At best, hiring Mike Shula will solve Alabama's coaching problems for the long term. Shula, the Dolphins' quarterback coach, is 37, the youngest head coach Alabama has hired since Frank Thomas, the former Notre Dame quarterback, came to Tuscaloosa in 1931 at age 32. Thomas took the Crimson Tide to three Rose Bowls, retired in 1946 and, in 1951, made the inaugural class of coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Not a bad example.

At worst, Mike Shula will prove as effective a coach as his brother David, who washed out as a head coach with the Cincinnati Bengals. The Shula name opens doors and raises expectations. David couldn't meet them. Mike gets his opportunity now, and the biggest question is whether he would be as highly regarded if he were a 37-year-old former Alabama quarterback named Mike Smith.

Shula is used to such skepticism. He faced it when he came to Alabama two decades ago as a lightly recruited quarterback. He went on to become an All-SEC quarterback by his junior year.

While Alabama fans will greet Shula with enthusiasm -- please, get us out of this mess -- he was not the most popular choice among former players and alumni. The candidacy of Packers assistant Sylvester Croom, 48, a former All-American center at Alabama under coach Bear Bryant and a Tuscaloosa native, had generated a lot of grass-roots support within the state and national attention from the media. Croom, who would have been the first African-American head coach in the SEC, assured Moore that he could put any buyout clause in the contract that the university desired. He had no designs on any other coaching jobs.

However, Moore chose Shula, who is younger, and, like his legendary father, spent virtually his entire career in the NFL. There are a lot of fingers crossed in Alabama that Shula won't coach a few years and leave for the Sunday game.

With his coaching background in the pro passing game, Shula should be able to provide the needed bridge to a team schooled in Mike Price's West Coast offense during spring practice. That's an immediate concern. In the near future, Alabama is likely to get worse before it gets better, because the ugliest of the effects of the NCAA-mandated scholarship reductions will hit in 2004-05. One SEC head coach predicted Alabama would have trouble reaching a winning record over the next three years.

Moore had considered hiring his 62-year-old former Alabama teammate, Panthers assistant Richard Williamson, as a steady hand to shepherd the Tide through those years. There would be an added benefit: a rookie head coach wouldn't have to endure the losing. In choosing Shula, the university decided to go ahead and let a younger man begin his makeover of the team.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.