RIP Mal Moore

At least the Bear made it a month after he retired.

 

I looked it up, and you're right. His tweet preceded the release by at least 10 minutes.

 

Moore retired for health reasons. Bryant retired because he didn't think he was a good enough coach anymore.

 

Moore didn't hire DuBose, and didn't make the decision to keep him after the "Little Debbie" fiasco. It was actually his predecessor who got fired over that. By his first full football season, DuBose was collapsing for good and the NCAA wolf was at the door.

What might not be apparent from the outside was that he was a genius at raising money during a dark time for the department. He did oversee the renovation of Coleman, even if it still looks like an airplane hangar from outside and still has 3000 more seats than it should. The softball team went from playing in a municipal park to the nicest stadium this side of OKC. The football facility (named for him now) is something any NFL team would be proud to claim.

And while there was plenty of luck in getting Saban, it also took a lot of chutzpah, because you weren't supposed to be able to pluck coaches from the almighty NFL. After RichRod went up in flames (and supposedly Moore wanted to wait even then for Saban), there was a lot of pressure on him to find a "safe" candidate who could stop the bleeding. Instead he bet his career on being able to land the best choice and got rewarded handsomely.

 

It was an equally big gamble on Saban's part to jump from the NFL back to the SEC and a not-desirable situation. We forget that for the longest time, no coach wanted to touch Tuscaloosa with a 10-foot pole before Saban accepted.

 

Look at the first post of this thread. "When Changing Thread Titles Goes Wrong."