No reason this can’t be win-win

By Ken Rogers

Published: January 17, 2008

I heard an interesting sound bite out of the Major Applewhite press conference at Texas this morning.
It was played on the Paul Finebaum show in the afternoon.
Texas coach Mack Brown said he expected Applewhite, Alabama’s offensive coordinator who joined the Longhorns staff as running backs coach, to bring “new ideas and new energy” to the staff.
He then added, “And he’ll be in a room where they’ll listen to him.”
Hmmm. Was he implying that Applewhite felt ignored in Tuscaloosa? Speculation varies widely on why a guy would take a demotion. Was he pushed out? Did an overwhelmed Applewhite bolt as the earliest opportunity? Was he frustrated that his more aggressive offensive ideas weren’t being implemented?
Or was the opportunity to go home to Texas too much of an opportunity to ignore? Believe it or not, there are people out there who put happiness over dollars in their career pursuits.
We still don’t know, definitively, the answers here. Both sides were playing nice and saying all the right things today.
Applewhite gushed about learning much under Nick Saban, but repeated how happy he was to be on Brown’s staff.
Alabama issued this statement attributed to Saban:
“Although we are sorry to see Major go, we wish him the best at Texas. He’s a fine young coach and he did a great job for us.
“It’s always special to go back to your alma mater, especially a place with as much tradition and history as Texas. Major was a big part of that during his playing days there and will again be a part of it moving forward as a coach.
“We appreciate all of his hard work and dedication during his time at Alabama.
“We will use this as an opportunity to find the best available candidate and improve our staff in the process.”
Demotion or emotion, defection or deflection, this should turn out to be a win-win for both Applewhite and the Alabama football program.
Nothing wrong with that.