Steve Sloan may have, at one time, been the choice of the late Paul W. “Bear” Bryant to follow him as head football coach at the University of Alabama, but, of course, it didn’t work out that way.

Sloan accepted the head coaching position at Ole Miss prior to the 1978 season and coached there for five seasons, never fielding a team with a winning record. His Ole Miss teams went 20–34–1 overall and 8–23–1 in conference play. He moved on from there to Duke, where he compiled a 13–31 record over four seasons from 1983-86.

Sloan went into administration and served as athletics director at Alabama from 1987-89 before moving on to posts at North Texas, Central Florida and Chattanooga.

Alabama hired Ray Perkins, also a former UA player, to succeed Bryant. Perkins came to UA from the New York Giants, where he was head coach from 1979-82, and spent the 1983-86 seasons with the Crimson Tide, going 32–15–1 and 14–9–1 in SEC play before returning to the National Football League as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.