CECIL HURT: It's over -- for now November 30, 2003
HONOLULU | Well, it's over.
Nothing much needs to be said other than that.
A supremely forgettable season ended with a supremely forgettable game, Alabama's loss to Hawaii followed the same script as the season. Alabama looked good early, missed some opportunities, encountered some adversity, missed more opportunities, then faded away down the stretch.
Mathematically, it doesn't matter much. A 4-9 record is worse than 5-8, but not by much.
Hopefully, Mike Shula will learn from it all.
Shula's vacation, such as it is, will last only one more day, with a Monday return to Tuscaloosa. His honeymoon, such as it has been, won't last much longer. Expectations next year may not be at SEC Championship levels, but they will be higher than a final record of substantially less than .500 will support. The problems of 2003 will be attributed to outside causes -- the weird transition, the NCAA -- if Alabama shows improvement next season.
If not, it will be ascribed increasingly to coaching.
The Hawaii game did nothing to delay that. Alabama had a couple of good offensive series, then went stagnant. It got back into the game on special teams, and threw away chances to put Hawaii away. The team that never learned how to win looked lost at the end.
The bowl ban is over. The shotgun wedding of Mike Shula and staff to players they didn't recruit and had barely coached has ended. A season has been wasted.
The recent turn of events at the two SEC schools nearest to Tuscaloosa will increase the scrutiny on Shula as well. The ongoing soap opera, "The Travails of Tommy Tuberville", has many ramifications, but one repercussion of that resounding vote of no-confidence from the Auburn administration is this: Alabama will be expected to pull even with, or ahead of, the AU program in short order.
Meanwhile, if Mississippi State is able to follow through on its good idea to hire Sylvester Croom, there will be constant comparisons between the former player Alabama did hire, and the former player that it didn't.
In both cases, that will mean added pressure on Shula. That pressure can only be relieved by one thing -- winning.
That starts with securing players on two fronts -- from the pool of recruits, and from the current team. At least two important linemen, Justin Smiley and Antwan Odom, will be looking into NFL possibilities and Alabama would probably be doing well to retain one of them. Quarterback Brodie Croyle is scheduled to have surgery on his damaged left shoulder next week and his availability for spring practice will be curtailed, at best.
Because of its Hawaii trip, Alabama's staff will lose a couple of recruiting days next week, with the Tide coaches getting on the road Wednesday instead of Monday. The Tide will try to make up for that by having several prospects come in for December official visits rather than waiting until January.
The image that Alabama will try to project to those visitors will be one of stability. There has been no word on whether Shula will replace any assistant coaches, or one, or two, or six. The Tide head coach is extremely close to the vest with such information. But his attitude in recent weeks seems to have been one that stresses continuity, and the importance of strong coach-player relationships in a program that has been lacking in both recently. That doesn't sound like a man who is planning to clean house.
On the other hand, Shula does understand the importance of the coming season. It must be approached with urgency. The 2003 season can be forgotten, someday. The 2004 season cannot be.
~~~
______________________________________________________ RollTideFan - The University of Alabama Athletics Discussion List
"Welcome to RollTideFan! Wear a cup!"
To join or leave the list or to make changes to your subscription visit http://listinfo.rolltidefan.net
