Gene Stallings holds no particular animosity toward the University of Tennessee football program. Why should he? When he was the coach at Alabama, he was 4-2-1 against the Vols between 1990 and 1996.
Coincidentally, Alabama was also 4-2-1 against Tennessee from 1958-64, the years Stallings was an assistant coach at Alabama.
Both those eras were times when the fan base of each school held the famous old rivalry in enormous mutual regard. Nowadays, sadly, pure hatred prevails, with not much end in sight.
Over the years, Stallings has often expressed his respect for the accomplishments of Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, who was 2-1-1 against Alabama in Stallings' last four years at Alabama.
In recent weeks, however, while observing from afar at his ranch near Paris, Texas, Stallings has been troubled by the deteriorating Alabama-Tennessee relationship and by the bitter war of words brought on by a flurry of lawsuits, which were touched off, at least in part, by Fulmer's role as a confidential NCAA witness against Alabama in 2000.
"All I know is what I've read in the papers, and it doesn't read very good, '' Stallings said in an interview from his ranch over the weekend. "But as far as talking to anybody about all that went on, I really haven't.''
Stallings said he has only a sketchy background of the federal case in Memphis against disassociated Alabama booster Logan Young, the lawsuits filed by former Crimson Tide assistants Ronnie Cottrell and Ivy Williams against the NCAA and others, and the separate defamation suits filed by two other disassociated boosters.
Many who've followed the ugly legal maneuverings over the past few months believe the outcome of the civil cases might well turn on what happens in the Memphis case. Stallings is not so sure.
"I think those are two different things,'' he said. "Whatever Logan was alleged to have done, it seems to me that that's entirely different from what the coaches are saying.''
Regarding Fulmer, Stallings noted there are always at least two sides to every story.
"If he (Fulmer) thought he saw something illegal going on, there's nothing wrong with reporting it,'' Stallings said. "There are right ways to go about doing that.
"If he was telling some stuff and talking to the NCAA in exchange for them overlooking some things that might've been going on at Tennessee, I don't think that's right.
"Now, I don't know if that happened or not. I'm just saying if it did happen, then it's not right. But I don't know what happened. Maybe we'll find out if all these various lawsuits eventually come to trial - and I think they probably will.''
Hopefully, Stallings' views will serve to lower the temperature of the rhetoric somewhat, particularly within the state of Alabama. Perhaps it will. When Gene Stallings speaks, most Alabama football fans tend to listen, as well they should.
Stallings was the most popular and successful coach at the Capstone since his old college coach, Paul "Bear'' Bryant, retired after the 1982 season and died a few weeks later.
In seven years, Stallings led Alabama to one SEC championship, three SEC Western division titles, six bowl trips and a national championship in 1992, the culmination of a magical 13-0 season.
Stallings coached his last game at Alabama on Jan. 1, 1997, in the Tide's 17-14 victory over Michigan at the Outback Bowl in Tampa. He and his wife, Ruth Ann, and their son Johnny, who was born with Down Syndrome, then moved back to their northeastern Texas ranch, which Stallings brought more than 40 years ago.
"We're all doing fine,'' said Stallings, who turned 69 in March. "Johnny's doing pretty well, too. They said he wouldn't live to see 20, and he's now 44. We've all had a relatively good summer. Not too hot. A few good rains. Life is pretty good.''
Except for a ranch accident a few weeks ago.
"A cow kicked me and really sliced up my arm,'' Stallings said. "I thought I was going to bleed to death before we could get to the hospital, which is 16-to-18 miles away. They put 25 staples in my arm.''
It was his second violent encounter with one of his farm animals since he left coaching. Several years ago, he broke a hip when cornered by a spooked horse.
"When you live and work on a ranch, you're going to get hurt from time to time,'' he said. "It's like football. That's just part of it.''
Stallings stays busy. An accomplished motivational speaker on a variety of topics, he commands keynote fees ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. He recently returned from speaking engagements in Washington, D.C., and New York, working in the trips between ranching and grandparenting.
He doesn't get back to Alabama as much as he'd like, although he has filmed several commercials in recent weeks and has met with the governor. But for the first time in years, he missed RISE graduation in Tuscaloosa. RISE, an acronym for Rural Infant Stimulation Environment, is an early intervention program for children with disabilities. Because of Johnny, it's the project closest to Stallings' heart.
He still follows Alabama football and plans to attend this year's Auburn game in Tuscaloosa, along with former Auburn coach Pat Dye.
"I keep up as well as he can,'' Stallings said. "It's a little bit of a sensitive situation because I don't want to give the impression that I'm trying to butt in.''
Stallings said he probably talks to new Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom and his staff more than the coaches at Alabama.
"Sylvester has a lot of coaches I know pretty well - Woody McCorvey, Ellis Johnson, Amos Jones, Freddie Kitchens, who were all with me at Alabama,'' Stallings said. "They're going into a tough situation where they haven't been winning, and the NCAA thing is out there.
"In my opinion, it's not as easy to win at Mississippi State as it is at Alabama or Ole Miss or Tennessee. But I know this: Sylvester will do a good job. I don't know how the record will look. But sometimes, the best coaching jobs are done by guys who don't have the best records in the world.''
How about Alabama, which finished 4-9 last year?
"This is my take on last year,'' Stallings said. "First, Mike Shula didn't even have the advantage of a spring practice. Do you know how hard it is to try to put in a new system with only three weeks of practice before the first game? Second, the players were working with their third head coach in nine months. Third, it was Mike's first head coaching job.
"All that was pretty tough. Yet they were still very competitive against Oklahoma, which was a great team, and Tennessee. They didn't win as many games as people would like and they didn't finish very well by losing to Hawaii.
"But this is a new year. If they have good fall practices and don't get many people hurt, I think they could be an improved team.''
Despite last season's struggles, Stallings makes it clear that he's in Shula's corner.
"From what I know of him, I think he has a good chance,'' Stallings said. "One of the things he has going for him is that people want to see him succeed. He played at Alabama. He presents a good image.
"And he has the support of the important people, which means an awful lot.''
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Stallings sad to see rivalry turn so sour
