DuBose Resigns as Alabama Football Coach
T U S C A L O O S A, Ala., Nov. 1 -- Alabama coach Mike DuBose, whose team has failed to approach lofty expectations in the fourth year of his turbulent tenure with the Tide, is resigning effective at the end of the season.
Athletic director Mal Moore made the announcement at a newsconference today.
“We both agreed that new leadership is needed to move theprogram forward,” Moore said.
Moore said DuBose would be paid his salary and benefits throughJanuary 2002 — one year beyond his stepping down as head coach —and there would be “no lump sum payment.”
DuBose, 47, a former Alabama player and longtime assistantcoach, is under contract through Jan. 31, 2004. His total annualcompensation is $525,000.
The 1999 SEC Coach of the Year, DuBose has a 24-20 record in hisfourth year as head coach at Alabama.
Moore said a search would be undertaken for an experienced headcoach to replace DuBose, who had never been a college head coachwhen he took the reins of one of the country’s most prominentfootball programs.
High Hopes for Season
DuBose led the Crimson Tide to the Southeastern Conference crownlast year, a season that began under a cloud after DuBose nearlylost his job in an embarrassing sexual harassment scandal. But withthe SEC title, he was touting his team as a national championshipcontender before the season, which opened with Alabama ranked No. 3nationally.
The free fall began immediately. The Tide lost three of theirfirst four games and have fallen to 3-5, losing all threenonconference games for the first time since 1955.
They are on the verge of their second losing season in DuBose’stumultuous reign. Alabama could still wind up in the SECchampionship game by winning their final three games.
DuBose said after last Saturday’s humiliating homecoming loss40-38 to Central Florida that he did not plan to resign.
“If God intends me to do something, then I will do that,”DuBose said. “Or if I look in the eyes of these young men and knowI’m not doing the things I should be doing to help them be a betterplayer, a better student and a better person. And I believe we’redoing that.”
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