- A month before the 1979 national championship season, Coach Bryant granted me an interview in his office. This is a transcript of that interview. I made a lot of mistakes in asking questions. I was so nervous.
Mike Kenny: Last year I had a column called the Southeastern Conference Today, and this year they're letting me do a Top-20 column. What I'm trying to do is see if maybe you can answer some questions about the University of Alabama coming up this year. First, Alabama seems to constantly get messed over in the polls, on the final poll, and do you have any feelings as to why Alabama's not that popular in the polls?
Coach Bryant: Oh I don't, I wouldn't say we get left over. We've been in the Top Ten probably fifteen times in the last twenty years. I think this, that you're, in all probability, where you have more population, where you're highly populated that you have more votes than you do in an area like this, where we don't have too many people. I don't know that that's true, but we have no, we're happy with the way the polls have treated us. We need to be better.
MK: Have you ever had this much of an offense return before, like for this coming season? You've got a full offensive line returning don't ya? Y'all looking pretty good on offense?
Coach Bryant: Oh I don't, we've had teams, I'm sure, with that many before. But we lost a lot of outstanding football players, key football players, on the offense as well as the defense and, of course, we'll be real thin and young on both the offense and the defense. We don't have many players now. The numbers are catching up with us, but offensively we'll have a line that's experienced. And ,well, we'll miss some awfully good people off of there, both ends and (Jeff) Rutledge and (Tony) Nathan, and some reserve linemen. But our first offensive line ought to be all right, except they're slow, they're not quick.
MK: What about Farrah Montgomery? We've heard a lot about him, his size and everything.
Coach Bryant: I doubt he'll even be here. He's hurt all the time. He's a good kid, good youngster, but if he doesn't get well he'll be in school. He might not even be out there.
MK: How do you feel at quarterback?
Coach Bryant: Well I'm worried to death. We think Steadman Sheally will be a great one if he's well, if he's able to be 100%. He was so quick for us his sophomore year and then he was injured, you know, last year and he was out there about 80% this spring. Our other quarterbacks we think are good football players, but we don't know who the quarterback is, so we're going to just keep their hand in it and work with another position. We've got to have someone, but I don't know who it will be. We've got three.
MK: Will Steadman Sheally be the quarterback coming out of spring?
Coach Bryant: Oh, he'll be the quarterback if he's able to play. We didn't let him have any contact this spring at all and we won't this fall, maybe one time for a scrimmage.
MK: What about Alan Gray?
Coach Bryant: Alan is a fine young man and I think he's a football player, so is (Tommy) Wilcox, so is (Jim Bob) Harris and (Don) Jacobs. None of them have got enough work and none of them took charge this spring. They were either injured or their execution wasn't good enough, so we're just going to keep all their hands in it and work. Harris started some at safety last year and we've got to have three quarterbacks with this system we have. And we'll probably work Gray some, we will work him some at halfback and wideout. And we'll work Jacobs some at safety also, and Wilcox on offense and defense to begin with. I want to be sure before I make any decision on it, because I think they all, every one of them has a chance at being a top quarterback. But none of them are right now, or were this spring.
MK: What about as far as the defense? Last year you were worried about the offensive line. Are you as worried about the defense this year as that last year?
Coach Bryant: I'm more worried about the secondary than I am the defensive front, because the front, Byron Braggs' knee is all right. He had knee trouble this year, and of course (David) Hannah's already had surgery. We should actually be a little better across the front than we were last year, Last year we played with three spots with four down people and our ends will be a year older. So our front, barring injury, and of course I said Braggs had knee problems in the spring and he still has fluid on it. But what I'm really worried about is our linebackers and our deep people.
MK: You lose all three of your linebackers this year?
