the opposite sideline of the game that ended Alabama's then college record 57-game home unbeaten streak in November 1982. Two months later, Bryant died, and DuBose was invited to Alabama as a defensive line coach on the staff of new coach Ray Perkins. He coached the defensive line for four years and followed Perkins to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for three years, 1987–1989. He returned to Alabama as the defensive line coach under Gene Stallings from 1990 to 1996, including the Crimson Tide's national championship season in 1992. University of Alabama On December 9, 1996, sixteen days after Stallings announced his retirement, DuBose was named as head coach of Alabama. Slow start In 1997, DuBose's first season at Alabama, the Crimson Tide won its first two games. However, they soon began feeling the strain of the loss of 30 scholarships as a result of NCAA violations from the Stallings era. They lost seven of the last nine games, including their first loss to Kentucky since 1922, blowout losses at the hands of Tennessee and LSU, and a loss to Louisiana Tech. The 1997 Iron Bowl presented DuBose an opportunity to salvage at least a piece of a lost season, but Alabama lost after leading the game 17–15 with less than a minute to go. Faced with a third and a long one and the prospect of having to punt the ball to Auburn if they did not convert, leaving Auburn an opportunity to get into field goal range, the Tide ran a screen pass, resulting in a fumble and Auburn recovery that led to the game-winning field goal for the Tigers. Much controversy surrounded the apparent fact that DuBose not only didn't call the play, but didn't know what play was being run. DuBose reacted by firing four assistants, including the ones who called the play, Bruce Arians and Woody McCorvey. The Tide finished with the school's worst record since 1957, the year before Bryant arrived. The following year, 1998, DuBose led the team to a 7–5 record and a berth in the inaugural Music City Bowl against Virginia Tech. The Tide lost with a poor performance on a day with even worse weather, 38–7, and DuBose went back to the drawing board. Nonetheless, DuBose restored much of the goodwill he had lost in his first season with a comeback over LSU in Tiger Stadium, and a win over Auburn