There’s an unwritten warning among coaches that says it’s simply not a good career move to follow a legend. Better to be the guy after the guy who replaces him. Or, better yet, the guy after that.
This past January, University of Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne had the colossal task of replacing Nick Saban, legend of legends, who resigned unexpectedly on January 10 after 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, where he elevated an elite-but-struggling program to stratospheric altitudes and in the process made his case to be the greatest of all time (GOAT).
Saban’s numbers at Alabama don’t lie: six national titles, nine SEC championships, 16 straight 10-win seasons, four Heisman Trophy winners, 201 total wins, and an .874 winning percentage.
And while many expected a big name (Kiffin, Sarkisian, Swinney, et al) to emerge from the pantheon of possibilities as Saban’s replacement, Kalen DeBoer was named the 28th head coach in Crimson Tide football history when all the dust cleared.
Some hailed this as a home-run hire, while others grieved that this was no more than a bloop single for the greatest program in the history of college football. Indeed, time will tell if DeBoer will be able to handle the emotional, psychological, and physical toll of being Alabama’s head football coach, if he’s got the moxie to land a top recruiting class year-in and year-out, and if he can fight his way through an SEC schedule now chock-full of blue-blooded Goliaths (Welcome Texas! Welcome Oklahoma!).
Credit to DeBoer: he had the self-confidence to take the job and not allow any preconceived fears of replacing a legend dictate his career chess moves. So far, he seems not one bit rattled and has calmed even the jitteriest of fans who were freaking out over Saban’s exodus. Perhaps this confidence and poise will precisely be the qualities that will propel him to future success.
Broader questions remain, however. While coaches remain skittish about replacing legends, one must ask, “does this skittish-ness even have merit?” In other words, is it really career suicide to follow a campus icon? How often is this “beware! beware!” narrative simply not true and the legend’s successor discovers oil beneath the derrick? How often does following a legend actually propel a coach to even greater heights? And how often is the sequel better than the original?
Worth mentioning are a few replacements from around the sporting world. Let’s start with arguably the most iconic name in pro football:
“I’ll have Replacing a Legend for $1600, Alex”
“In 1968, this former Golden Gopher succeeded Vince Lombardi as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.”
“Who is Phil Bengtson?”
“Correct.”
Perhaps the reason you’ve never heard of Phil Bengtson is that he lasted only a short while in Green Bay, posting a 20-21-1 record across three seasons from 1968-70.
But what about others?
Many may squirm at the Tim Floyd era (49-190, .205 winning pct.) of the Chicago Bulls after the six-foot-ten of Zen, Phil Jackson, stepped away from the United Center in 1998. Or recall the Bill Guthridge era (80-28/.741) of North Carolina basketball from 1997-2000 after the illustrious 36-year career of Dean Smith. Or what about Mike Davis (.593) replacing Bobby Knight at Indiana, George Siefert (.766, two-time Super Bowl Champion) replacing Bill Walsh in San Francisco, Bill Russell (.638, two NBA championships) replacing Red Auerbach in Boston, Gene Bartow (.852) replacing John Wooden at UCLA, and Holly Warlick (.720) replacing Pat Summitt as the head coach of the Lady Vols?
Your head may already be spinning with all this knowledge, so we’d better simmer down and focus on college football. To further narrow the discussion, let’s say we only include coaching legends post-1950 (my apologies to those who were pining for a deep dive into the Clark Shaughnessy era at the University of Chicago after the departure of Amos Alonzo Stagg).
Let’s go.
Nebraska | Legend: Tom Osborne. Replacement: Frank Solich
Frank Solich became the head coach in Lincoln after the retirement of Cornhusker uber-icon Tom Osborne (255-49-3). Solich went 58-19 (.753) across six seasons, posted a 12-1 record in 1999 with a win in the Fiesta Bowl over Tennessee, but was fired after the conclusion of the 2003 regular season when the Cornhuskers were 9-3.
