(posted 5/3/03)
Alabama Football Head Coach Mike Price Fired

Stability continues to elude the Alabama football program. University president Robert Witt terminated the employment of head football coach Mike Price for failing to conduct his "personal and professional life in a manner consistent with University policy." His comments came after a week-long investigation and a lengthy closed door meeting with the Board of Trustees Athletics committee. On this page, you can read a transcript of comments from players including Brodie Croyle, Shaud Williams, Wesley Britt, Triandos Luke and Charlie Peprah. You can also read comments of President Robert Witt, as well as comments from former coach Mike Price ...

Brodie Croyle - I believe we speak on behalf of the team when we say we feel like this is a big mistake. It's going to be tough for us to come back and hopefully make a good season out of it this year. I just hope and pray we don't have to play a Mike Price team because he had us further along in four months than any other coach that we've had or any of the other players have had throughout the whole year. And what he does for us off the field speaks volumes for his character. And he made a mistake. I'm sure everyone in this room has made a mistake. I have made plenty of mistakes in my life. But the best thing about all of us is that we were given a second chance and it's a shame that he didn't get one because I really believe that he could have taken us to the level that we expect to reach, and all y'all expect the University of Alabama to play at that level. But once again, we still support him a hundred percent and it's a shame he didn't get a second chance.

Press Pool - Brodie, we've been hearing a lot about "lessons learned." What lesson have the football players learned from this?

Better make the most of your first opportunity.

How difficult will it be to regroup, have a new coach come in, learn a new system and then have to go play in four months?

It's going to be a big job for us. I hope everything works out. It'll be a big job for us and we're only going to have two-a-days to get ready to play with a whole new system and new coaching system. After four weeks in Spring training, we're just now learning the base offense that Coach Price brought in, and he brought it to us as simple as he could. To think that we're going to have 30 days to learn an offense and be competitive at the level we're supposed to be competitive at ... I really don't see how this firing was in the best of interest.

Have any of the players talked about leaving?

We won't discuss that right now. I guess that's up to that particular player. But if that's what they choose to do, then I guess they have their reasons.

Brodie, do you have any feeling on who should take the head coaching position?

We weren't expecting this. All week, we've been expecting Coach Price to be our head coach and for these seniors, to have a great year. But that isn't going to happen, and we haven't even discussed who we want as coach. And I doubt the committee's even discussed who they want for a coach.

Brodie, this can't be what you expected when you came here after signing your letter of intent. How discouraging is it for you personally to be part of a program that can't seem to dig out of the mire?

It's disappointing. This will be our third coach in five months, and when you sign to play football at the University of Alabama you expect stability and you expect to win a lot of football games and carry on a proud tradition. It's a shame for the people who made Alabama football what it is. It makes us ashamed for them because the dynasty they built is still here, but we're not making the most of it.

(question inaudible)

As I said, we support the coach 100 percent. You know it's a sad deal that we have to go through this and his family has to go through this for one mistake. And as I said, we're still supportive.

Shaud, will you guys now go to Mal Moore and lobby on behalf of some of the assistants to try and continue the continuity a little bit or do you expect the whole staff to be gone?

Shaud Williams - I don't know. We don't have any control over that. We didn't have any control over it last time, so we'll have to just sit back and see what they decide.

How does it feel knowing that Coach Price came to you guys and had an open-hearted conversation and the last coach went out the back door? I

It meant a lot to us. For him to sit down with us and talk us, man to man, it meant a lot. After the last coach left without saying anything, it really meant a lot for him to sit down and talk to us and let us know what he was thinking.

You said you were willing to forgive Coach Price for his actions. Are you also willing to forgive the University President for making a decision in his leadership to role to fire Coach Price?

The only thing I have to say to that is ... I understand President Witt's job is think about the reputation of the University ... (tears are welling up in Williams' eyes) but the only thing I have to say is has he ever went to war with somebody and has he ever sweat and cried and bled with somebody ... if he knows what that's like. And if he knows what it's like that get attached to somebody and just have so much faith in them that you know you're going to be successful and they're going to do what's right for you, and just to have all of that taken away over one mistake. That's the only thing I'd have to ask him, if he knew what that felt like. That's it.

Wesley, is there a feeling of frustration that team athletes don't have more control over what happens in the programs for which they play?

Wesley Britt - I think what's really frustrating to me and a lot of these other players is the whole situation. We expressed our opinions and expressed our views. We went and talked to the President on several occasions. People went on our behalf to talk to the President, even our parents and distinguished alumni, Trustees ... and it just seems like our opinions weren't taken into consideration. But it is the decision that the University of Alabama made. We don't have a choice of changing the decision or reversing the decision. We're going to have to live with this. One way or another, we're going to have to overcome this. We're still at the greatest University in the country, the University of Alabama with its great tradition. We're proud to be here at the University of ALabama, and we'll just have to do what it takes and do what we can to get through this as we have before.

Who do you blame for this?

I don't want to put the blame on any one decision. I mean it's just like a bad dream. You can't blame it on anyone. Coach Price made a bad decision. Some people are obviously unwilling to forgive. I forgave him for his decision, and as a team we think Coach Price has the most class and integrity in the way he's handled us. I don't feel like he can be replaced. We forgive Coach Price and we still love him.

This is for Triandos Luke ... after speaking on Coach Price behalf, could you guys have possibly have anticipated that this would happen?

Triandos Luke - We had no idea. We came up here as a team just thinking that we'd have some play in this. But it seems like we didn't, we didn't have enough play in the President's decision. But like Wesley said, he made his decision and we've just got to go on forward.

(thundering applause from the fans in attendance as the players leave the podium)

In a nearby hallway, Charlie Peprah answers some last questions from the press, saying he expects some coaches to leave the staff ...

Do the events of past week change how you will approach game day when you put the Crimson on?

I'm a football player, in particular a DB, and I've got to learn to forget these things. We're going to have to move on. I hurt when Coach Fran left, and you know that really hurt me coming from Texas. You've got to think of people like Shaud, leaving one school to come here. He had a coaching change at Texas Tech, he came here and had two of them. He's had probably a total of five head coaches. You feel sorry for people like that, but you know we've got to move on and forget about those things.

University President Dr. Robert Witt

Mike Price

Brodie Croyle, Wesley Britt, Shaud Williams, Triandos Luke, Charlie Peprah

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