Mike Shula on his return to Bryant-Denny Stadium, 18 years in the making

The official dedication of Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium was on Sept. 7.

This Saturday — when South Carolina visits No. 7 Alabama in Tuscaloosa — will be a more indirect celebration of Saban.

You see, Saban’s existence in Tuscaloosa feels like the crux of a timeline, where history is categorized in BS (Before Saban) seasons and the AS (After Saban) years. Saturday is the odd blending of the entire chronology.

Saban Field will be littered with Crimson Tide players the man himself recruited. On one sideline will be Saban’s successor, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. On the other will be Saban’s direct predecessor, Mike Shula.

Shula, forever known as the son of Don Shula (the NFL’s all-time winningest coach), joined South Carolina’s coaching staff in March, mainly working with the Gamecocks quarterbacks under the official title of “senior offensive assistant coach.” It marked Shula’s return to college football after his alma mater, Alabama, fired him in 2006 in favor of Saban.

The last time he coached in Bryant-Denny Stadium was Nov. 18, 2006. The Crimson Tide lost the Iron Bowl to Auburn, finishing the regular season at 6-6. Shula was dismissed eight days later, receiving a $4 million buyout on the way out.

“It’s brutal. It’s hard. It’s really hard,” Shula told The State in late August of his firing. “People say it’s not personal. It’s personal because you pour everything you have into it. Your family is with you. Everybody is totally in. … But you also know if you can’t handle the ups and the downs, you have to go do something else.”

Now 59, Shula squirmed at the mere mention of Saturday’s return. People have conjured up more nostalgia talking about an old blender than Shula does about his Alabama homecoming.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he said. “I’ve been other places where I’ve worked and been let go, then went back there. You’re dialed in on the game. You’re dialed in on the guys around you, the other coaches, the quarterbacks.

“I’ve got a few friends left in Birmingham. But, other than that. I’ll just be ready to help our guys go and win.”

Since graduating from Alabama in 1987, leaving Tuscaloosa with a 24-11-1 record as a three-year starting quarterback, Shula’s life has been the NFL. Save for his four seasons as Alabama’s head coach and the past seven months at South Carolina, every year across five decades and seven presidential administrations, has begun and ended with the National Football League.

He’s coached for eight different NFL teams in 31 years, including a stint working under his dad with the Miami Dolphins and, most notably, running the Carolina Panthers’ offense during their 2015 Super Bowl run.

So, yes, many times Shula has been a part of the awkward reunion between fired coach and the place that fired him.

But, whether he admits it or not, this one is different. Shula was Alabama’s starting quarterback, guiding the Tide to Top-15 seasons in 1985 and 1986. His alma mater gave him his only chance at becoming a head coach, making him second-youngest FBS coach (38 years old) in 2003. And yet, he has only been back to Tuscaloosa once since being fired — for a funeral.

Perhaps the reluctance of a rosy reflection stems from what was really a bizarre tenure. It started because the previous coach, Mike Price, was canned before coaching a single game after it was discovered, among other things, he spent a night at a topless bar.

Shula was hired in mid-May, perhaps the worst time to start as a head coach. Signing day had passed months before. Spring practice was over. Oh, and the program was under heavy NCAA sanctions stemming from a major pay-for-play scandal.

Even now, when asked if he was ready to be a head coach before 40, Shula notes, “It’s kind of hard to answer that question on a level playing field.”

“We never really saw our players until training camp,” Shula said. “And I was the third coach in six months they had seen. When you’re at Alabama, you don’t expect that. You don’t deserve that anywhere.”

After going 4-9 in his first season, the Crimson Tide somehow went 6-6 in 2004 despite season-ending injuries to their starting quarterback, starting running back, starting fullback and later injuries to the backup quarterback and tailback.

Finally in 2005, Shula showed proof of concept. Led by running back Kenneth Darby and a defense that included Demeco Ryans, Roman Harper and Freddie Roach, the Crimson Tide went 10-2, finishing No. 8 in the country. Alabama beat South Carolina, No. 5 Florida and No. 18 Texas Tech, led by Mike Leach, in the Cotton Bowl.

Soon after, Shula inked a six-year deal to stay at Alabama. The rebuild was going to plan. And, then, in 2006, the Crimson Tide went 6-6 and Shula was unemployed, kicked to the curb by his alma mater.

“It was disappointing we didn’t get to see it through,” Shula said. “But that’s part of it. You’ve got to win and you’ve got to win consistently.”

The firing was so unexpected that, for a short period, Shula simultaneously owned two homes and was renting two more.

He and his family were just about to move into his newly constructed 7,000-square-foot home in Tuscaloosa when he was fired. So they rented a home in Fort Lauderdale — and while they were living there, trying to sell two homes in Alabama — he became the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks coach and rented a home out there. For one month, he paid four rents.

He chuckles about it now. “I wasn’t laughing back then.”

Shula calls it the “downside of coaching,” which feels like the equivalent to saying getting your head cut open is the downside of a haircut. Yet, for all the misfortune, all the moves and firings, positional changes and years without another chance to be a head man, the son of a coach keeps coaching.

And this weekend, whether he wants to or not, he gets to once again stand on the sidelines in Tuscaloosa.