Over the last 26 seasons, The Osborne Effect has proven to be real: not having him as head coach, the Huskers are a middling 195-132.
Texas | Legend: Darrell Royal. Replacement: Fred Akers
Darrell Royal won three national titles (1963, ’69, and ’70), captured 11 Southwest Conference titles, and notched 167 wins as the Longhorns’ head coach from 1957-76. He was replaced with Blytheville, Arkansas, native Fred Akers, who posted an 86-31-2 record in ten seasons in Austin. Although Texas won the Southwest Conference under Akers’ tutelage in both 1977 and ’83, Akers bolted for Purdue in December of 1986.
Oklahoma | Legend: Bud Wilkinson. Replacement: Gomer Jones
Bud Wilkinson (145-29-4) is famous for winning 47 consecutive games as the head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, but even his tenure had to come to an end. After the 1963 season, Wilkinson was replaced by assistant Gomer Jones, who had an inauspicious two-year stint where he posted a 9-11-1 overall record. It wasn’t until Chuck Fairbanks arrived in 1967 that the Sooners’ fortunes began to turn around.
Florida State | Legend: Bobby Bowden. Replacement: Jimbo Fisher
Jimbo Fisher is one of the few replacements to win a national title after following a bona fide legend. Bobby Bowden, who built a powerhouse program at FSU in the 1980s and claimed two national titles in the 1990s, finally hung up his hat in 2009. His replacement and head-coach-in-waiting, Fisher, shared a common bond with Bowden: playing and coaching at Samford University in Birmingham (Samford was named Howard College when Bowden played quarterback).
Fisher was 83-23 in Tallahassee and won the 2013 national title.
Michigan | Legend: Bo Schembechler. Replacement: Gary Moeller
Glenn Edward “Bo” Schembechler Jr. (194-48-5) helmed the Michigan football team from 1969-89, capturing 13 Big Ten Championships and winning the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award in 1977. His replacement? Longtime assistant Gary Moeller, whose connection to Schembechler dated back to his playing days at Ohio State from 1960-62 when Schembechler served as an assistant coach for the Buckeyes.
Moller was 44-13-3 across five seasons in Ann Arbor before resigning in May 1995 due to an off-the-field issue. Two years later, the Wolverines won the 1997 National Title under head coach Lloyd Carr.
Penn State | Legend: Joe Paterno. Replacement: Bill O’Brien
Perhaps no replacement coach on our list had a bigger hurdle to overcome than Bill O’Brien when he took over the Nittany Lion program in 2012. Not only did O’Brien have to replace a figure who’d become synonymous with Penn State football, but he also had to navigate the choppy wake of a child sex abuse scandal that rocked the university, the state of Pennsylvania, and the nation as a whole.
Considering the circumstances, O’Brien did surprisingly well in State College, posting a 15-9 record over two seasons before leaving to become the head coach of the Houston Texans in 2014.
Ohio State | Legend: Woody Hayes. Replacement: Earl Bruce
Woody Hayes’ abrupt departure after the 1978 Gator Bowl ushered in the Earle Bruce era of Ohio State football. Bruce, who served as the Buckeyes’ head coach from 1979-87, had been the head coach at Iowa State for six years before accepting the position in Columbus. From 1980-86, Bruce made 9-3 seasons like Groundhog Day and captured four Big Ten championships in the process. He was later dismissed in 1987 after 6-4-1 campaign.
Now, without further ado, let’s turn to the SEC.
Florida | Legend: Steve Spurrier. Replacement: Ron Zook
The Steve Spurrier coaching era began with a bang, with wins against Oklahoma State and at Alabama in short order. That first year, 1990, the probation-handcuffed Gators went 9-2 with a 6-1 conference record, putting the SEC on notice that a Steve-Spurrier-coached squad was one to be reckoned with.
