A familiar face returns to Bryant-Denny Stadium for Alabama versus South Carolina game

John David Mercer - USA Today Sports

It is a business trip for him, but one could only imagine how high his emotions will be on Saturday.

When he took the podium under Mal Moore as the director of athletics in May of 2003, the credibility he had was being the starting quarterback for the University of Alabama in the 1980s and being the son of a Super Bowl-winning head coach.

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He came at a time when the Crimson Tide’s last national championship was in 1992 and most recent Southeastern Conference Championship was in 1999. He was under a bad reputation that Alabama fans called “the locust years,” but was there anything he really could have done to fix it?

He stared sanctions, probation, loss of scholarships, and everything negative at the time; however, he kept things in order as best as he could. He tasted a little light of success in his third season as Alabama’s head coach in 2005, having an offense under a healthy Brodie Croyle and a stout defense. Tide fans felt like an SEC Championship and a possible national championship was in the works, until defeats to LSU and Auburn came that year.

Alabama settled for a 10-2 season, yet it was special because fans believed this coach had turned the corner to be great. He got fired the following year after a 6-6 season, and somehow Moore as the AD changed the game with bringing in Nick Saban. Saban’s predecessor was in the National Football League from 2007 to 2023 as an offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and offensive analyst.

Bryant-Denny Stadium will welcome back its 1985 first-team All-SEC quarterback, but he comes in as a member of South Carolina’s coaching staff.

Mike Shula, 59, is an offensive analyst for the Gamecocks. 

He got hired on March 20 after a long tenure in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers (twice), New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Buffalo Bills. Shula has assisted South Carolina to a 3-2 record that includes a near victory over Louisiana State University.

His work behind the scenes has helped the Gamecocks create an offense that makes big plays.

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South Carolina is expected to have its starting quarterback, LaNorris Sellers, back. 

Raheim “Rocket” Sanders is one of the best running backs in the SEC as a transfer from Arkansas. The Gamecocks also have a couple of wide receivers that look to get loose in Alabama’s secondary. Coach Shula has an opportunity to make this a victorious homecoming for him in helping South Carolina topple the Tide. We will see how he performs in his return to Tuscaloosa, Ala.

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Stephen M. Smith is the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine.  You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.