Why is Mal Moore Untouchable? (Scott)

I’m not sure why it is, but for whatever reason being an Auburn fan has me connected to Alabama football in some strange way. On the sporting landscape can not talk about Auburn for too long without Alabama being brought up. It’s like mentioning John Stockton in a sentence without Karl Malone, or discussing Wilt Chamberlain without mentioning Bill Russell. So, of course I have an opinion on the (insert word here) that is Alabama coaching.

I am not even sure what to call the Alabama coaching position. A carousel? A revolving door? Death row? A time bomb? The tide goes through coaches faster than Quentin Groves goes through their offensive line. I am beginning to think the guy in charge of hiring these guys needs to be looked at. The only list that dwarfs recent Alabama coaches is the list of coaches that have snubbed Alabama’s offers. Where does the confidence in Mal Moore come from? Sure he may have been a good positional coach in the seventies, but since becoming the director of athletics in 1999 what has really accomplished? Basketball has flourished under his reign, but remember that Mark Gottfried was hired the year before Moore’s promotion.

He has done a fantastic job of raising funds for renovating athletic facilities, and the expansion of Bryant-Denny turned out fantastic. However, Alabama keeps letting the guy handle the job that he has proven incapable of doing – they even named a building after the guy.

So far Alabama has mismanaged the coach-finding process pretty well. They offered Nick Saban too much money, and then did not offer Rich Rodriguez enough. Rodriguez ended up giving Bama just enough attention to get what he wanted out of West Virginia. Maybe Alabama should swallow their pride and go for a current coordinator rather than trying to find a current head coach. Every great coach was a coordinator at some point, and it won’t involve paying a huge buyout or an enormous salary. I just would not trust the guy who gave Mike Shula a big raise the year before Shula gets fired to him to find the right coach.

I have accepted that my fandom will always be affected buy Alabama football, but lately Mal Moore keeps tarnishing Auburn with his crappy efforts aside from screwing over the Crimson faithful.

(On a side note, once Shula was fired I put my money on Paul Johnson to be Alabama’s next football coach. I think he would bring the option back to Bama and force Auburn to learn to defend quarterbacks who run the ball. Let’s wait, watch, and see if I am as smart as I think I am.)