TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (U-WIRE) -- Alabama's football coaching carousel spun again Saturday, as Mike Price was fired after barely four months on the job.

The Crimson Tide will now look for its fourth coach in three years with the kickoff of the 2003 season less than four months away. Athletics director Mal Moore and University President Robert Witt began the search for a new coach Sunday.

Witt announced Price's firing at 2:07 p.m. at a news conference at the Bryant Conference Center after spending more than two hours in a closed meeting with the UA System Board of Trustees' Athletics Committee. The meeting was closed under the Sunshine Law's "good name and character" provision.

Witt said Price's conduct did not live up to the responsibility that the position of Alabama football coach requires.

"Coach Mike Price is a great coach and a good man, [but his] mistake has severely hurt our university and will hurt our university for years to come," Witt said. "I am today, in accordance with applicable University policy, terminating Coach Price's employment."

Witt said Price had already been warned about his public conduct several weeks before he went to Pensacola, Fla., two weeks ago to play in a pro-am golf tournament in Milton, Fla. While there, Price allegedly spent hundreds of dollars in the strip club Arety's Angels on the night of April 16. The next day, an unidentified young woman charged more than $1,000 in room service to his room bill at the Crowne Plaza.

Published reports indicated the University's probe of Price had expanded to allegations that he bought alcoholic beverages for underage UA students in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Witt said Saturday he was not aware of Price having broken any laws.

An emotional Price blasted Witt for refusing to give him a second chance. The coach said one day of mistakes should not end a career.

"I don't feel the punishment meets the crime," Price said. "Whatever happened to a second chance in life? ... I do not think this is the best thing for this program right now at this time ... For years and years, [the University] has stood behind its people through adversity and through the mistakes they have made, but not this time."

Price also objected that he did not get a chance to plead his case before the Board of Trustees.

Witt was unapologetic, saying he made the best call for the University and its image as a whole.

"This decision involves the best interests of this university in the long term," he said. "This is a sad day for a good man, this is a sad day for some wonderful football players and this is a sad day for us."

Witt dispelled rumors that Moore could be next on the unemployment line.

"Mal Moore's job is not in jeopardy," he said.

Price's sons, offensive coordinator Eric Price and kickers coach Aaron Price, will leave the staff, The New York Times reported Sunday. The future of the rest of the assistants is uncertain, but Witt said he is "optimistic several coaches will elect to remain with us."

The Mobile Register reported Sunday that Moore met with players Saturday and told them he would rather promote a current assistant than to bring in an outside coach.

Price began choking up near the end of his address to the media, as he reflected on the support his players have offered him in the last week.

"I really appreciate you for standing by me and standing up for me," Price said. "To my players, I wish you the best of luck in everything you do. I love every one of you."

Price apologized to his family, his players and Alabama fans for his transgressions and promised he will overcome them.

"I will show everyone what kind of person Mike Price is," he said. "I'm gonna go out as a man of dignity and class. I'm gonna get through this, and I'm gonna be a better person because of it."

Price walked away from the lectern to a round of applause.

PLAYERS STUNNED; SOURCE SAYS WITT GAVE TRUSTEES ULTIMATUM

Quarterback Brodie Croyle said the team was disappointed in Witt's decision and said many players still stand behind Price.

"We feel like this is a big mistake," Croyle said. "I hope and pray we don't play a Mike Price team. He got us further along in four months than any other coach.

"I've made mistakes; I know you all have made mistakes. The best thing any of us have been given is a second chance. He wasn't given one. We still support him 100 percent."

Offensive tackle Wesley Britt said he thinks Witt did not give a fair hearing to players' sentiments before making his decision.

"It seems all opinions weren't taken into consideration," Britt said. "It's like a bad dream ... Coach Price made a bad decision some people weren't willing to forgive."

Running back Shaud Williams was on the verge of tears when he heard the news.

"I understand President Witt's job is to think about the reputation of the University, but I ask this: Has he ever went to war and sweated and bled and cried with somebody?" Williams said. "Does he know what it's like to get attached to him and then to have that all taken away? Does he know what that felt like?"

John McMahon Jr., president pro tempore of the Board of Trustees, said the board offered its input, but in the end, it was Witt who pulled the trigger on Price's job.

"Everyone on the board recognized it was a very difficult decision. Our job is to help the president think through but not to make the decision," McMahon said.

"At the end of the day, Dr. Witt had to make the decision. The board unanimously indicated that the decision he made was the decision they would support."

