2006 Alabama vs. Arkansas Highlights

I was at that game. Awful. Leigh Tiffin had a bunch of people on suicide alert that day.

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It was also the first time Alabama fans began doubting Shula.

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Uh...

Perhaps I should have said it was the first time fans were seriously calling for him to be fired. 2003 and 2004 were grace years. The man was dealing with a pretty bad deck due to very harsh NCAA sanctions. 2005 was a 10-win season and a Cotton Bowl victory over a Top 20 Texas Tech team. The fans were happy and the university gave him a raise and a contract extension.

Yeah...people didn't really like the Shula hire when it was first announced. I know I didn't. And yeah he made some really crappy decisions at the height of quite a few games in his first season. But it really wasn't until '06 that you saw a good many fans starting to complain about these problems which had existed with Shula since the very beginning.

3 yards and a cloud of Darby.

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DAVE RADER

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Did not have total freedom to call plays until the Independence Bowl.

And that Darby play where we handed it to him between the guards worked in '04 as well as '05. Darby's health as well as a decline in the quality and experience of our interior linemen hurt Darby in '06. Our running game on the whole struggled that season.

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It was also the first time Alabama fans began doubting Shula.

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The game when I knew it was over for Shula was Duke. That Duke team was awful even by Duke standards. I remember reading a stat before the game that Duke had 150 yards rushing on 146 carries for the season. Duke rushed for 201 yards on Alabama that night and Alabama had to rally from a 14-10 halftime deficit to win the game. fricking embarrassing.

Actually questions began about Shula after his first season. He came in in late spring and didn't have much time to prepare so 03 was pretty much a write off. A probation riddled program with a coach who didn't have spring training, you kind of have to get a pass for that season.

His back was against the wall for sure but he was brought in after the 03 season and told he needed to upgrade his coaching staff. He had questionable coaches( Radar I think was selling cars, Felker had failed at MSU, Kines was never considered a good defensive mind by any stretch. Shula said no he needed continuity at the time and he was probably right. It happened again after the 04 season and again Shula pushed back.THis time he was told you better make it work or it will be you. Needless to say after blowout losses to Auburn and State in 06 his coaches weren't getting it done.
THen he digs his grave after Auburn in 06 by saying maybe he hasn't been doing it right and needs to take a look at his staff and how he does things. Weights weren't even an organized, mandatory event with him. With numbers being down we had to do things perfectly. It's not why did he win so little. I'm shocked we won as much as we did. This Arky game was a microcosm of his career. I believe he was 1-3 against the hogs. Again, he didn't have the numbers Arky did but some of the decicions in those games were horrific.
He's a pro guy anyway. Brought up around pro ball. I could be mistaken but I think after he was done playing at Bama he never set foot on the campus again until he was named head coach.

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Oh god, that reminded me about the month-long jokes that he tried to hang himself but couldn't kick the box out from under him.

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Yep, that got old really quick

I didn't realize how many close losses Bama had that year. I remember us beating them in a defensive slugfest after they had lead most of the way.