By the time “Darth Visor” departed from the Gator program 11 years later, he’d changed the offensive landscape of college football from a heavy, blocky, primarily run-oriented game to one of aerial adoration with his Fun-and-Gun scheme, captured the school’s first national title in 1996, collected six more SEC crowns (four straight from 1993-96), and guided signal-callers like Shane Matthews and Heisman Trophy recipient Danny Wuerffel to unprecedented success.
Not only that, but his legend seemed to grow with his frequent Spurrier-isms, many directed toward his distaste for—as the immortal Leonard Postero once said—the “Knoxville Shootin’ Gallery at the University of Tennessee.”
To replace the “Old Ball Coach,” Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley selected Ron Zook, a former Spurrier assistant and then-New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator, as Spurrier’s replacement. Zook went 23-14 across three seasons as Florida’s head coach, losing both Outback Bowls (vs. Michigan, vs. Iowa) his teams participated in.
A period of flux defined the early 2000s in Gainesville, and it wasn’t until 2006 that the Gators were back on top of the college football world under head coach Urban Meyer.
Georgia | Legend: Vince Dooley. Replacement: Ray Goff
Only five coaches have won at least 100 SEC games: Nick Saban, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Steve Spurrier, Johnny Vaught, and Vince Dooley. Arriving in Athens in 1964, Dooley made waves in only his second season by doing something you just didn’t do back then: he beat Alabama.
Across three decades, Dooley brought home six conference titles, a national championship (1980), and posted an overall conference record was 102-41-4. He also served in duel capacity as athletic director and head football coach from 1979 to his retirement in 1988 (he would continue as Georgia AD until 2004).
Thirty-three-year-old running backs coach Ray Goff, who had played quarterback for Dooley from 1974-76, was selected as his successor.
But Goff could not replicate the magic of his former coach; after pinnacling in 1992 with a 10-2 record, he went 5-6, 6-4-1, and 6-6 in his last three seasons in Athens. His coaching career at Georgia came to an end in 1995.
Tennessee | Legend: Johnny Majors. Replacement: Phillip Fulmer
There’s an ongoing debate as to which is a better film: the original The Godfather or The Godfather Part II. And if you’re a Tennessee fan, you may still be debating who was the better overall coach of your fine football program, Johnny Majors or Phillip Fulmer.
The iconic nod goes to Majors (116-62-8 at Tennessee), whose tenure felt like the frills of a coon dog hunt in the bleak of a Appalachian winter. Majors won three SEC titles (’85, ’89, and ’90) and helped lure players like Reggie White and Willie Gault to Knoxville.
The dominance nod, however, goes to Fulmer (151-52-1 at Tennessee) who won a national title in 1998, ruled “The Third Saturday in October” versus Alabama from 1995-2001, and collected consecutive SEC titles in 1997 and ‘98. His recruiting haul included players like Peyton Manning, Michael Munoz, and Jamal Lewis.
Fulmer’s Achilles heel? He was 5-12 against Florida.
Whatever camp you’re in, one thing is for certain: Fulmer is the only name on this list who, at least in terms of wins, eclipsed the legend who preceded him.
Alabama | Legend: Bear Bryant. Replacement: Ray Perkins
“Looking nonetheless cool in his freshly pressed slacks and short-sleeved dress shirt, Perkins is sitting in what used to be Bryant’s office in Memorial Coliseum at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa at T-minus-five days and counting until his first game as Bryant’s successor. The game will be with Georgia Tech, an old—and formerly bitter—rival. Except for the paneled walls, the office is mostly new. The desk that Bryant used to loom behind has been replaced by one that is a few square yards smaller. The new rug is elephant gray, like the new sofa, and there are color-coordinated upholstered chairs in gray and crimson stripes and a large stuffed one that is solid crimson,” wrote John Underwood for Sports Illustrated in September 1983.
Perkins won that opener against the Ramblin’ Wreck at Legion Field in Birmingham —and the next three—but then dropped two in a row (uh-oh) to Penn State and rival Tennessee. But the kicker that year was a 23-20 loss to Auburn—a game marked by Bo Jackson rushing for 256 yards to seal the Tigers’ second victory in a row in the Iron Bowl.
