Bear Bryant ruled Alabama from atop a tower of steel and aluminum. At every practice, Bryant would climb the spiral staircase to the tower, stand there alone, and watch his Crimson Tide teams suffer in the Tuscaloosa heat. Alabama’s players never knew when Bryant had his sights on them, so every player worked their hardest, every day.
The tower stood as a powerful symbol of Bryant’s dictatorial rule over Alabama. And when Ray Perkins took over the Bears in 1983, one of his first actions was to ship the tower to a Tuscaloosa scrap yard. There it sat sideways on a flatbed truck, surrounded by weeds. Perkins said he wanted to be on the field among his players, but the message remained clear: This is a new day in Alabama.
Within four years, Perkins is gone, too, proving how difficult it is to follow a legend. New Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer knows this all too well; he’ll drive past statues of Bryant and Nick Saban (combined national titles delivered to Tuscaloosa: 12) on his way to work. Both men might sympathize with the other’s challenge.
“The greatest honor of my life is to follow that man,” said Perkins, then 42. he told Sports Illustrated in 1983“But when I took the job, I was asked if I was intimidated by Coach Bryant. I said he wouldn’t have wanted me if I was. I’m not replacing him; I’m following him.”
There is a significant difference between the work environments of Perkins and DeBoer. Bryant died at age 69 of a massive heart attack just weeks after coaching his final game and months before Perkins was due to start. Saban, on the other hand, is 72, a testament to exercise, a better diet and the fact that a box of Little Debbie cupcakes is not as destructive a vice as a box of unfiltered Chesterfields.
Saban sat in the front row during DeBoer’s introductory news conference, and DeBoer, who turns 50 in October, made sure to acknowledge the legend in his ranks.
“He’s the best in the business to ever do that,” DeBoer said, adding that Saban has “100% access to everything. I’d be a fool if that wasn’t the case, I’d be a fool. I’m going to ask him to show up and make sure he gives me at least one thing every day. I’m sure he’s going to have 10 … but at least one thing that he sees, that we can get better at.”
After Saban retired, many commentators offered some variation on the idea that you shouldn’t be the guy who follows The Guy. The idea is to let the replacement fail and then come in and rebuild the program without the pressure of keeping up with a legend.
As it turns out, back in 1983, Perkins heard that phrase, too, and had no patience for it. “People say it’s better not to follow a legend, but not everyone who follows a legend has to fail,” he said. “The guy who says he’d rather follow the guy who follows the legend is too afraid to be there in the first place. He doesn’t deserve this job. It’s the best coaching job in America.”
It may also be the toughest, then and now. Perkins won eight games in 1983 but went 5-6 the next year, marking the Tide’s first losing season since 1957 (not coincidentally, the year before Bryant arrived). After four years of mediocre success by Alabama standards (three midlevel bowl wins, a 2-2 record against Auburn), Perkins decided he’d had enough and left for Tampa Bay and the NFL after the 1986 season.
Historically, it has taken a while for Alabama coaches following legends to find their feet. After Frank Thomas, who won two national championships, retired in 1946, it took Bryant three coaches and 15 years to win his first title, in 1961. After Bryant retired, it took Alabama three coaches and 10 years for Gene Stallings to win in 1992. And after Stallings stepped aside in 1996, Alabama would go through four coaches and an interim before Saban came in and gave Alabama its first title in 2009.
DeBoer won’t have more than a decade of freedom. Alabama fans, who actually started calling for Stallings’ job when he started 0-3, will expect results quickly. Alabama has the fifth-best odds to win the national championship, meaning that earning a spot in the new 12-team College Football Playoff should be, in the minds of Alabama fans, a mere formality, right?
Coaches following legends have often enjoyed a honeymoon period thanks to the fact that they play their first few seasons with players recruited by the previous player. It’s when those players trickle down that you start to realise how good the new recruit is… or at least that used to be the usual way.
The introduction of the transfer portal has upended that entire dynamic. Alabama already saw several high-profile players from the Saban era, including Iron Bowl hero “Gravedigger” Isaiah Bond and star safety Caleb Downs, leave for fields perceived as greener (Texas and Ohio State, respectively). But DeBoer moved quickly to shore up the players he had and bring in stars for the future. Rivals Currently has Alabama’s class of 2025 ranks second, behind Ohio State.
“We all have alma maters. We all have places that we’re very proud of and we always want them to be our home. We always want those people to be proud of their alma mater and the work that’s been done to make this program successful,” DeBoer said this summer at SEC Media Days. “It’s been an incredible blessing to be a part of this program, to still have that expectation on us. The alternative is to be in places where there are no expectations.”
That will never be a problem in Alabama. Expectations began the moment DeBoer took over and have only grown since. And everyone knows exactly what is expected of him.
And what about the old Bear tower? Perkins’ successor, Bill Curry, rescued it from the scrapyard, repainted it and reinstalled it next to the driving range. It’s still there, a permanent reminder to remember the past… but never try to relive it.