Coaches from the Past .. Enter Saban ...

A string of coaches whose legacies ranged from scorn and betrayal to shame and embarrassment. Mike DuBose and Mike Price were caught in scandals off the field; Price, in fact, was fired without ever coaching a game in Tuscaloosa. Dennis Franchione abandoned the Tide without bothering to say goodbye, while Mike Shula proved too inexperienced to handle the job."A lot of the things I was told about Alabama have not turned out to be so," Saban said."All the positive things have been very positive and some of the negative things haven't really been so."Asked for specifics, he pointed to the enormous expectations that anyone coming after the Bear must ultimately live up to. Ray Perkins thought it best to make a clean break, but he only angered the masses when he ripped down Bryant's famous coaching tower.Bill Curry tried to appease the Alabama faithful, even putting the tower back up, but he was always treated as an outsider because he hadn't played or coached under Bryant.Only Gene Stallings, a Bryant protege who even sounded a bit like his old coach, was able to win over Crimson Tide fans. Of course, it helped that he won the first national championship of the post-Bryant era in 1992.Saban knows he, too, will largely be judged on wins and losses. He can live with that."Everybody says what a hard place it is to coach," Saban said. "I don't see that at all. I appreciate the hoarding five national titles and interest. It wouldn't be a very good thing if there weren't expectations, as long as they're realistic."While Curry stirred up such ire in Tuscaloosa that someone reportedly threw a brick at his office window, he has no ill will toward the school he coached from 1986-89, winning a share of the SEC title.

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