But this consensus did not appear to come easily. Witt and the trustees deliberated behind closed doors for nearly two hours, and a source close to the athletics department said there might have been a significant rift between the trustees and Witt on the Price question.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Crimson White that Witt had indicated earlier in the week that he "felt that there might be a conflict between the board and his position on the matter, and if they pushed for retention of Price, [Witt] was prepared to resign."

Witt's office was not open for comment over the weekend.

The Birmingham News on Sunday quoted trustee Sid McDonald as saying most board members favored keeping Price.

"I didn't count carefully, but clearly, yes," McDonald said.

SGA President Katie Boyd said she would give Witt the benefit of the doubt.

"President Witt's job is to protect the reputation of this school, and I have to believe that he and the Board of Trustees have more info than I," Boyd said. "I feel terrible for the players. This is going to be a very hard stretch for them."

Justin Britt, a high school standout from Cullman, Ala., and brother of Wesley Britt, said the chaotic coaching situation could lead him and many other recruits to reconsider whether they want to come to the Capstone.

"It's hard to think about coming to school here after all of this," he said. "I'll have to sit down with my brothers and we'll discuss it all."

WITT: STALLINGS NOT RETURNING

Assistant coaches Kasey Dunn, Joe Kines and Eric Price met with about 50 players Thursday at the UA Football Complex. An anonymous source familiar with what transpired during the meeting told The CW that the meeting was "very somber."

"'I wish [players] would have gotten to know him better before the incident occurred,'" the source quoted Eric Price as saying during the meeting.

Six players met separately with Mike Price during the team meeting and offered their support for him at an impromptu Thursday afternoon news conference. The players said Price disclosed his actions to them, but wide receiver Antonio Carter said the revelations "really [didn't] matter."

"We have gained his respect as a person and a coach in the last four months. I haven't felt this way, and the team has not felt this way," Carter said. "When he got here he brought a lot of smiles. That is what that matters to this team."

The coaching change may prove detrimental to the Tide this fall. A new offense and defense were installed in spring practice, and Price's departure leaves the team in a state of limbo without a definitive playbook going into the summer.

Witt said speculation on a short list of possible coaching candidates was "premature," but indicated he and Moore will search for a permanent coach, not an interim one.

"I'm very optimistic that we will be announcing in the near future a permanent coach," he said.

Witt also denied rumors that former Alabama coach Gene Stallings would come back to coach the team.

"I've heard that rumor," Witt said. "There is no truth to it."

THE REVOLVING DOOR

Moore hired Price from Washington State in December in an attempt to heal a football program whose pride was wounded when former coach Dennis Franchione left for Texas A&M after two years at the Capstone.

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime," Price said at his introductory news conference on Dec. 18. "I feel like I am in football heaven. There isn't a college coach in the country that wouldn't want this job."

The Alabama football coaching position has been a revolving door since the retirement of legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in 1982, with no coach lasting longer than seven seasons. Stallings attained the most success in the post-Bryant era, winning a total of 70 games and a national championship in 1992.

The intense scrutiny that comes with the job has driven many coaches away from the Capstone. Ray Perkins, Bryant's successor, left after four years for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bill Curry won 26 games and an SEC championship in his three years, but he fled to Kentucky in 1989 after mounting criticism of his outsider status and his failure to beat Auburn during his tenure. An unidentified person threw a brick through Curry's office window after the Tide lost its Homecoming game in 1988.

Stallings had four 10-win seasons in seven years, but he left under a cloud of controversy after the NCAA cited the University for a lack of institutional control and placed Alabama on probation in 1995 in relation to Tide defensive back Antonio Langham's signing with an agent in 1993.

A groundswell of fan support led UA officials to promote defensive coordinator Mike DuBose, who played for Bryant, to head coach in 1997. DuBose kept his job after admitting to an affair with his secretary and won an SEC championship in 1999, but he resigned at the end of the next year after a 3-8 season and a second NCAA probe.

Franchione assumed control of the program at the end of 2000, just more than a year before the NCAA hammered Alabama with a two-year bowl ban, five years of probation and a loss of 21 scholarships over three years. The NCAA found that UA boosters provided cash and benefits to prep stars Albert Means and Kenny Smith and former linebacker Travis Carroll.

Franchione's 17-8 record in two years at Alabama fueled widespread affection for "Coach Fran," but fans' love turned to hatred in December when the coach left for a bigger contract at Texas A&M.

(C) 2002 The Crimson White via U-WIRE.