Tider Insider's
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INTERVIEW
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| The past few months have been a very busy time for Mike
DuBose. Since being named head football coach at Alabama on December 9th,
he has assembled his staff, put together a very successful recruiting class,
and is now in the middle of his first spring practice as the head man.
On Wednesday night, April, 2 coach DuBose took a few moments out of his busy schedule to discuss this year's recruiting class with Tider Insider. |
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| TI | Coach, I know you have to be excited about your first recruiting class. |
| MD | I don't want to sound like we're not excited about this class because we are -- we're very excited, but not in the same way most people are. It'll be at least two, maybe even three, years before we will know how good this class is going to be. We do feel like we've filled a lot of our needs with this group. |
| TI | Many people who follow Alabama football felt that this was a critical year in recruiting. Did you and your staff consider it to be critical? |
| MD | I would agree very much that it was a critical year, but next year will be even more critical. In a couple of years we will only be losing 8 to 10 seniors, so it's very critical that we have back-to-back successful recruiting classes. |
| TI | Coach, you've been called an outstanding recruiter, and this class seems to confirm that you are. Does being a good recruiter come naturally, or is it hard work that makes some coaches better recruiters than others? |
| MD | Well, I don't think it's anything about me. I think it's a combination
of other factors.
First, you have to have a product that sells itself and the University of Alabama certainly does that. The history and tradition here are special, so that makes Alabama an easy sell. Secondly, our staff has a lot of enthusiasm and they worked extremely hard in recruiting. Those factors are more important than anything I could do. |
| TI | Some people have described you as an aggressive recruiter. How would you describe the approach that you and your staff take in recruiting? |
| MD | Our philosophy is to sign the 25 best young men we can find. When I
say that I mean we are searching for young men who fit into the type of
program we want at Alabama.
We believe in a no-pressure style of recruiting. We want young men who understand what it takes to play at Alabama and who want to play at Alabama. We're not going to twist any arms or break any legs to get them to come. |
| TI | Switching directions now, coach, you made big changes in a couple of areas when you took over. You brought in a new offensive line coach and a new strength coach. I know that it takes some time before you can measure the results of such changes, but have you seen any positive signs in either of these areas? |
| MD | We're definitely a stronger football team. That's not to say, however,
that we are a strong team -- but we're making progress towards getting
there.
Terry Jones has done an outstanding job as the new strength coach. Besides building strength, I can see more mental toughness in our players. There's also more of a oneness feeling on the team, but we've still got a lot of work to do. Neil Callaway is doing a fine job with the offensive line. It's still early, but I can see progress being made by our offensive line. |
| TI | Finally coach, Alabama fans want to know everything about the program. One question several Alabama fans are asking is what type of coach will you be on the sideline. Will Mike DuBose be a coat and tie type, or will he be like Steve Spurrier, who wears a golf shirt on the sideline? |
| MD | Actually I get asked that quite a bit. As far as what type of coach
I'll be on the sideline, I probably will not be as much involved in the
play-calling as most other coaches.
I don't believe it's my job to get involved in any particular phase of the team -- offense, defense, or the kicking game. It's my responsibility to make sure that all three phases come together and play as a team. I need to make sure that all three phases are performing at a high level. I want to emphasize each phase of the game. I think that makes it more fun for the players. I know if I were a player I wouldn't like playing on a team that only emphasized one side of the ball -- especially if I played on the side that wasn't the emphasis. As for dress, the University of Alabama has a lot of tradition in terms of the way the coach dresses. I'm sure I will keep with tradition and wear a tie, but I'm not sure about a jacket. I may wear a jacket at times and may not at others. |
| Editor's Note: There were many questions we would've liked
to have asked coach DuBose, but his time is limited. We are just thankful
he allowed us the opportunity to speak with him.
We would have liked to talked about individual players, but as coach DuBose told us, there's really nothing he can say about a player until he sees how the player performs in pads. |
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