25 greatest SEC Football coaches of all time
By John Buhler
16. Gene Stallings
It was only a matter of time before we got to our first head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Though he often gets overlooked in the grand scheme of things for Alabama football, Gene Stallings brought a level of stability and strength in the early 1990s to Tuscaloosa.
Stallings had spent the bulk of his NFL coaching career as Tom Landry’s iconic defensive backs coach for the Dallas Cowboys from 1972 to 1985. Before that Stallings had been the main man in College Station with the Texas A&M Aggies (1965-71). After an underwhelming four-year run as the head coach of the St. Louis/Phoenix Cardinals (1986-89), it was time for Stallings to give it the old college try one more time.
He would arrive in Tuscaloosa in 1990 and immediately make an impact. After a 7-5 first year with the 1990 Crimson Tide, would lose only one game in the next two seasons. Alabama went 11-1 in 1991 and won the 1992 National Championship with a perfect 13-0 (8-0) record.
Stallings helped the Crimson Tide win the inaugural SEC Championship Game over Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators in 1992. The Crimson Tide would win four of the first five SEC West titles since the creation of divisions in the SEC. He would resign after the 1996 season amidst allegations and scholarship reduction. Stallings went 70-16-1 (43-10-1) in seven years with the Crimson Tide, going 5-1 in bowl games.