Back to Underwood’s article, for a moment. When told he needed to win to keep people in Alabama happy, Perkins replied, “We’ll win.” Just over three years later, Perkins shocked the world by announcing he was leaving Alabama to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Now, if a tough, hardnosed Bryant boy lasted only four seasons in the shadow of a Bear, what are the chances DeBoer makes it that long? Indeed, the collective Bear and Saban effect has pushed the threshold of winning at Alabama so far that the only way to keep some fans happy is to not lose a single game—at the very least win the SEC and beat Auburn.
But it’s not just the need to win. DeBoer will have to withstand the hopped-up perpetual frenzy that is Alabama football. Does he understand all that? Not fully, but he’s gotten a taste of what it’s like over the last few months. After all, the only way to have adequate comprehension of this mania is to be in it, to live it, to be at the epicenter of the radio calls, the water cooler what-ifs, the cartoonish memes, the crimson-lit hundred-thousand-strong, the ridiculous videos, the Finebaum callers, the SEC Shorts, the Facebook comments, the temper tantrums and rants, the Roll Tide Willies, and the I-Mans of the world.
If things were bad in Perkins’ days, they’ve grown exponentially (have we reached idolatry yet?) since the advent of the internet. I mean, heck, I don’t even coach the team, and I feel pressure.
So, as we wrap up our time together, let’s examine a few numbers of the aforementioned football coaches who have replaced legends and see if we can project what might happen in the Deboer era of Crimson Tide football. Take a look at this chart:
Analyzing the above statistics, the average number of seasons for replacements is 6.7, the average total wins is 57.18, the average wins per season is 8.5, the average winning percentage is .671, the chance of winning a national title is about 18 percent, and the average number of conference titles is 1.36.
If you look at the top-tier programs, it’s safe to say that there is often a buffer between periods of greatness. For instance, it took ten years and three head coaches for Alabama to win its first national title in the post-Bryant era. It took eight years and two head coaches for Michigan in the post-Schembechler era, 24 years and three head coaches for Ohio State in the post-Hayes era, 29 years and four head coaches for Texas in the post-Royal era, and 11 years and four head coaches for Oklahoma in the post-Wilkinson era.
Penn State and Nebraska are the two programs on our list who have yet to claim a national title after the exodus of their respective legend, and Fisher and Fulmer are the only successors on our list to win a national title.
Does this mean it can’t be done? Of course not. DeBoer indeed could be the third, but statistics are not on his side.
So far, though, DeBoer has been impressive and answered many of the low-hanging questions prior to his tenure:
- How will a native South Dakotan and former West-Coaster fare in recruiting as he walks into living rooms across the South? Check.
- Will he continue put a premium on recruiting as Saban did (after all, Washington was ranked 36th in the country in recruiting by 24/7 Sports when DeBoer was hired)? Seems unlikely he would change his m.o.
- With only four years of Division 1 head coaching experience, does he possess the recruiting and coaching chops not only to jockey with but dominate the more seasoned conference coaches? To be determined.
Here are a few more:
- Can he beat Auburn consistently?
- Can he waltz into opposing stadiums consistently and pull out a win?
- Can he bring back an intimidation factor that Alabama once had under Saban?
- Can he handle the turnover of players and coaches that has become inherent with the Alabama program?
- Can he continue to adapt to the challenges that NCAA football coaching presents here and beyond?
Bear Bryant famously said a month before his passing that if he ever quit coaching, he’d “croak in a week.” His guess was not too far off target. Though Ray Perkins didn’t have to contend with Bryant looking over his shoulder, the long shadow that Bryant cast loomed over the Alabama program for many years and no doubt impacted Perkins in a variety of ways.
Now that DeBoer has been installed as the head coach in Tuscaloosa, one must wonder what the continued presence of Saban will have on the football program – and DeBoer himself.
This time, the shadow won’t be too far away. TG