re: Spinoff Thread: Why not UAB?

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UAB vs. UAT
Disgusting. Embarrassing. Shameful.

Just a few of the words that came to mind when it was revealed that the University of Alabama system Board of Trustees submarined UAB’s attempt to hire LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher as head football coach for the supposed reason that his salary would have been too great.

If media reports are accurate, and there’s no reason to believe they aren’t in this case, UAB and Fisher agreed on a deal that would have had him take over the program at a salary of $600,000 a year. It was also reported that half of the money to pay Fisher would come from local businessmen, making Fisher’s effective salary against the school’s payroll a miniscule $300,000 per year. The average Division-1 football coach in America makes three times that sum.

I’m supposed to believe $300,000 was too steep a price for the University of Alabama system to pay the head coach at UAB when less than a month ago it agreed to pay the incompetent deposed head coach of the Tuscaloosa campus football team four million dollars just to leave town?

What is going on here?

I’ll tell you what’s going on here: The University of Alabama system Board of Trustees is afraid the Birmingham school will one day compete with the Tuscaloosa school in football and it’s doing whatever it can to make sure that never happens.
Of the Board’s 15 members, 11 of them have some kind of degree from the Tuscaloosa campus while just two have a degree from the Birmingham campus.

One of those with a degree from UAT is none other than Bear Bryant’s son, Paul Bryant, Jr. Remember, Bear was on record having said he didn’t even think UAB should have an athletic department, let alone a football team. It has long been speculated in Alabama that the Board subversively attempts to stymie UAB’s growth in athletics and this stunt proves that suspicion beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Fisher, having played at Samford (in Birmingham) where he was named the Division III player of the year, then going on to coach there and later at Auburn and LSU where he served as both quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, was the perfect choice for the job. A young, up and coming, proven coordinator with two stops in the upper division of the SEC, a national title on his resume and in-state ties was the exact match UAB was looking for to shake off the Watson Brown doldrums.

UAB had its man, all without the public fiasco and embarrassment UAT’s coaching search has featured, and the Tuscaloosa run Board tanked it.

UAT is afraid of UAB.

What does it say about the condition of the UAT football program when it has to rely on backroom politics from its Board to protect it from UAB?

It tells me UAT football has never been in a worse condition. It tells me that UAT football is afraid of competition. It tells me UAT football knows it’s already lost control of the state to Auburn and doesn’t want to become a third class citizen in its own state. It tells me every single member of that Board with a degree from Tuscaloosa on the wall is a coward. And sadly, it tells me UAB will never be allowed to compete, honestly and fairly, in major college football because its purse strings and ability to compete are controlled in Tuscaloosa, not Birmingham.

Football on the UAT campus has been a joke for the last 10 years. From bungled coaching searches, to coaches wining and dining strippers on University credit cards, to innumerable losses, to coaches at such football powerhouses as West Virginia and South Florida and South Carolina turning down its head coaching job, to being left in the middle of the night by a coach leaving for Texas A&M, to multiple NCAA infractions which nearly resulted in the Death Penalty, UAT football has gone from a shining castle to stinking outhouse.

Now comes the capper: the Tuscaloosa controlled board nixes UAB’s hiring of Jimbo Fisher because it was afraid of the competition.

Tommy Tuberville already haunts the dreams of the Bammers, the idea of the Blazers landing Fisher and further closing the gap must have been terrifying. So terrifying that the Board chose to punish every UAB football player, fan and alumnus – not to mention the entire city of Birmingham and potential future recruits – by denying them the best most qualified coach it could attract, all because it was afraid of the competition.

For a football program that seems to sink further every day, UAT has found a new low.

Disgusting. Embarrassing. Shameful.

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And apparently you have a short memory and have forgotten what happened

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I’m supposed to believe $300,000 was too steep a price for the University of Alabama system to pay the head coach at UAB when less than a month ago it agreed to pay the incompetent deposed head coach of the Tuscaloosa campus football team four million dollars just to leave town?

What is going on here?

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The problem is one program is self-sufficient and the other has never been. That alone kills the credibility of articles from the winter of 2006-2007 when it was noteworthy to poke fun at Alabama.

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Sunday, December 17, 2006
Ben Cook
LindysSports.com
The coaching search at the University of Alabama has taken a strange twist, one that could have far reaching effects on three and perhaps four Southeastern Conference schools and one Conference USA school.And it all comes down to a group of power mongers who have no business being involved at all. In fact, their involvement could even lead to trouble down the road for the University of Alabama itself in an entirely unexpected way.The group is the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, a group headed by Chancellor Malcolm Portera and driven by Paul Bryant Jr. There are others of course, but those are the two names most often associated with the Board.All along, members of the Board have hidden behind the excuse that Alabama athletic director Mal Moore and UA president Robert Witt and consultant Chuck Neinas were in charge of Alabama's coaching search. It is becoming increasingly apparent that they are not, that the Board of Trustees is pulling the strings behind one of the strangest coaching searches in the history of college football.

Everything came out in the open last week when the UAB Blazers of Conference USA were ready to hire LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher as their head coach. All that remained was ironing out the details. It was to be for $600,000 a year, most of which was going to be covered by some influential UAB supporters. But then the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama system (which includes the University of Alabama, UAB and UAH) stepped in and said that UAB could not hire Fisher. They claimed it was because of financial considerations, but that excuse doesn't hold water since the bulk of Fisher's salary was going to be covered by boosters.
Apparently, the Board of Trustees realized UAB was about to hire the most coveted assistant coach in the country. They realized It also could mean that UAB might wind up with a better coach than Alabama, and the idea panicked the Board of Trustees. They decided that couldn't happen, so they stepped in and overstepped the boundaries of a Board. They took the hiring of UAB's coach right out of UAB's hands. Not only did they not allow UAB to hire Fisher, they then imposed their own handpicked candidate on UAB. They strongly suggested Neil Callaway, Georgia's offensive coordinator, was the acceptable choice for UAB....

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They strongly suggested Neil Callaway, Georgia's offensive coordinator, was the acceptable choice for UAB....

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You sure are emotionally invested here. Did you play football at UAB?

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UAT was willing to put in more money for a lesser coach at UAB

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