From top of the class to building high hopes from the bottom

At Florida, Pelphrey was once the hot assistant du jour. West Virginia and Rutgers pursued him, and while both Big East schools went in other directions, their attention confirmed Pelphrey's reputation as a future head coach.

Even so, Pelphrey admits to misreading the situation at South Alabama. He had helped programs turn around -- as a player at scandal-plagued Kentucky in 1988, and as an assistant at Florida in 1996 -- and had even spent two years as Donovan's assistant at Marshall in the mid-1990s.

But South Alabama was the worst-case combination of all those schools. Pelphrey inherited a low-profile program that had been found guilty of a major recruiting violation under the previous staff, resulting in one lost scholarship for each of his first two seasons. Add to that the NCAA's eight-five scholarship limit, which had yet to be repealed, and Pelphrey had no margin for error in recruiting.

"The thing I miscalculated was the eight-five rule," he says. "Those programs that went through rebuilding phases, only Florida had to deal with that -- and by then, we were established. With that and the NCAA reductions, it's taken a year longer than I expected."

Pelphrey entered this season with a 36-48 record, and with only two years left on his contract. Bad thoughts? Pelphrey entertained a few of those.

"As a coach you've always got expectations, and we all have our weak moments," Pelphrey says. "But the bottom line is you've got to have a belief system, and I believe I'm supposed to be here at South Alabama."