Damn Bear!

Nepotism is alive in Tuscaloosa, Price has hired another son to be an assistant coach/offensive coordinator.

Price adds second son to his staff
By Cecil Hurt, Tuscaloosa News

TUSCALOOSA - University of Alabama head football coach Mike Price has been looking far and wide for a defensive coordinator, but was able to find an offensive coordinator without a search at all.

As expected, Price named his son, Eric Price, as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator on Tuesday. The hiring was on hold during the NFL playoff run of the New York Jets, but was officially announced by UA on Tuesday.

“I’m real excited about joining my dad’s staff," Eric Price said in a telephone interview from his home on Long Island. “We’ve always had a great working relationship and joining him at Alabama is really special. It was the chance of a lifetime for him to get the [Alabama] job, and also for me. I’m really excited about the opportunities that we have there."

Price said he would arrive in Tuscaloosa today and immediately begin to assist with recruiting.

He also said he wants to meet the Alabama quarterbacks as soon as possible, but added that he did have some familiarity with UA sophomore Brodie Croyle.

“When I was at Washington State, we didn’t recruit nationally, but we did recruit nationally for quarterbacks," Price said. “We sent him a packet, like we did for all the Top 100 quarterbacks in the country, and got his tape in. We evaluated them all and had Brodie ranked No. 1 in the country. We knew he wasn’t going to come to Washington State, so I never thought I would have a chance to work with him at the college level. I know he’s got a lot of talent.

“I’ll be excited to meet him and work with him and all the other quarterbacks."

Price left the Washington State staff after the 2000 season and has spent two years with the Jets as a special offensive assistant. He said that, while he would work within the framework of the Washington State offense, he would also add some wrinkles he learned while with the Jets.

“Since almost the day I was born, I’ve grown up in my dad’s system of one-back offense," he said. “Now I’ve had the experience [with the Jets] with the West Coast offense, which is more of a two-back controlled passing offense.There are some similarities with the two, but I definitely want to incorporate some of the things we used with Vinny Testaverde and Chad Pennington."

Price also said that he wanted a strong running attack at UA.

“The key to the offense we’ve had at Washington State is the running game," he said. “We can’t be one-dimensional. The key is to keep the defense off-balance. There are some things in the Jet offense that were very successful for us, using a ball-control passing game. I think I will able to incorporate them into the offense."

“I feel very fortunate to get a young coach with the experience of Eric’s," said Mike Price. “He already knows the offense we run and he will be adding many of the nuances that the Jets ran in their offense. Our offensive staff is excited to learn the new aspects that Eric will bring."

Eric Price was a quarterback at Weber State, graduating in 1990 with a degree in physical education. He coached the wide receivers and tight ends at his alma mater in 1990, then spent one year at Hawaii (1991) and two seasons as a graduate assistant for Dennis Erickson at Miami (1992-93). He then coached two years at Cal Poly-SLO (1994-95) and two years at Northern Arizona (1996-97) before joining his father’s staff at Washington State from 1998-2000. He became an offensive assistant for the Jets in 2001 when Paul Hackett became offensive coordinator and he has been instrumental in the development of Jets quarterback Chad Pennington.

The hiring of Eric Price leaves UA with three staff vacancies, all defense. There was no official word on a defensive coordinator on Tuesday, and several candidates, including LSU’s Will Muschamp and former Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz are still under consideration.

 

Kinda reminds me of Bobby Bowden

 

Funny Bear, but correct.