TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- As the season approaches and the honeymoon is about to head upfield and run smack into football games, Alabama is lucky to have the guy coaching the Crimson Tide who was, like, its fifth choice.

Lucky because Dennis Franchione really was the best coach available.

Dennis Franchione already has the Crimson Tide faithful on his side.(AP)

And because he embraced Alabama's tradition -- which includes all the warts that go with it.

And because he's a pro at rebuilding programs.

And because he will dare to say things 'Bama fans don't want to hear sometimes -- which is often what they need.

"We're 24-23 the last four years, 3-8 last year," Franchione said. "That was the worst year in 44 years.

"We were 100th nationally in offense. Do we have some talent here? Yes. Do we have enough to immediately turn it around? I don't know the answer to that question.

"When I compare this to the team we had last year at TCU that had 11 kids sign NFL contracts, I don't think we have that right now."

If that stings, Crimson Tide faithful, get over it. While you're at it, step aside. The new guy knows exactly what he is doing. Coach Fran is the man, at least until the opener Sept. 1 against UCLA.

Athletic director Mal Moore will tell you there were only five serious candidates to replace the disgraced Mike DuBose. He will tell you Dennis Franchione was on his list all the time.

Franchione was a natural. He was the man. Come on, Mal, any free-thinking American would look at the list -- which included Frank Beamer, Butch Davis and Walt Harris (all of whom said "no thanks") and Tommy Bowden (who called 'em off before it got that close) -- and conclude that Franchione was a third choice at very best, more likely a fourth or fifth ... or worse.

"I had no idea who he was," Alabama senior quarterback Andrew Zow said. "I think I might have been at my apartment. When I heard it was him I was like, 'Who? Where?'"

Moore had a few significant questions as the glamour names fell by the wayside. Would Alabamans swallow a coach in any form from TCU? Could Franchione coach? Would he come? Did he know what he was getting into?

Moore eventually got a "yes" to each question. Thank goodness because let's be honest. The Alabama job had fallen to the point where it wasn't very attractive.

While programs all over the country were zooming from worst to first, Alabama did the opposite. DuBose crashed and burned in a 3-8 final season that followed an SEC championship. Coaches bickered and players wandered aimlessly.

Don't forget another Alabama tradition -- NCAA trouble -- that still hangs over the program like a guillotine blade.

"It was like we were lost," Zow said. "We needed some direction."

So never mind that bigger names turned down Moore. It's better to believe Alabama got lucky in landing a graying, personable, 50-year-old from southeast Kansas. Based on that description alone Franchione doesn't fit the 'Bama profile.

"All you have to do to make Alabama fans happy is win every game and look good doing it," said former coach Bill Curry, who, like Franchione, did not grow from the Bear's roots. Curry received death threats before he coached his first game at Alabama in 1987.

"Dennis does not need any advice from me. He's done it -- what? -- five times turning around a program?"

This is his sixth stop. The previous five the programs were coming off losing seasons. Franchione turned them all into winners.

Alabama got lucky in another way. The Girard, Kan., native probably never would have climbed the coaching ladder from rural Kansas to become No. 7 in victories among active Division I-A coaches without his wandering grandparents from the old country.

"My grandparents were Italian immigrants," he said. "They landed in Texas, couldn't find work and migrated to the strip mines of southeast Kansas.

"I can remember my grandma asking me, 'Do they call you 'Dago' at school?' I said yes. She said, 'If they call you 'Wop' you fight.' A 'Wop' is an Italian without immigration papers. We had papers."

Franchione made his bones coaching at his alma mater, Pittsburg (Kan.) State, leading the Gorillas to five consecutive playoff appearances. Twice he was national coach of the year. Get the dichotomy? Franchione went the opposite route of his grandparents, going from southeast Kansas to Texas where Alabama took notice.

He is committed to Alabama having asked for and received a seven-year contract (worth $1.1 million per season). If the NCAA hammer falls hard, Franchione (138-65-2 in 18 seasons) wants to make sure he has enough time to build the program back up. Alabama currently is being investigated for possible recruiting violations that center on former defensive lineman Albert Means.

