MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama hired Texas Christian football coach Dennis
Franchione to turn around the Crimson Tide, opting for someone with no ties to
the school.
Franchione said he and Alabama athletic director Mal Moore agreed Friday to
a seven-year deal worth between $1.2 million and $1.4 million a year.
Franchione said specifics still need to be worked out.
Franchione replaces Mike DuBose, who resigned Nov. 1, but finished out the
season. The Crimson Tide finished 3-8, its worst record in 45 years.
Moore said he felt Alabama fans would embrace their new coach despite his
lack of a Crimson Tide background.
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| Dennis Franchione takes over a Crimson Tide team coming off its worst season in 45 years.(AP) | |
"I think our fans will take pride in him and pull for him and expect him to
win, as they would any coach," Moore said in a phone interview Friday night.
"I hope that doesn't change. And I told him that."
Franchione, who has coached TCU to three straight winning seasons, couldn't
pass up the opportunity at tradition-rich Alabama.
"It went faster than I thought it'd go," said Franchione, who first met
with Moore on Thursday. "It's been a wonderful three years. People have been
great to us. There's not any kind of negative to TCU whatsoever for me.
"It's just the University of Alabama," Franchione said, speaking in Fort
Worth, Texas.
He said he hoped to coach the 13th-ranked Horned Frogs (10-1) through the
Dec. 20 Mobile Alabama Bowl. He inherited a 1-10 team at TCU three years ago
and has taken the school to bowl games each season.
Franchione will fly to Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Sunday after TCU's practice.
Moore said Franchione had already begun phoning Tide recruits.
The Horned Frogs' first practice for the bowl was cut short Thursday. As the
team huddled after a 75-minute practice, Franchione told of his plans to talk
to Moore, prompting some players to chant "Stay, Fran, stay."
Franchione rejected Missouri, where his close friend Mike Alden is the
athletic director. His name has also been linked to several other jobs,
including Arizona State, one of four schools that would only have a reduced
buyout of the coach's current contract.
Alabama is not among those four schools, and would reportedly have to pay $1
million to buy out Franchione's TCU contract, which runs through 2005.
TCU athletic director Eric Hyman said a national search for a new coach will
begin immediately.
"We appreciate the job coach Fran has done in his three years at TCU and
wish him the best of luck at the University of Alabama," Hyman said.
In the 18 years since Paul "Bear" Bryant retired, Alabama has had four
coaches. Only one, Bill Curry, hadn't played or coached under Bryant, and he
resigned after three seasons.
"I just simply wanted to find (a coach) that, in my opinion, was capable
and had had success as a head coach," Moore said. "He fit that requirement."
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