Coach Bryant: Yes, but we've got some, I think, fine young ones. We've got three or four that have speed, they're real small, but they have real good speed, and I'm expecting them to make mistakes, but I'm expecting them to make some big plays too. And our deep people, we had a good sophomore that I thought would be starting next year, we lost him this spring with a knee injury. He won't be able to go this year, Greg Gaines. Bobby Smith, who has started at times and Ricky Tucker, who has started since he was a freshman, had knee surgery and we don't know about them. Don McNeal is the only, of course we lost a terrific one in Murray Legg, but Don McNeal is the only sound deep man that we know that we have. Mike Clements did well this spring, and the (Ken) Colley boy did pretty well, but we're worried to death about our injured people, whether they're able to operate or not. There again we're going to work quarterbacks back there.
MK: With David Hannah injured, did he play again in spring training after the knee surgery? Did he play this spring training and how did he look?
Coach Bryant: He had a surprisingly pretty good spring training, because he had no lateral movement. But David puts an awful lot into football and he played a little last year, very little. He played in the Bowl a little and he played well. But it's just a day-to-day thing. He doesn't have any lateral movement, but he's a tough youngster and like I say, he puts an awful lot into it. We can lose him any time and he'll never be nearly as good as he would have been if he had that lateral movement.
MK: Were you overall pleased with this spring training?
Coach Bryant: Oh I wasn't so overall pleased with it, but I wasn't really disappointed in it. We had one poor practice, but I think we had an excellent attitude and all seemed to want to do well. The thing that worries you is we didn't have people that just stood out you know, when you've got those great ones, which you have to have to build to and we didn't have that.
MK: Do you expect Georgia Tech to come out passing this coming year, considering the secondary and the linebacking at Alabama?
Coach Bryant: Well I would think they'd have a terrific passing attack due to the quarterback. They've got terrific receivers and I imagine those pro coaches, coaches who have been in the pros, will have some influence on what they do. And, of course, I expect them to do everything. I don't think Georgia Tech or anybody else can just win passing. We certainly better be prepared to play some pass defense I would think, and what supplements a pass.
MK: The last time you played Georgia Tech, you won the national championship in '64. Are you glad to have them back on the schedule now?
Coach Bryant: Sure are. I think Tech means a lot on our schedule. A lot of people like to go to Atlanta and we've always had a great series, and I'm very happy to have them back.
MK: Who are you afraid of the most this season?
Coach Bryant: Tech! Because that's the first one.
MK: And the SEC, who do you think?
Coach Bryant: The first one, whoever it is.
MK: Finally, when you were at Kentucky and you beat Oklahoma when they were Number One, could you reflect back on that?
Coach Bryant: Oh sure, I remember it very, very well. The team won the game in spite of me. We had a great defensive team that year and a great pass attack and our defense was just terrific. We had them 13-0 at the half and dropped a touchdown pass. And the second half I don't think we threw a pass. I wouldn't let Parilli pass, which was stupid. We wound up, after they scored, we had to keep the ball about seven minutes. And I say that they won the game in spite of me. If I'd have let them go ahead and play our normal game, well, we kept the ball about seven minutes though the last time we had it. And it was a real big, big win. But we had a great football team that year.
MK: Do you feel that Kentucky will once again become a football power?
Coach Bryant: I think they're a power now. They've had terrific teams the last few years. We haven't played them the last couple of years and I haven't kept up with them as closely as I do when we play them.
MK: You play them in again in 1980.
Coach Bryant: Yes, we don't play them this year.
MK: Who do you think, as far as the top five or six teams, can you tell me who you like?
Coach Bryant: Well, I'm not very knowledgeable about it, because I haven't seen any of them practice. Everybody goes around as experts who pick winners. But based on recruiting and who people lost, and there again I won't count Georgia and Kentucky, because we don't play them this year. I know they both have fine teams, they had fine teams last year and they did an excellent coaching job. But I think the teams that we play, people that's got more football players than anybody in the conference, there's four of them that's all pretty much bunched up. I put Auburn at the top, and Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi State. They have a lot of quality athletes and they have fine coaching and I'd say just any of them could win it. A lot depends on schedule luck and injury luck.
