FOLEY, Ala. — Forget impartiality. Just look at the rings on Jeff Rouzie’s fingers and you’ll know he’s crimson through and through.

One ring is a 1992 National Championship ring. Rouzie was linebacker coach on the University of Alabama team that went undefeated and routed the University of Miami in the 1993 Sugar Bowl. That team, coached by Gene Stallings, is considered by many to be one of the best college football teams ever assembled.

The other ring has the numbers “315” on it. That was given to him by another head coach who, in 1981, became the winningest football coach in major college history, a fellow named Paul “Bear” Bryant.

So, when Jeff Rouzie picks the Crimson Tide to defeat the Texas Longhorns next week in the BCS National Championship Game, it’s more than emotion or bias speaking. There’s a lot of football knowledge and experience to boot.

Indeed, Rouzie, who became the city of Foley’s director of Economic Development in October, thinks the Tide is 21 points better than the Longhorns.

“Now that I’m not coaching, I can be more open,” he said in making that prediction.

Rouzie admits he misses coaching. The Jacksonville, Fla., native lettered at Alabama for two years under Bryant. He was an All-SEC honoree in 1971 as a defensive lineman. He was named the Most Valuable Lineman in the 1970 Bluebonnet Bowl against Oklahoma. But on Feb. 29, 1972, his playing career was cut short by a bad automobile accident.

“I never got a chance to play my senior year,” Rouzie said. After being away from football a year, he tried to come back but, as he puts it, “I wasn’t the same athlete.”

As a result, he was a student assistant coach for the Tide in 1973 when the UPI named Alabama national champion. After graduating, he returned to Florida and coached at the high school level for several years. Then, in 1977, he returned to Alabama as linebacker coach. He also worked with special teams during his years as a coach for the Tide.

Those were the days of players like linebacker Barry Krauss, one of several All-Americans Rouzie coached, who was at center stage in the legendary goal line stand against Penn State in the 1979 Sugar Bowl. Indeed, Rouzie coached on the back-to-back national championship teams of 1978-79. That undefeated ‘79 team is yet another Alabama squad to be frequently mentioned among the best ever in college football.

For the past eight years, Rouzie has been working with a large company that builds shopping centers around the country.

“I got to know a lot of national retailers, and I got to know folks at the city of Foley, and we got proactive and started recruiting some of these national retailers to the city,” Rouzie said of his new position with the city.

He and wife Sarah have a condo in Orange Beach. Rouzie has been affiliated with AIG Baker and The Wharf, and he and Sarah lived in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham before moving here. In years past, he has also been in the oil and gas business.

“We love this area absolutely,” said Rouzie, who will be 59 two days after Alabama and Texas square off in Pasadena.

Rouzie still retains that linebacker-look and build, although his hair isn’t as close-cropped as it was in his coaching days. He’s a lot more relaxed in his office at Foley City Hall than he was during his playing days when he lined up against the likes of Heisman Trophy winners Pat Sullivan of Auburn and Johnny Rodgers of Nebraska and players like Riley Odoms of the University of Houston and Charle Young of the University of Southern California.

Asked about the one play he remembers from his playing days, Rouzie comes up with one he says was a “personal thing.” It was his junior year. Alabama was playing Auburn. He intercepted a pass from Pat Sullivan, who tackled him on the four-yard line.

“I should have cut back inside,” Rouzie said with a shake of the head. He consoles himself with the fact Johnny Musso scored on the next play.

Listening to Rouzie, one gets the sense that football has changed today from his playing and coaching days. Yet, for him, some things have stayed the same at the Capstone.

“Football today is more like a game of basketball on the football field. There are one-on-one matchups and the offense is spread all over the field,” he said.

Of Bryant, the man and legend, Rouzie says this: “He always gave more of himself than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

That’s a quality Rouzie saw in Gene Stallings as well and sees in Nick Saban today.

“He’s done a remarkable job in a short period of time,” Rouzie said of Saban. “He outworks people.”

And, for Rouzie, the coaches Bryant and Saban share another characteristic.

“Coach Bryant was more interested in how you turned out. That’s the real reward you get out of coaching.”

Could the 2009 Crimson Tide team supplant the 1992 team as the greatest ever?

According to Rouzie, the 2009 team has more speed, no discernible weaknesses and plays well as a team. The offense is “definitely better” than the ‘92 team’s from the running back standpoint.

He calls Foley’s Julio Jones a player capable of winning a ballgame in one play. Quarterback Greg McElroy reminds him of Jay Barker, the ‘92 quarterback Rouzie said was the nucleus to that team.

“This maybe one of the best teams we’ve ever had — maybe the best,” he said of the team that takes the field against the Longhorns on Jan. 7, 2010.

Certainly, the sense of family that seems to pervade the generations of Crimson Tide players has not been diminished by the Rouzies. Their daughter Jennifer is married to a former Tide player, Paul Hogan, that Jeff Rouzie recruited. Their daughter Catherine is married to Allen Stinson of Montgomery, who works for a business owned by Coach Bryant’s grandson.