Is Fran In South Alabama's Plan ?

MeanGreen61 · January 25, 2008

Is Fran in South Alabama's plan?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

By KIM SHUGARTSports Reporter

Two more high-profile names have emerged in South Alabama's search for a head football coach which USA athletic director Joe Gottfried says will be completed in about two weeks.

The Press-Register has learned that and former Alabama and Texas A&M head coach Dennis Franchione and Pittsburgh Steelers assistant head coach John Mitchell, a native of Mobile, are candidates for the position.

Gottfried would not say if the search committee has already interviewed or will interview Mitchell or Franchione.

"We are right on track," Gottfried said of the February target date for selecting a head coach. "We will probably talk in person with a couple more people and then we'll make the decision on who we will bring to campus. We haven't decided how many (candidates) we will bring here. It could be one, two or possibly three."

USA's search committee has interviewed several former head coaches and top assistants for the position.

"We started out with the thought of interviewing 10 to 12 coaches for the job and we're still in that framework," Gottfried said. "All of the coaches that we've interviewed are very qualified and we will have a head coach in a couple of weeks.

"We wanted to have a head coach early in February and we will have one. The national signing date is Feb. 6 and we'll be very close to completing our process by then."

Mitchell, who played at Williamson High and for two years under Bear Bryant at Alabama (1971-1972), has been with the Steelers for 14 years as the defensive line coach. He has been an NFL coach for 17 years.

A former All-America defensive end for Alabama, Mitchell was the first African-American to play for the Crimson Tide. His early years in coaching were spent studying under two of college football's greatest coaches. He began his coaching career in 1973 as the defensive line coach at Alabama (1973-76) and then spent six seasons as defensive line coach at Arkansas (1977-82) on Lou Holtz's staff.

Mitchell coached the defensive line for the USFL's Birmingham Stallions from 1983-85 and returned to college in 1987, spending four years at LSU before joining the Cleveland Browns' staff in 1991.

Franchione was 17-8 in two years at Alabama (2001-2002) before heading to Texas A&M. He was 32-28 in five years with the Aggies and resigned shortly after last season's win over Texas.

The search committee has already interviewed several candidates, including Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, Auburn running back coach Eddie Gran, Birmingham-Southern head coach Joey Jones, South Florida assistant head coach Dan McCarney, Clemson wide receiver coach Dabo Swinney, Central Florida assistant coach David Kelly and Mississippi State assistant coach Woody McCorvey.

Former Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower and former Tulane head coach Chris Scelfo were also contacted about the position.

Edited January 25, 2008 by MeanGreen61

NTPhiKap99 · January 25, 2008

I can't believe anyone in Alabama would trust him.

PlummMeanGreen · January 26, 2008

Just think, if the SBC only had one more school with "East or Eastern" in their name we'd have all 4 directions covered. :blink:

Haven't followed too closely what's going on in the Sun Belt's futue football plans, but is South Alabama going to be a football member (and if so--are they going to be another SBC school that gets a stadium built before another one we all know & love that has chosen the 100 year plan for football success compared to most upstart Florida schools who after they open for business have the 10 year plan in place to move up the NCAA D1-A totem pole)? Whoops! Can I even say totem pole in anything relating to the NCAA? :rolleyes: