Price already finds Alabama, recruiting sweet

Mike Price's dramatic flair is better than his sense of timing.

When Alabama's new coach met the team last week, he bopped into the meeting tossing sugar packets at his players. Sugar, as in the bowl where all SEC champions usually get to strut their stuff. Get it? One problem: As part of its NCAA penalties, Alabama won't be bowling for the second consecutive season in 2003.

Why let facts get in the way of a first impression?

"He pulled them out of his pocket and just let them loose," cornerback Charlie Peprah told the Birmingham News. "We were like, 'What is that?' It kind of shocked us."

Mike Price was a winner but not totally happy at Washington State. (Getty Images)

Nevertheless, this is the first week of the rest of Price's career. Or so he hopes. As the latest coach to take on the Bear Bryant legacy, he has waved off the pressure that began the moment he said yes to athletic director Mal Moore.

It's easy when you consider Price brought on part of the pressure himself. For the first time recently, Price revealed that he pursued the job that Moore had a hard time finding candidates for.

"I called him (Moore) right after it happened," Price said, referring to Dennis Franchione's departure to Texas A&M. "It was a real brief conversation. I said, 'Hey, if you want to find a new coach give me a call.' He said, 'OK, maybe some day.' He wasn't interested in me at that time."

When Moore returned the call, Price was on an Epcot Center ride with Outland Trophy winner Rien Long, in Orlando for an awards show. Feel free to insert your metaphor here. Yes, coaching Alabama football is like a roller coaster.

"I'm on a two-year plan," Price said "I hear people say I'm on a five-year plan, seven-year plan. I'm on a two-year plan. It's always been there at Alabama. That's why I came to Alabama."

That Price was pursuing Alabama after 14 years at Washington State says a lot about both schools. It gave legs to the speculation that Price wasn't exactly enamored with his former boss, Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk. It also suggests Price is going into one of college football's boiling cauldrons with his eyes wide open.

"I don't know if they've had their dose of Mike Price shock, either," Price said of the 'Bama Nation. "I'm just falling in love with it. I just love Tuscaloosa. I've driven around there the last couple of days, seen the community. I took the shot because of Alabama football, no question about that. It's nice that the community and the people going along with it make it a little bit more special."

'Bama fans can only hope that the similarities to Franchione end at the realtor's office. Price is interested in buying Franchione's Tuscaloosa home.

Until then, it's all about hiring assistants and rounding up his first recruiting class. Neither task has proved to be a problem. Aided by one of Franchione's former assistants, Price has nicely held together 15 previous commitments. The day after he was introduced at the school, he either spoke to or visited all 15.

During preparations for the Rose Bowl, Price would speak to high school relations coordinator Randy Ross and other holdovers by speakerphone back in Tuscaloosa. Sometimes those calls would commence at 1 or 2 a.m. Central Time.

"I figured that when they came in, I didn't think it was going to be too tough," said recruiting analyst Jeremy Crabtree. "The hardest part was keeping their commitments. That was going to be their first priority and only priority."

Among others, Price apparently retained the commitment of Birmingham standout Tim Castille of Birmingham. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound "athlete" could be projected as a defensive back, receiver or running back.

The ultimate question: Does Price really know what he is getting into? Franchione won 17 of 25 games in two seasons and was bothered, at least in part, by the smothering attention the program gets. Just think what it could get like if Price has a losing season.

When Jim Leavitt was mentioned as a possibility at Alabama, the South Florida coach received 70 calls on his office phone. Some were from media, some were from fans; one told him that Alabama needed a coach to turn it around.

"And they won 10 games!" Leavitt said.

When Price became the hot guy, his phone "exploded."

"If you got a little kid that likes candy and you let him go to the candy store (that's me), I feel like I've died and gone to heaven," Price said. "Other than my family, the most important thing to me is football. I'm going to a state that appreciates it, a state that has passion for it; it's perfect." Losing is more than a possibility considering the NCAA recruiting sanctions haven't hit yet. Alabama will lose 21 scholarships over the next three years and have total scholarships cut from 85 to 80.

That puts a premium on walk-ons, which is part of Price's and Alabama's magic. If there is a school that survives such severe sanctions, it's Alabama because of the walk-ons who will literally pay their own way to play for the Tide.

"A few years ago we played in Rose Bowl starting five walk-ons," Price said. "I believe in walk-ons. I was a walk-on myself."

If you can recruit to Pullman, Wash., you pretty much should to be able to recruit to any school. Price made his bones landing a bushel full of NFL quarterbacks at Washington State. But perhaps he should be best known for the one that got away. As an assistant coach at Missouri in 1978, Price got a scrawny kid from California to take a recruiting visit.

"His dad and I were best friends," Price said. "John and I used to play catch in the backyard. People in Missouri didn't know quite how good he was until I showed them tapes. He said he would have come to Missouri, if they could move it to California."

John Elway didn't sign with Missouri, but Price didn't give up trying either.

Scoping the recruiting nation

• Washington apparently is not suffering from Rick Neuheisel not being able to go on the road until June. The Huskies have at least 18 commitments. The staff was pro-active seeking early commitments and hitting up the players who attended Washington's summer camp. Neuheisel can't go on the road because of NCAA penalties (recruiting violations) that followed him from Colorado.

• Either Oklahoma or USC is considered to be No. 1 in recruiting so far. Pete Carroll capitalized on an 11-2 season with 22 commitments to date. Oklahoma has 18. No surprise that Texas has a consensus top five class as well. That's where Mack Brown has finished each year since he arrived at the school in 1998.

• How the rich get richer: A recent national 100 list in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram showed that those players are considering or committed to a total of only 58 Division I-A schools. Theoretically that means that half the teams in the country, at best, will be recruiting No. 101 and lower.

• After punking Miami on the field, Ohio State pulled a major coup, landing Fort Lauderdale defensive end Stanley McClover. The Buckeyes beat out Florida and Miami among others for the 245-pounder who had 33 sacks his last two seasons.