"...being a legend at your alma mater." That is a tremendous lure for some coaches, not so much for others but the results have been a mixed bag. It did not work out for Pepper or Bill Fulcher but Bill Curry did better than many will acknowledge considering the wreckage he inherited. Maybe this fourth turning will be the charm for both Coach Key and Georgia Tech football. Other noteworthy coaches who responded to the clarion call from their alma mater were Bear Bryant at Alabama (Mama called he famously said), Phil Fulcher at Tennessee, Steve Spurrier at Florida, Johnny Majors at Tennessee,, George Welch at Navy, among many others.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Two cautionary tales: Mike McGhee was an All ACC lineman for Duke in the early 1960s and played on a team that won the only Cotton Bowl in the program's history. As coach in the early 1970s his tenure was a disaster contributing to Duke not going to a bowl nearly three decades after he went as a player. Scott Frost was an All American quarterback on a national championship team at Nebraska and was a successful coach at UCF. Wildly hailed as the "golden boy" to return Nebraska to greatness, his tenure was a monumental failure whose repercussions reverberate in a program that has become a symbol of a football factory in tatters. IIWII
