Despite Success, Curry Still on Hot Seat at Alabama

NEW ORLEANS —  In the eyes of the Alabama faithful, there are three things working against Crimson Tide Coach Bill Curry. One, he is not Alabama born and bred. Two, he has shown to be an abject failure against intrastate rival Auburn. And three, he will never be Bear Bryant.

Only one of those three, of course, does Curry have any control over. It is the other two, however, that may prove to be insurmountable, even if his Alabama team upsets Miami in the Sugar Bowl Monday night. Despite having a 10-1 record this season and amassing a three-year record that compares favorably with the first three seasons of Bryant and his successor, Ray Perkins, Curry finds himself on the hot seat with fans, alumni, and, rumor has it, the Alabama administration.

Although he has been in negotiations to extend his five-year contract--which reportedly pays him $100,000 a year in salary and another $400,000 in assorted perks--there is talk in Tuscaloosa, Ala., that he may not be back next year. The latest rumor has Alabama Athletic Director Hootie Ingram wooing Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden to replace Curry.

“A lot of it is just hearsay, although many of the rumors seem to be systematically distributed,” Curry said. “There are an awful lot of ‘sources close to the situation,’ without naming names. Well, I can’t pay attention to anything that doesn’t have a name attached to it. My job is to win football games, not listen to gossip.”

And yet, Curry does characterize such talk as “a distraction,” and does acknowledge that it has had a major effect on his family, if not on himself and the team. “It’s not easy for a wife and children to have to deal with these things,” Curry said. “My wife (Carolyn), especially, doesn’t understand this. She’s a scholar with a Ph.D in history and a terribly rational person, and she can’t understand how when we do a good job, we still get criticized, in irrational ways. It’s mind-boggling to her.”

One need not be a scholar to wonder about people who will throw a brick through a coach’s bedroom window, as some unidentified individual did last year after Alabama lost to Ole Miss at home on Homecoming Day. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it is nearly impossible to please the alumni of a school that still reveres Bryant, who died in January 1983, just two months after retiring with a 232-46-9 record and six national championships in 25 seasons of coaching.

And yet, Curry speaks of being on “a mission,” to win football games at Alabama despite criticism and resistance. And he says he will continue to lead the Tide until “they don’t want me anymore,” or if “it no longer makes sense for me or my family.”

Despite all the “distractions”--and in addition to the rumors and brick showers, there have been death threats and hate mail--Curry insists the situation is nowhere near to being unmanageable or unpleasant enough for him to leave. “Not even close,” he said. “This team has done an outstanding job in spite of everything that has happened. That’s the great satisfaction of this job for me.”

Still, there is the large shadow of the Bear. After three seasons, Curry’s 26-9 record compares favorably with Bryant’s 20-7-5 and Perkins’ 22-12-1. But when Curry sends the Tide out to practice, it is within sight of the Bear Bryant Museum, the Bryant Conference Center and Bryant Hall. And many of Alabama’s home games are played at Bryant-Denny Stadium. But Curry says coaching in the Bear’s lair is an inspiration rather than an intimidation.

“Those are all remembrances of what he stood for,” Curry said. “Paul Bryant was part and parcel of the football tradition around here. He wasn’t a saint, but he was a great football coach. The expectations should be high in Alabama.”

The expectations were anything but when Curry was named to replace Perkins, who left to coach the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January 1987. Although his name was one of 12 potential successors submitted to the selection committee by Bryant himself upon his retirement, Curry immediately met with disapproval because he did not have an “Alabama pedigree.”

Born in College Park, Ga., Curry played for Georgia Tech, Alabama’s hated rival of the 1960s, and coached there for seven seasons. He also did not distinguish himself by establishing a record of futility against Auburn, which was 7-0 against Curry’s Georgia Tech teams.

That curse continues for Curry--the streak is now 0 for 10, including this year’s 30-20 loss in the last regular-season game that spoiled Alabama’s chance for an undefeated record and ruined its hopes for a national championship. Now, the Tide is reduced to playing spoiler against Miami, which still has a chance for the title should it beat Alabama and No. 1 Colorado lose to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

“When we lost (to Auburn) we had the longest winning streak in the nation,” Curry said. “So what do we do, cry? No. We start another streak.”