On this day in sports history

BY COLIN “BIG C” MACGUIRE

The Greenville Standard

 

Today I will be talking about Coach Bryant’s coaching tree.

One the reasons Bryant was successful was by having good assistants. Four of his assistants won a national championship when they became a head coach at different universities.

He had one assistant to win a national championship, before he did, which was Paul Dietzel, his offensive line coach at Kentucky in 1951 and 1952. Dietzel won his national championship at LSU in 1958.

What is ironic about this, Coach Bryant’s first game at Alabama was against LSU in 1958. Another assistant was Danny Ford, who was head coach at Clemson in 1981. Ford was an assistant coach at Alabama from 1971-73.

Howard Schnellenberger, was head coach at Miami in 1983. Schnellenberger was an assistant coach at Alabama from 1961-65.

Gene Stallings was head coach at Alabama in 1992. Stallings was an assistant coach at Texas A&M in 1957 and at Alabama from 1958-64.

Coach Bryant has five former assistants in the College Football Hall of Fame as head coach. Jerry Claiborne (Kentucky,Texas A&M, Alabama) Head Coach at Va. Tech, Maryland and Kentucky; Danny Ford (Alabama) Head coach at Clemson and Arkansas; Charles McClendon (Kentucky) Head Coach at LSU; Gene Stallings (Texas A&M, Alabama) Head Coach at Texas A&M and Alabama; Pat Dye (Alabama) Head Coach at East Carolina, Wyoming and Auburn.

Coach Bryant won six national championships at Alabama. Eleven assistants from those six national championship teams became head coaches.

Coach Bryant had over 45 former assistants or player’s to become head coaches.

Next week I will discuss Coach Nick Saban’s football coaching tree.