It wasn’t clear who the Tide will turn to now, though the university’s original wish list also included Navy’s Paul Johnson, Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe and possibly California’s Jeff Tedford.

There have been no confirmed interviews with any of them.

Whoever takes the job will hope for better luck than the four coaches who tried to match Stallings’ success. Mike DuBose and Mike Shula were former Tide players who failed to keep the winning going. Mike Price was fired for off-the-field behavior before coaching in a game, and Dennis Franchione jumped to Texas A&M after just two years in Tuscaloosa.

The latest coaching searches have also had some difficult twists. Then-New Orleans Saints assistant Mike Riley was offered the job before Price’s hiring four years ago but wanted more time to also pursue the UCLA job. Alabama didn’t give him that time, and Riley wound up going to Oregon State.

In 2000, Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer and Miami’s Butch Davis turned Alabama down, before Franchione’s hiring.

What makes Alabama such a tough job?

“It’s not tough,” responds Clem Gryska, a former Bryant assistant who runs the campus museum named after the former coach. “All you’ve got to do is win.”

“It’s a high-point, just like the Yankees. I think Notre Dame and Alabama are in that category. There’s a mystique.”

And awfully high expectations go with those six national titles and an NCAA-record 53 bowl appearances — soon to be 54 after the Dec. 28 Independence Bowl against Oklahoma State. Defensive coordinator Joe Kines is serving as interim head coach.

Mark Winton, Jennifer’s father, took the news of Rodriguez’s rejection in stride.

“They’ll find somebody sooner or later,” he said while strolling the campus with his family. “It doesn’t make us look too good. But if you’re going to get a new coach, you want to get somebody who wants to be here. I’d hate for it to be just about the money.

“It has to be somebody who’s heart is going to be in it.”

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