Alabama turns cold on coach faster than mercury plummets
Sports fans are some of the most fickle beings on the face of the planet. Win, and the world loves you; lose, and no one will so much as help you pack before you're run out of town. Is it any wonder, then, that a coach's "loyalty" can be so easily bought?
For two years, Dennis Franchione was the Great White Hope at Alabama, whose football program had become renowned more for cheating than championships. Alabama fans, more than most, are uniformly pompous, self-centered, and blessed with memories that extend little beyond "What have you done for me lately?" and "You might be good, but you're not Bear Bryant."
Franchione, known by the faithful as "Coach Fran," had been a popular figure at Alabama after leading the Tide to records of 7-5 and 10-3 as the program braced for and then received sanctions from the NCAA stemming from violations under his predecessor, Mike DuBose.
Some good will remained Thursday night, but not much.
"He (Franchione) has done some good things here," said former student John Merrill. "He has restored integrity to Alabama football and turned around the players' attitudes and built respect into the program.
"But if he would rather be somewhere other than the university, then he needs to go, period. Because when you're here, you've made it. This is the place to be. There is no place that you can leave here that is an equal. No place.
"If you leave the University of Alabama, you either need to pass from the walks of this life, which means that you are now deceased, or you need to retire."
To a degree, I can understand Alabama fans feeling jilted. Nevertheless, they would be the first ones clamoring for a coach's head if that coach didn't win as many games as they felt they deserved. In Alabama, as in many places, a coach is not only responsible for winning games, but also for making fans feel good about themselves. Of course, if you follow that logic, a 10-3 season will do a lot more for one's self-esteem than a 3-8 season. Therein lies the problem.
Is it any wonder, then, that most coaches are constantly looking for the next brass ring? In a profession where you're only as good as your last game, the tide can turn quickly- just ask Aggie lifer R.C. Slocum. Slocum, who has one of the highest winning percentages of any college football coach, committed the apparently unpardonable sin of having a 6-6 season AND getting decimated by the University of Texas.
Whether you are a coach at the professional or college level, a contract is meaningless. If you can be fired for having a .500 season in mid-contract, why would you NOT be willing to entertain an enticing job offer in mid-contract? Dennis Franchione ultimately has only one responsibility- to provide for his wife and children in the way he deems most approrpriate. In the end, his family is the only one who will be there for him when things fall apart, and in a cyclical profession such as coaching, that day is inevitable. Two or three years down the road, the Internet chat rooms could be beating the drums for Franchione's dismissal in the same way they did for R.C. Slocum.
So, to the fans at Alabama (and A&M or anywhere else), I would say this: if you expect loyalty, you must first give loyalty. If you would so quickly abandon a coach (you did run Bill Curry out of town, after all), why should you be surprised when he moves on? Winning and losing are transient states, and, in the end, who will remember or even care whether you beat Auburn? If you continue to view coaches as disposable commodities, you have no right to be surprised or upset when a coach views the University of God's Country as disposable.
Oh, and one more thing- Bear Bryant is dead. He's been dead for 20 years. Get over it, already.
