Franchione finds Bryant still alive at Alabama

04/13/2001

By Juliet Macur / The Dallas Morning News

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – He is sitting in his crimson leather chair wearing his crimson shirt, surveying the Crimson Tide memorabilia in his new office.

There's Bear Bryant this, Bear Bryant that. National championship this, national championship that.

It's a veritable museum. A glass case filled with fancy rings, including one commemorating Bryant's record-breaking 315th victory. Gold medallions representing each of Alabama's 12 national titles. A framed picture of the 32-cent stamp with Bryant's likeness on it, houndstooth check hat and all.

For certain, Dennis Franchione looks around and realizes he's not at TCU anymore. His days in Fort Worth are long gone.

"See those two boxes right over there?" Franchione says, pointing to containers overstuffed with files. "Those are picture requests from fans, some from people who say they've had every Alabama head coach's picture up in their house since Coach Bryant. Can you imagine that?

"I'm maybe the most recognized person in this state. Just take this job, and you're famous, just like that."

At TCU, Franchione turned a 1-10 team into a 10-1 powerhouse in only three years. He engineered the Horned Frogs' best season in 62 years before he left the program in December.

Despite his success, Franchione wasn't a superstar. In fact, he was many rungs down on Texas' ladder of sports stardom – not surprising when public figures like Troy Aikman, Mark Cuban and Mike Modano take up so much room in the Dallas area alone.

But everything changed when Franchione took the job at Alabama. It's where pro teams are non-existent and college football – namely Alabama and Auburn – is a statewide passion. It's where he became instant royalty.

"You have no idea what it's like at Alabama until you experience it for yourself," Franchione says, smiling like a kid with a juicy secret. "It's just amazing how much this team is a source of pride for this state."

Center of attention

Bama football is as sacred as religion. The fans worship their team. They live it.

Anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 people are expected to show up Saturday to watch Alabama's spring intrasquad scrimmage that counts for nothing. Hundreds of fans have attended each spring practice, where grownups play hooky from work to evaluate players, analyze depth charts or just sweat in the sun with their fellow Tide fans.

The main topic of conversation this year has been Franchione, the 50-year-old coach who will be scrutinized ruthlessly, whether he likes it or not.

"Hmm ... I thought Coach Fran would be taller than that," says one fan to his friend after driving 160 miles to Tuscaloosa. "Coach Bryant was much taller than that."

"He looks like he's running things pretty good," the fan's buddy says. "I hope he knows this ain't the WAC, though. Heh, heh, heh ..."

Those fans can be loving. Each day, for example, they bear gifts for Alabama's most important man. Franchione never goes home empty-handed.

One kid gave Franchione an Alabama watch after noticing he wasn't wearing one at practice. One fan left a plain wallet with $5 tucked inside for Franchione and his wife, Kim. Someone else gave them a golf cart.

The Franchiones also have an unlimited supply of Coke and Golden Flake potato chips back at their house, just because Bryant was the products' former spokesman.

Still, Franchione isn't caught up in the perks of his new job. He's caught up in the tradition of it.

"Awhile ago, he bought a CD with Alabama's fight song on it," Kim Franchione says, rolling her eyes. "We must have heard it a hundred times already. Every time someone comes over, he says, 'Y'all want to hear the fight song? Oh, I have it right here!'"

Franchione still wears his Western Athletic Conference championship ring on his right hand – at least until a Southeastern Conference championship ring replaces it. He knows full well that winning the SEC title – and beating Auburn – is a basic need around these parts. And the pressure to succeed, from often frighteningly fervent fans, is monumental.

Tuscaloosa can be heaven or hell, depending on the team's success. Win, and the fans treat the coach like a god. Lose, and they'll turn on him like rabid dogs – chastising, criticizing and ultimately chasing him out of town.

Franchione thinks he can handle all that, particularly because he has taken over and turned around five other programs with losing seasons – including TCU, New Mexico and Southwest Texas State.

"It's a very high-profile job, but Coach Fran isn't afraid of it," says Alabama athletic director Mal Moore, who played and coached for Bryant here. "You're expected to win a national championship. Coach Fran knows that as much as anyone. That's why we wanted him here."

