2003 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

NCAA sanctions

The 2003 season was impacted by sanctions imposed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for violations that dated back as far as the late 1990s. On February 1, 2002, the NCAA imposed a two-year bowl ban, a reduction in athletic scholarships of 21 over a three-year period and five years of probation. The NCAA sanctioned the University after they found 11 major violations and five minor ones as part of their investigation that included boosters who provided players and coaches with improper benefits in violation of NCAA rules. On September 17, 2002, the NCAA rejected Alabama's appeal to reduce the severity of the sanctions. At that time, the NCAA stated they felt that the sanctions were appropriate and that it was only because of the cooperation of the University that the death penalty for the football program was not considered. As the appeal was denied, for the 2003 season Alabama saw a smaller recruiting class and was ineligible for both the 2003 SEC Championship Game and bowl games. The latter penalty would end up being meaningless due to the Tide going 4-9.

Franchione resignation

Late in the 2002 season, rumors were abound that head coach Dennis Franchione was going to resign from Alabama to take the head coaching position with Texas A&M. On December 2, 2002, A&M head coach R. C. Slocum was fired after he served 14 seasons in the position. Three days later, Franchione left Tuscaloosa and formally accepted the Aggies coaching vacancy on December 6.

Mike Price era

Immediately after the resignation of Franchione, athletic director Mal Moore started the search for his replacement. In the week of December 9, South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt was interviewed and then New Orleans Saints assistant coach Mike Riley was actually offered the Alabama coaching position, which he later declined. After Riley turned down the position, Moore considered several other candidates. Included in the search were head coaches Les Miles of Oklahoma State, Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia and Mike Price of Washington State. On December 17, Price was officially named as the new head coach for the Crimson Tide. Price did not fully assume his duties as head coach until January 4, after he coached Washington State in the 2003 Rose Bowl.

Coaching staff

In addition to completing the 2003 recruiting class, Price worked to assemble his staff in the weeks after he arrived in Tuscaloosa. Four of his assistants from Washington State came with Price to coach at Alabama: Chris Ball, Bob Connelly, Kasey Dunn and Aaron Price. The remainder of the staff was filled in the weeks that followed National Signing Day.

Recruiting class

As part of the NCAA imposed penalties related to the Albert Means recruiting scandal that dated back to 1999, Alabama had the total number of football scholarships it could award reduced by seven to 18 instead of the standard 25. As such, the 2003 class only had eighteen members, with most being from within the state of Alabama. With the departure of Franchione, the Alabama recruiting coordinator Randy Ross helped keep the class together during the transition period prior to the arrival of Price.

Spring practice

The 2003 spring practices started on March 3, and concluded with the annual A-Day game on March 29. During the month of practice, offensively the team began the transition from Franchione's option offense to Price's passing attack. For the A-Day game, the Crimson team of offensive starters defeated the White team of defensive starters by a final score of 47–0 before 34,000 fans in Bryant–Denny Stadium. For their performances, Antwan Odom earned the Dwight Stephenson Lineman of the A-Day Game Award and Brodie Croyle earned the Dixie Howell Memorial Most Valuable Player of the A-Day Game Award.

Dismissal

On May 3, 2003, university president Robert Witt announced the firing of Price immediately as the head coach of the Crimson Tide. Although both the University and Price were in agreement in principle to his seven-year, $10 million contract, Price never signed it and thus was not awarded any severance pay with his dismissal. Later, a story in Sports Illustrated stated Price had been seen at a strip club "making it rain" and yelling "Roll Tide, Roll!". He allegedly later checked into a local hotel with at least one exotic dancer from the club, and the magazine further alleged Price had sex with one of the strippers, a claim which Price denied, although he acknowledged being intoxicated on the evening in question. He filed a $20 million libel and defamation suit against Sports Illustrated.

Mike Shula hiring

After the dismissal of Price, Alabama interviewed only three candidates to serve as his successor: Sylvester Croom, Richard Williamson and Mike Shula. On May 9, 2003, Alabama hired Mike Shula as their fourth head coach in four years.

Staff changes

Alabama head coach Mike Shula entered his first year as the Crimson Tide's head coach for the 2003 season, and it was also his first all-time season as a head coach. After he was hired, Shula retained much of the coaching staff put in place by former head coach Mike Price; however, he did make several changes. On May 13, David Rader was hired to serve as both offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach as the replacement for both Aaron Price and Eric Price. On May 23, Dave Ungerer was hired to serve as special teams coach as the replacement for Aaron Price. The final coach added was Charlie Harbison as running backs coach as the replacement for Kasey Dunn.

Schedule

The 2003 schedule was anomalous for a variety of reasons. With a two-year bowl ban imposed by the NCAA in 2002, Alabama added a thirteenth game against Hawaii in Honolulu to the 2002 and 2003 schedules that the university would hope to serve as an effective replacement for a bowl game. The 2003 season marked just the fifth time since 1947 that the Iron Bowl was not Alabama's final regular season game (2002 at Hawaii; 2001 Southern Miss; 1988 at Texas A&M; 1963 at Miami). Also beginning in 2003, the SEC altered its scheduling methodology—permanent cross-division opponents were reduced from two to one (i.e. instead of Alabama playing Tennessee and Vanderbilt annually, the Tide would only face Tennessee every year while the Commodores would rotate onto Alabama's schedule along with the rest of the SEC Eastern teams). This change resulted in Alabama not playing Vanderbilt for the first time since 1952. Finally, the Crimson Tide played their final home game at Legion Field, which had hosted many Alabama games over the previous century (including the entire 1987 home schedule).