The football-crazed people in Alabama, probably not much more than 95 percent of the state`s population, don`t care if Ray Perkins looks, walks, talks or acts like the late Bear Bryant. All that matters to them is whether Perkins can make the Alabama football team play–and win–the way it did under Bryant.
In his third season since replacing the legendary Bear as head coach, Perkins seems to have the Crimson Tide headed back atop the collegiate heap, where it so often was during Bryant`s 25-year reign. From Muscle Shoals to Montgomery, the good ole boys in Crimson blazers once again are rolling with the Tide, just like in the good old days.
So when Alabama met Penn State Saturday in a nationally televised battle of unbeaten teams, something almost as important as a conference title was at stake. Among other things, it`s known as Crimson Tide pride. First as a player under Bryant, and now as the coach who succeeded him, Perkins has come to understand that intangible but powerful emotion.
”In the state of Alabama, football means more to us than it does to anybody else,” Perkins says. ”It`s not just a game.
”We have fun, but football is a serious matter. We`re going about things in such a way that we won`t be denied.
”Losing is something we will not accept.”
Talking like that while seated behind his desk, looking directly at a visitor with intense, piercing eyes, Perkins personifies the tough, no-nonsense football coach. It`s been his image ever since Perkins stepped into the head coaching ranks with the New York Giants in 1979. Many freshman coaches tell the media what they think the cameras and notebooks want to record, especially in publicity-conscious New York, but Perkins won`t play that game.
”I`m straight off the cuff,” he says. ”I should be more diplomatic, but when a writer asks me a question, I tell him the truth. Sometimes, it`s not what he wants to hear.”
”It`s too late to change my ways,” says the 43-year-old coach. ”I won`t even change for my wife, and I love her very much.”
True to his word, Perkins won`t dodge any question, even the one that angers him most: How tough is it to follow in Bryant`s giant footsteps?
”I guess it`s time to give in, jump on the bandwagon and start agreeing with you guys,” Perkins answers, his tone making it clear that nothing of the sort will happen. ”If I didn`t totally believe in what we`re doing, I wouldn`t be here. I`m a little crazy, but I`m not stupid.
”It`s amazing to me that most people either pull against the guy who follows a legend or they don`t expect him to have much success.
”We`re going to be successful at Alabama,” Perkins vows. ”I know how to put a plan together and make it work. I learned a lot of it from coach Bryant and his school of football.
”We`re going to win, and we`re going to win big.”
How big, coach?
”I don`t consider 8-2 or 9-3 seasons winning big,” he replies without hesitating. ”I used to think about what an honor it would be to follow Bear Bryant at Alabama, but anybody on this spot has to make things happen. The only way to do that is with belief and desire.”
To his credit, Perkins stayed just as upbeat while the Crimson Tide was losing four of its first five games last season. He turned things around with a 6-0 shutout of Penn State, giving the Nittany Lions their first coat of whitewash since the 1972 Sugar Bowl.
Even though Alabama went 5-6 in 1984, the only losing record in Tuscaloosa since Ears Whitworth got fired for a 2-7-1 mark in 1957, a lot of pride was salvaged by a 17-15 victory over archrival Auburn. That spared Crimson Tide fans the indignity of losing for a third straight time in one of college football`s bitterest intrastate rivalries.
”I don`t understand people who talk about how tough or easy a job is,”
Perkins said, looking back on the six-game victory streak his team took into action against Penn State. ”Nothing worthwhile is easy.”
Some players left Alabama when Bryant dropped the bombshell of his retirement after the 1982 season. Those who stayed around for 8-4 and 5-6 records in Perkins` first two tries are beginning to get the notion that the Crimson Tide tradition is in good hands.
”We don`t want to forget coach Bryant,” said center Wes Neighbors, whose dad, Billy, was an All-America on Bryant`s 1961 national champions. ”He gave Alabama the winning tradition, but now we have to start over with coach Perkins.”
Though the new coach was a model for the Bear`s emotional approach as a receiver on the 1964-66 Alabama teams that lost only two games, he wants to be measured by his standards, not Bryant`s.
”There`s where all you writers make the mistake,” Perkins said. ”You should have enough intelligence to realize nobody`s going to accomplish what Bear Bryant did. Not just in football, but in touching people`s lives.