Early acceptance

So far, though, Franchione doesn't feel the pressure. Only the adulation.

In his first three months, before his team had played a single down, Franchione had signed more than 2,000 of his head shots, personalizing each until his hand ached: To John Doe, Roll Tide! – Coach Fran.

The fans adore him, for now, because he respects the tradition of Alabama football and because he, too, revered Bear Bryant. They love him because he's always organized, efficient and dressed so perfectly in his crimson shirts or sweat suits.

He's corporate but friendly. He's polished. His gray hair is always combed just right.

But most of all, they love him because he represents hope.

"Everybody is enthralled with him because he is just so classy," said Bill Hasty, an Alabama alumnus, while watching practice one day. "We can tell he will turn this thing around for us."

Though Franchione is one of only a few Alabama coaches who didn't attend the school, he already is considered the Crimson Tide's savior.

He's the coach who will resurrect the program after its 3-8 season last year, its worst finish in more than 40 years. He's the leader who will bring victories and championships, even amid an NCAA investigation.

But Franchione, who signed a seven-year, $1.1 million contract, knows that he must produce wins right away, or else.

"They love winners and beginners here," Franchione says, "so I'm safe for now."

Gene Stallings, who coached Alabama from 1990 to '96, knows firsthand that the love doesn't last for long. He lost his first three games, and the fans were about to burn him in effigy.

"They wanted me fired right there because everyone at Alabama is compared to Coach Bryant," says Stallings, the former Cowboys assistant. "I always said, 'The people of the state of Alabama love Coach Bryant. They just try to tolerate the rest of us.'"

Stallings went on to win 31 of his next 34 games and gave Alabama its 12th national championship in 1992. Other coaches didn't enjoy their Tuscaloosa tours as much. Ray Perkins couldn't produce a major bowl bid in four seasons and fled back to the NFL. Bill Curry was 10-0 in 1989 – and quit two games later because he lost to Auburn and in the Sugar Bowl.

Perkins even had the guts to take down Bryant's legendary coaching tower but put it back up when the state nearly had a collective panic attack. Franchione learned from that.

"I'm not touching anything," he says with a laugh.

Pressure to improve

But when it comes to the team's play, Franchione must change plenty. Mike DuBose earned a contract extension by winning the 1999 SEC title yet was fired before the end of last season when Bama was losing home games to Southern Miss and Central Florida. He left behind a disappointed team, depressed fans and an NCAA investigation into potential violations, including illegal recruiting, academic improprieties, improper benefits for recruits and players, and unethical conduct by coaches.

While the NCAA completes its probe, Franchione says he must move forward as if nothing is awry, particularly because he can't do anything about it anyway. The problem he must address, though, is recruiting. Franchione has had to convince players to commit to Alabama despite the investigation. Other schools have made it difficult by spreading rumors.

"They try to convince people that it's everything including the death penalty for Alabama," Franchione says. "The worst part of it is the vagueness of what's out there. We don't know what we're dealing with."

But recruiting difficulties won't stop Franchione from thinking big. He has plenty of players who helped win the 1999 SEC title. They just need discipline and organization, which means more repetitions, more pushups, more lifting and more pain.

"He demands a lot from us, and we put our faith in him," linebacker Saleem Rasheed says. "Everyone of us is under a lot of pressure to win here because the fans can be really demanding, too."

Franchione expects a winning season this year. He plans to win a national championship in years to come. His first goal, however, is simply to walk the sidelines of Bryant-Denny Stadium during his first home game against UCLA.

"I keep telling my wife, 'If I'm ever going to have a heart attack, it will be that day,'" he says. "It gives me cold chills just thinking about it."

BEAR'S SHADOW
Alabama will begin breaking in its fifth "post-Bryant" coach this fall with former TCU coach Dennis Franchione. Here's a comparison of the Tide's achievements under Bear Bryant (above) and his successors:
Category	Bryant	Successors
Years	25	18
Average wins	9.28	8.44
Bowls	24	14
SEC titles	13	3
National titles	6	1
Losing seasons	0	3