Former Alabama coach Mike DuBose hired to lead alma mater Opp High School

He spent the past two years as the defensive coordinator for the Bobcats and replaces Brent Hill, who recently resigned after seven years as head coach and athletics director to take the head coach job at North Florida Christian in Tallahassee, Fla.

Hill went 42-37 at the school. The Bobcats were 8-4 in 2020, losing to Catholic-Montgomery 38-0 in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.

“Any time you’ve got a coach DuBose on your staff to me it’s a no-brainer with the things he’s experienced as a coach,” Opp Principal Aaron Hightower said of the hiring. “First of all to have someone like that on your staff is special.

“Now you’re getting his total philosophy over your program, which is so significant. We want to win championships and that’s something we haven’t been able to do.

“We just feel like if we can have Coach DuBose expertise and getting everybody on the same page, we feel it gives our kids a better chance of being successful. Not just from an athletic standpoint, but from an academic and social as well.”

Hightower said DuBose agreed to take over the duties Wednesday and was expected to meet with the assistant coaches and players later in the day.

“We’re excited to have Coach DuBose running things,” Hightower said. “We think we’re blessed to have him, and we think he’s going to have an impact in our school on all our athletes and in our community as well.”

DuBose became the head coach at Alabama following the retirement of Gene Stallings after the 1996 season. He had served on Stallings’ staff as a defensive line coach. DuBose led the Tide for four seasons in compiling a 24-23 record with the high mark in leading the Crimson Tide to the SEC championship in 1999 with a 10-3 record.

After being fired at Alabama following the 2000 season, DuBose came to Dothan to take over as head coach at Northview. He stayed there just one year as the Cougars went winless.

But DuBose found success as head coach at Luverne on two different occasions – from 2003-2004 and from 2013-2014. Luverne made the playoffs in each of the four seasons he was there, including finishing state runner-up in Class 2A in 2003.

DuBose was a star football player at Opp and then was a standout linebacker at Alabama for coach Paul “Bear” Bryant from 1972-1974.

He began his head coaching career at Prattville in 1979, but then went into the college ranks as an assistant with stops at Chattanooga, Southern Mississippi and Memphis in addition to his time at Alabama. He also spent time as a defensive line coach in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Bucs from 1986-1989 before returning to Alabama as an assistant.

In between his stops at Luverne, DuBose was head coach at Millsaps (Miss.) College, a Division III school, from 2006-2009.

He was inducted into the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.