MK: Of course y'all plan to be right there along with them, don't you?
Coach Bryant: Well we always plant to be, but based on, if you just go out and look at us and go out and look at them, or know who we have here that we recruited and know who they have that they recruited, then you wouldn't put us in there. But we're gonna sure as heck try to be in there.
MK: As far as nationally, do you like any teams?
Coach Bryant: I think nationally, there again, I haven't seen Penn State practice or play, or Pittsburg, or Notre Dame practice, you know. I think about the same teams that are up there every year will will be. You'll have one or two surprises somewhere., but I think the same teams. I think Penn State, cause we played against them, and they have one heck of a defense. I don't know how many of them they lost, but they have two tackles I know that are returning that are man-eaters, I tell ya.
MK: I know the polls have not come out, but I also know these game plan books and stuff like that are starting to already pick who they feel will be the top ten or fifteen. Have you heard anything at all on where y'all stand in any of these publications?
Coach Bryant: I don't pay any attention to it. They're guessing. They haven't seen us play.
MK: Can you tell me why SMU was on the schedule for October, I believe, and now it's Wichita State?
Coach Bryant: Well, what happened there was, we had a contract to play SMU in Dallas and they weren't drawing anybody. And they came over here and played and got a big check, of course. And they agreed then to come back over here and were very nice about it, and we appreciate it, because we just, it would kill us to go out there and play to 12 or 15 thousand people. We've got to play to a big crowd to make our budget. Then, as I understand it, either the new president came in and told him they had too tough a schedule, I don't know, maybe it was the new athletic director, but I think it was the new president. They talked to us then about getting us a game if we let them out of it, because of their schedule. I told them, well, they were nice enough to change the game over here, then if they could get us a game we would accept, and they gave us two or three names. One of them was Duke. That's who I was hoping they would get. But they didn't. And then Wichita State, they came up with that name and Jimmy Wright, who I coached at Texas A&M and formerly was at Mississippi State and Tennessee was the coach out there and he coached Conridge Holloway with that great passing attack. So we agreed to go ahead and let them change. We got Wichita State and I have no apologies for that, but then in the meantime they turned around and fired Jimmy. But it's more difficult to get ready for a team like that than it is to get ready for the biggest game on your schedule.
MK: The year before last Tennessee had a problem in recruiting. Somebody sent out a telegram saying Tennessee was going to get on probation. And then this year, I read where The University of Alabama had close to the same thing happening out where the man signed with Brigham Young University.
Coach Bryant: No, what really happened on that was somebody sent a telegram saying that we had signed our quota and was out of scholarships and didn't have any. I had talked with the boy about four hours before then myself, and we had a coach on the way out there to sign him. At first his daddy was real mad and they were going to sue us. We never did find out who it was. It was charged to our phone number and everything. But he went to Brigham Young. But I think he was going anyway. I don't think that changed it all that much.
MK: So you talked with him before he got the telegram. So he knew that Alabama still was gonna accept him.
Coach Bryant: Well, I said I think it was about four hours, maybe six before he got the telegram. But I think his girl's at Brigham Young. Maybe that...ha! ha!
MK: Was he a tremendous football player?
Coach Bryant: We thought so. Big and fast and his family used to be in Montgomery, and I think they're going to come back there. They're Army people. His dad had been overseas and had just gotten back.
MK: Are you pleased with recruiting this year?
Coach Bryant: No, I'm sure not. We signed 25 pretty quick like, and I think we could have gotten a couple of others I thought were the kind of players that could eventually play here. We didn't work on them. We had 14 Blue Chippers we thought to work on and we didn't get a one of them.
MK: Wasn't there a center out of New Orleans?
Coach Bryant: We got a great, we think, prospect out of New Orleans at center. We got him. But out of the 14 we were working on, two of them were committed to us, we didn't get any of them.
Transcript of July 1979 Bear Bryant Preseason Interview
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