”During coach Bryant`s years, things happened here that never will be matched, certainly not by me, because I won`t be here as long as he was. But anyplace that had a winning tradition can always bring it back.
”That`s why I took the job as Giants` coach. They knew how to win once.”
Perkins admits that his task at Alabama, where he`s also athletic director, leaves little time for relaxation or anything else except football. ”I sit down and talk about it with my wife every once in a while,” he says. ”It might be nice to be a regular John Doe, with a 9-to-5 job, then home to the wife and family.”
Except in such rare moments, the man who admits to taking just one week-long vacation in 12 years knows he can`t change his lifestyle.
”I guess I`m just a high-energy guy,” the coach says, getting back to reality.
Perkins proved he could handle the political rough-and-tumble by campaigning for the vacant athletic director`s chair after Bryant died and winning that struggle. He also ruffled some feathers by replacing half of the Crimson Tide coaching staff, including Bryant`s long-time defensive coordinator, Ken Donahue.
”They didn`t get fired,” Perkins insists. ”All assistants know a new coach might not want them to stay.”
Does that make him a hard-boiled, win-at-any-cost dictator? Maybe. But when an assistant coach named Joe Kines became a victim of the NCAA recruiting scandal at Florida, Perkins was the only man who extended a helping hand.
”I had a reputation as an honest guy who treated kids fair,” says Kines. ”All of a sudden, I`m an outlaw. Everybody is a hero when they`re winning, but that changes from Saturday to Saturday.
”Whether you treat people right–it takes a long time to build that.”
Kines was fired as part of the fallout when the NCAA slapped heavy penalties on Florida for illegal recruiting and other violations. He soon found that getting another job wouldn`t be easy.
”The people I worked with one-on-one treated me the same,” Kines recalls. ”Parents and coaches accepted the matter for what it was. I thought there`d be plenty of opportunities until I went to more interviews that ended, `We`d like to hire you, but . . . ` I just said thanks and left.”
At the time, Kines` mother was undergoing major surgery. That made him keep the job situation in perspective.
”When you`re standing in a hospital corridor, waiting for that cart to roll out of the operating room, you learn to take what happens,” he says. ”I hate that things happened the way they did at Florida, but I don`t feel used and I`m not bitter.”
Last February, Kines` phone rang. It was Perkins, inviting him to Alabama for a get-acquainted session.
”I had been introduced to Joe at a Blue-Gray game, but I didn`t know him personally,” Perkins says. ”When I`m looking to hire someone, I want to learn about him first. He was a victim of circumstances at Florida.
”I`m not gonna crucify a man for that. I believe in second chances, but not too many thirds. I`ve always had good gut feelings about people, so my coaching staff is solid.
”When I hird Joe Kines, I got a good man.”
Understandably, Kines returns that kind of loyalty to his new boss.
”Ray`s honest with his players,” he said. ”Good or bad, he tells them the truth. He`s always the same, straight down the road, and he expects you to do the same.”
Since Perkins is offensive-oriented, the burden of pulling the Alabama defense into a cohesive unit falls on Kines, who also coaches the inside linebackers. He operates with an uncomplicated set of instructions from the head coach: ”Get `em stopped.”
”He was one of the few people with enough guts to call me,” Kines says. ”When we met, Ray never asked me to prove this or that. Our job is to keep folks out of the end zone.
”We try to do that with sound fundamentals and heart. The morning they fired me at Florida, I made up my mind to coach every day like that was all I had.”
For Perkins, coaching comes down to belief.
”If I really believed I could ram my fist through that wall, I`d do it,” he says. ”The way you get players to believe is by putting them in a situation where they can have success. I don`t lie to them, and I don`t mislead them.
”Coaching is teaching, and playing football means doing it right. A lot of people do what they do for the wrong reasons.
”Sucessful people learn to do the right thing for the right reasons.”
Does it all come down to winning or losing?
”Those are pretty strong guidelines, but if that were all, I`d be making a lot more money instead of coaching in college,” Perkins replies. ”I could go back to the NFL tomorrow and be happy. In college, you need 600 days a year get it all done.”
Maybe that`s the lure for Perkins, who even plunges enthusiastically into recruiting, the bane of many coaches.
”Most coaches don`t like to recruit, but I enjoy it,” he says. ”To me it`s a challenge to win, and that always gets me fired up.”
