In 1979, Houston Oilers coach O.A. "Bum" Phillips published a book credited to him but written by Ray Buck, a sportswriter with the Cincinnati Enquirer, titled He Ain't No Bum. It was pretty common fodder for those days; a short collection of memoirs/ anecdotes/ observations designed to parlay on the success of the Houston Oilers team at that time.

Of interest to us is a 650-words-or-so forward by then-Alabama football coach Paul W. Bryant. (You can read the full text of that here). This was almost certainly ghostwritten as well (Sports Illustrated's John Underwood and the Tuscaloosa News' Al Browning are the likely suspects). It delivers exactly what you expect; a dab of homespun charm, a quick anecdote or two and the requisite praise for the subject. There's a little something else as well.

Phillps had been on Bryant's staff at Texas A&M in 1957, the final year of his tenure there. Of that time the forward offers this:

"[Bum] coached a little of everything with me. He gave me a defense that we still use today. It's a numbers defense, terminology really. But by using numbers you can tell each man right where he lines up and what his responsibility is. We still use it at Alabama. You can have half of your front playing one thing and the other half playing another thing, and the secondary makes the call. There's nothing to it.

While this forward is pretty clearly penned by someone else, Bryant personally reviewed every piece that would bear his name and was not at all shy about 'suggesting' edits if the content displeased him. The credit to Phillips for the influence to the Alabama defense is certainly genuine.

I personally found this tidbit rather intriguing since there is a surfeit of information on how Bryant brought the Wishbone offense to Alabama but very little on how he developed the defense of that era. As much attention as that offense -- rightfully -- has gotten, the fact is then, as now, the defense was what made those Crimson Tide teams so dominant.