Fansided

25 worst college football coaching hires in history

By Nicholas Ian Allen

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 1: Head coach Mike Price of the Washington State University Cougars manages the game from the sidelines during the 89th Rose Bowl game against University of Oklahoma Sooners at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2003 in Pasadena, California. Oklahoma defeated Washington St. 34-14. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 1: Head coach Mike Price of the Washington State University Cougars manages the game from the sidelines during the 89th Rose Bowl game against University of Oklahoma Sooners at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2003 in Pasadena, California. Oklahoma defeated Washington St. 34-14. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) /
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3 Oct 1998: Head coach Mike Price of the Washington State Cougars looks on during the game against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Bruins defeated the Cougars 49-17. Mandatory Credit: Aubrey Washington /Allsport
3 Oct 1998: Head coach Mike Price of the Washington State Cougars looks on during the game against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Bruins defeated the Cougars 49-17. Mandatory Credit: Aubrey Washington /Allsport /

1. Mike Price, Alabama

  • Hired: December 2002
  • Fired: May 2003
  • Record at Alabama: 0-0 (.000)
  • Career head coaching record: 177-183 (.492)

Mike Price spent 11 seasons as a college football assistant before he landed his first head coaching job at Weber State in 1980, at the age of 34. Price was 44-46 in eight seasons with the Wildcats, which included a 10-3 season in 1987 in which the team made it to the NCAA Division I-AA Quarterfinals.

Thanks in part to the recommendation of Dennis Erickson, who left Washington State for Miami following the 1988 season, Price was hired as the head coach of the Cougars. Price grew up in Washington, played two seasons of football at WSU and also worked as a graduate assistant and later running backs coach in two stints at the school.

Price hovered around .500 for most of his time in Pullman, but led the Cougars to five bowl games, two Rose Bowls and three finishes in the top-10 of the AP Top 25. In 1997, quarterback Ryan Leaf emerged as a Heisman Trophy candidate and surged to a 10-1 regular season record and a share of the Pac-10 title, but lost 21-16 to national champion Michigan in Pasadena. Price swept the major Coach of the Year Awards and led the program to a No. 9 finish in the final AP poll.

After three losing seasons with the Cougars, Price emerged with back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2001 and 2002, which caught the eye of one of the most storied programs in college football history: Alabama.

Price had built Washington State into a Pac-10 contender without the resources available to conference rivals USC, UCLA, Washington or rising power Oregon. It seemed likely Price could do even greater things in Tuscaloosa.

Unfortunately, after details of a strip club encounter and hotel stay in Pensacola, Florida emerged in the spring of 2003, Price was fired without ever coaching a game for the Crimson Tide.

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The event was an embarrassment to Alabama. Price had been hired to replace Dennis Franchione, who left the Tide after two seasons to take the job at Texas A&M after a 10-3 season in 2002. After his firing, Mike Shula took the reins of the program, but stumbled to 4-9 in his first season.

Price only missed one season on the sidelines. He landed at UTEP in 2004, and coached the Miners to a 48-61 record in nine seasons before retiring

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