SO....now what?

Coaches I do not want at Alabama:

1. Houston Nutt - Head Coach of Arkansas

2. Jim Grobe - Head Coach of Wake Forest

3. Paul Johnson - Head Coach of Navy

4. Chan Gailey - Head Coach of Georgia Tech

5. Slyvester Croom - Head Coach of Miss St. (I know he is one of Bear's boys and such, but he's been a dick at MSU. I don't think that transition would go smoothly. He went into recruits homes to play the race card against UA...hard to forgive and forget, since some of those kids are now on OUR team)

Coaches I am luke warm on:

1. Mike Sherman - Former Packers HC and current OC/Assist. HC for the Houstan Texans

2. Mike Stoops - Head Coach of Univ. of Arizona (I believe his quote was "I would walk on broken glass for the Alabama job." Or something to that effect. That was 4 years ago.)

Coaches I do want at Alabama (and are realistic, in no particular order):

1. Mike Leach - Head Coach of Texas Tech

2. Jim Leavitt - Head Coach of Univ. of S Florida

3. Jimbo Fisher - Off. Coord. for LSU Tigers

4. Joe Kines - Def. Coord for Alabama (probably only has two or three more years of coaching, so they would have time to bring someone in to take over at their own pace...maybe Jimbo as OC under Kines, with an agreement in place for Jimbo to take over after 2 years? Could be interesting.

5. Dabo Swinney - WR Coach for Clemson
(Swinney, 33, received a bachelor of science degree in commerce and business administration at Alabama in 1993 after lettering three times for the Crimson Tide (1990-92). A walk-on who went on to earn a scholarship, Swinney played at wide receiver and was a member of Alabama's 1992 National Championship team under Gene Stallings. His position coach was Bowden in 1989 and former Tiger assistant Woody McCorvey from 1990-92. Swinney was also an All-SEC Academic team and SEC Scholar Athlete Honor Roll member in both 1990 and 1992.)

6. Bobby Petrino - Head Coach of Louisville

Coaches I do want at Alabama (but are long-shots at best)

1. Nick Saban - Some have suggested that CRR turning down 'Bama has allowed UA to wait until after Jan 1. If reports that Saban was actually interested were true, this could be interesting, however the exchange regarding reported contract numbrs the last three days may kill this one before it starts running (again).

2. John Grudden - Rumor has it his days in Tampa could be numbered...

3. Jim Mora Jr - Same thing as Grudden, except replace Tampa with Atlanta

4. Bear Bryant - Hey, wouldn't I disappoint you as a 'Bama fan if I didn't say it?

5. Bob Stoops - some say he wants out of Oklahoma due to possible NCAA infractions...do we need that here?

6. Mike Shula - I was pretty consistent from the start that I wanted him to have another year. The team is primed to break out next season and we could have had a "bama guy" for the next 25 years in CMS. I bet somewhere in South Florida CMS is laughing while spending thousands of dollars that UA owes him. $67k/month until 2012 (less whatever his next job pays him).

Other names out there I can't judge:

1. Rick Neuheisel - QB coach for the Baltimore Ravens. Former HC of University of Washignton and University of Colorado

2. Gene Stallings - Said on Paul Finebaum's radio show that he would be interested in a short term stint, to help buy time to get "the right guy". Bama and our "revisionist history" has forgotten that a big faction of the fan base wanted Stallings out before the 1992 season and that he left under questionable terms.

3. Greg Schiano - Head Coach of Rutgers. was pretty clear he wasn't going to leave Rutgers for U of Miami. I don't see him leaving for UA either.

If the trustee's open the checkbook even wider, and really drop $4M or $5M per year in someones lap, we can still draw a big name. If we can't I'd prefer to draft risky. I have been using the NBA draft analogy. I'd rather take a kid out of HS or with 1 year of college experience who has unlimited potential, and high risk. These are the Jimbo Fishers and Dabo Swinneys, and in some ways even a guy like Mike Stoops who's only been a HC for two seasons. If you go the other route, you can draft a guy who was a 4-year college player. The problem is what you see is what you get. When Spurrier went from Duke to UF, he was nobody. When Stoops went form UF to OU, he was nobody. Look where they ended up. Granted it doesn't always work out (i.e. Larry Coker).

It was nice to see Coach Rodriguez come out and say that his decisoin not to take the job at Alabama had everything to do with staying at WVU, and reasons to stay. It had nothing to do with reasons to take the Alabama job. He handled the whole thing pretty well. Gave Mal Moore a lot of respect, and my tendancy is to believe that they are pretty professional. Just not cut-throat enough. If we put an offer on the table for $2.5M, WVU wouldn't have been able to get close. We got cheap. Its our mistake. One we won't make again I hope.

Of note. I wrote on this blog yesterday at 4pm Eastern:
"My gut says he wont accept the job. if thats the case, we're fucked. majory fucked. "

Being clairvoyant is burden...

I can't make a coach prediction yet, but will soon.

Stay Tuned...