All of it means the Tide should win big someday soon. Given Fran's track record, it's almost a guarantee. He lost a total of 10 games combined at Southwestern (Kan.) College and Pittsburg State from 1981 to '89.

Southwest Texas had five consecutive losing seasons before he took them to back-to-back winning campaigns (6-5, then 7-4 in 1990-91).

In six years at New Mexico, the lowest of the low Division I-A programs when he took over, the team went from 3-8 to a WAC title. At TCU, he took over a program that had gone 1-10 in 1997 under Pat Sullivan to 10-2 last season.

"You hear about the way he changed TCU around and you just kind of wait to see who he is; how is he going to help this university and this program?" Zow said. "He came in with the attitude of family and trust. The attitude is different. I have pushed myself harder than I have in the past. It was crazy last year. I hate to talk about last year. This year guys have really fallen behind Coach Fran."

There are little things that Franchione quickly found out were big things in Alabama. He casually switched his weekly press conference day during the season from Monday to Tuesday.

The move created banner headlines in the state's newspapers. It seems that part of the football tradition, going back to the Bryant era, was that Alabama's media day was on Monday and Auburn's was on Tuesday. The press corps could conveniently plan their week around the state's two powers. The schools would get equal coverage in-state with their own "day."

Now Auburn and Alabama will compete for the media's attention on the same day each week.

"There are some things that we have to do that are best for today," Franchione said firmly. "I can't be Coach Bryant."

Part of the honesty hit fans and players between the eyes in the spring. Eyebrows were raised when third-string quarterback Jonathan Richey was elevated to No. 1 on the depth chart after the first spring scrimmage.

"I don't do ploys," Franchione said. "Everything I do is based upon performance. I don't play games with the kids. I think that has sent everybody reeling a little bit."

A week later, Richey was back down on the depth chart. Zow and Tyler Watts were back fighting for the No. 1 spot they shared most of the last two seasons. Still, a message had been sent.

"He put more responsibility on us," tight end Terry Jones Jr. said. "He's trying to find out who is going to be the leaders right now. It's a rebirth. We're trying to have fun again."

For a team that has gotten an education in an extramarital affair (from DuBose), political infighting (former AD Bob Bockrath was fired for not firing DuBose) and losing football, Fran's arrival has been refreshing.

A core group of players have been asked to participate in the team's Leadership Council that will help make policy and bring complaints and suggestions to Franchione.

In other ways, Franchione has been his charming self. Shortly after getting to Tuscaloosa, he started a football class for women. Enrollment went way past the maximum to 260 with more than a few students driving in from out of state.

His website got 890,000 hits in May with e-mails from all 50 states, every Canadian province and 27 other foreign countries.

"I think I went into it with my eyes pretty open," he said. "But I think there's no doubt until you're here you can't have a full appreciation for the passion of our fans for this program. It hasn't been anything that has been shocking to me, but you don't know the depth of it until you sit behind the desk, how much our fans love the Crimson Tide."

The passion practically hits Franchione between the eyes each day. Across the street from the football complex at the Bryant Museum, is the Bear's office left almost intact. It looks like the old man has ducked out for lunch. But there is also a display featuring 10 pictures of the new coach who has never coached a game at Alabama. DuBose's presence has been limited to two pictures.

Another message sent: Don't screw up Fran or you too could have your own corner of anonymity next to DuBose.

It is Bryant's legend that Franchione knew he would have to salute on a daily basis. It happened in the first interview last year at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Franchione came into a meeting room expecting an offer from Moore. When he didn't get one, Franchione called Moore on his cell phone as he was catching the plane back to Alabama.

He wanted it all: The Bear's shadow, the pressure, the crazy fans, the chance to win it all. He wanted Alabama ... when Beamer, Davis, Bowden and Harris didn't.

"The tradition is easy for me to embrace," Franchione said. "I'm a traditionalist. I love all those things. For me to be where Coach Bryant coached is really special. I told Coach Moore, 'I'm not here to change tradition, just carve my own little piece of it.'"

The pressure starts to get turned up when you realize the day of any coach winning six national championships in a career, like Bryant did, are all but over. Coaches can retire fat, sassy and super-rich with just one.

For Alabama, that would be a good starting point for Coach Fran.