Coach Bryant was lucky this Forum was not around when he was coaching. What messages would we have sent? Everybody happy with everything? I figure we'd be telling Bear where he slipped up during a game. We might even have called for his head during the so-so years. That's why coaches should fear the Forum.

well, we do have it now and we intend fully to use it to get a real coach.

Well. He got plenty of that without the internet...from sports writers, to letters to the editor (the original chat board) and radio call-in shows.

At one point the noise level got so high and the natives so restless that Bryant went on the evening news to quiet the uproar. Alabama had a disatrous season losing handful of games. The uproar was that he had passed his prime...laid down on the job...was a has-been...

All of this after a bevy of National Championships and SEC championships. Pretty ungrateful, huh.

Bryant raised the bar high. He wouldn't excuse anybody for not living up to that standard...It would have been insult...for him most of all...to have lowered that bar for him. He knew that. He let everybody know that he WAS the damn football coach and AD and if there were any decisions or changes that needed to be made, that he and only he would be the one to make them. That said, he owned up to the failure and said that it was his fault and that he would take care of it and he did.

But, as for today. Would he expect the fans to be quiet and accept this level of mediocrity.

HELL NO.

He was harder on himself than any fan could write. It steals the thunder when the coach walks in the room & takes all the blame like Coach Bryant did.