time to argue about clothing and cursing.