All Part Of The Game

When Mike Shula was hired as the head football coach at Alabama on May 8, 2003, he wasn't exactly strolling back to Tuscaloosa on a Crimson carpet.

To review: Alabama was reeling from the Mike Price fiasco. Shula, then 37 years old, was the youngest Alabama head coach in 72 years. He had spent 15 seasons on NFL staffs, but only once was he a coordinator - with Tampa Bay from 1996 through 1999, where his offenses were ranked 28th or worse in three of those four seasons. He had never been a head coach at any level, and in fact, had never served on a collegiate staff anywhere. All of this, by the way, was conveniently spelled out for America in a Sports Illustrated article.

After reading and hearing the incessant chatter about his lack of experience, Shula then had to watch national media coverage on the topic of his hiring versus that of Sylvester Croom - a former Alabama All-American under Bear Bryant - who was passed over for the job despite 16 years of NFL coaching experience and 10 years in the college ranks (including coaching linebackers at Bama). When Shula was hired over Croom, one Alabama state senator called it "a sad day" for his state, and Jesse Jackson announced plans to protest the hiring.

Welcome to the SEC, coach. By the way, thanks to various violations, you're also down twenty-something scholarships. Now get to work.

2003: Alabama goes 4-9, with a 2-6 record in the SEC, including losses to Northern Illinois, Ole Miss, and Hawaii. Stud QB Brodie Croyle passes for 2300 yards, but misses two games due to injury.

2004: Alabama goes 6-6, 3-5 in the SEC. Losses to Arkansas, South Carolina, and Minnesota. Croyle misses nine more games with another injury.

2005: Shula is entering his third season as head coach. Croyle, now on his fifth season, is finally healthy. Alabama starts the year 4-0 entering a home game against Florida, a team they haven't faced in Tuscaloosa since the Steve Spurrier era of 1998. The Tide faithful are jacked beyond comprehension.

This could be the year, they thought. No more Spurrier, no more probation, no more excuses. Since the year 2000, Alabama was three games over .500, a mark unacceptable to the Tide faithful. Nope, it was time to make a "statement," and put Alabama back on the map. For Mike Shula, it was an opportunity to prove himself once and for all, by shutting up the radio talk show hosts, newspaper columnists, and TV talking heads that had been questioning his credentials since the day he stepped on campus. It was time.

Which is how Tyrone Prothro, a junior wideout from Heflin, Alabama, the most electrifying offensive player on Shula's roster, came to be on the field against Florida last Saturday, in the fourth quarter, with less than nine minutes left and a four-touchdown lead, streaking toward the end zone from the 28-yard line on fourth down, attempting to snare one more touchdown pass from Croyle, who was also still on the field.

Lord knows what was going through Shula's mind at that moment. That's not a criticism. I mean, literally, that I cannot imagine the emotions racing through Mike Shula's head when presented with the opportunity to bury Florida. These were the Gators of Spurrier and Wuerffel and now Urban Meyer, the new media darling. This is the program that SEC rivals hate, with inexplicable passion. Burying Florida would be sweet for Alabama - but imagine how much sweeter for Coach Shula.

For Shula, burying Florida would mean burying the demons. It means silencing the "noise in the system" for a long while (or until the next loss). It means a reprieve from the radio idiots, and talking heads, and newspaper hacks. Go for it on fourth down? Got to.

And in the blink of an eye, Tyrone Prothro's season is over. Final score, 31-3 Alabama. And one great kid.

Was Mike Shula thinking along any of these lines during the game? Probably not. Is he responsible for Prothro's injury? Of course not, no more than any football coach is responsible when any player gets hurt. But they did go for it, on fourth down, with less than nine minutes left, at home, in field goal range, up by 28 points, with the starters still on the field. Shula's fault? Hardly. Frankly, this is what college football has come to.

There's no playoff system in Division I football. The BCS is one attempt to crown a true national champion, but it still relies heavily on perception - in the eyes of the media voters in the Associated Press poll, the coaches in the USA Today poll, and whoever is standing still long enough to qualify as a Harris Poll voter. Terms like "signature win" get tossed around, without any objective basis. Simply winning a game is not enough. Instead, coaches have to "prove" something. They have to impress the voters, quiet the critics, and assuage the boosters and bowl organizers. They have to win big. There's simply too much money riding on it, and too many careers. This is the system within which a college coach must operate, but the coaches in question, like Shula, did not create this scenario for themselves.

We did. All of us. Sportswriters in markets that cover college football, and website administrators, and university presidents and athletic directors and television network executives and sports radio hosts and television announcers. And fans. Fans who rail on message boards, fans who organize their schedules around home football games, and fans who donate their discretionary income to football programs. We created this system, and we feed it every day.

Are we wrong? If you judge that question by the laws of supply and demand, no. College football is big business, but more to the point, it's interesting. It captures eyeballs, and captures emotion. We care about it. There's no point in debating the right or wrong of that fact - it just is. And sometimes, college football bites the hands that feed it.

For proof, look in the eyes of Urban Meyer as he tries to explain what happened to his top-five team in Tuscaloosa. Look at Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in D-I college football history, as he fields a hundred more questions about his quarterbacks after his thirteenth 4-0 start in the last fifteen years. Look at Larry Coker respond to critics of Miami's offense, biting his tongue with a 47-7 record on his Hurricane resume'. And look at Tyrone Prothro.

We did this. We didn't break Tyrone Prothro's leg, but we did this. We put these guys in this spot. Not just the coaches, but the players, too.

College football is a game played by kids. 18 to 22 years old, no clue what their future holds, not ready for anything beyond their class schedule next week. They carry coaches' careers, athletic programs' fortunes, and fans' satisfaction between their shoulder pads, but they're still kids. Just keep that in mind.

There are hundreds of kids like Prothro, and dozens of coaches like Shula. Neither story is particularly unique. I just hope that Saturday was the last "statement" game I have to watch for a while, because I'm not sure I like what it said.