Tuberville gets a taste of his own medicine

By By Will Bardwell/staff writer
November 27, 2003
Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony." Morpheus, "The Matrix"
Ah, sweet irony. It's definitely my favorite literary device partially because I don't remember much else from 8th grade English (sorry, Mrs. Browning), but mostly because it's just so darn funny to see one's words or deeds come up and bite him (or her) in the rear.
It's too bad school is out this week, or junior high teachers everywhere could turn their young scholars' attentions to the Plains of southeast Alabama for a textbook example.
Rewind your memories to 1998. It was exactly five years ago tomorrow that former Ole Miss head coach Tommy Tuberville packed his bags and left Oxford for the lush, expanseless cow pasture that is Auburn, Ala. It was hardly unexpected. Talk of Tub's moving plans had been swirling for weeks, and the public announcement was just a formality.
Surprise or not, it was one of the lowest blows ever delivered in Southeastern Conference football. Here you had a guy who was supposed to be focused on helping his team at the time, Ole Miss win football games, and he's talking to another school on the side, ironing out a contract and already recruiting for that school. Oh yeah, and he lied about all of it for a month.
For weeks, he left Rebel fans and players hung out to dry, wondering what uncertainties the future held.
Okay, flash forward to today. This is where it gets funny.
After five years on the job, Tommy Tuberville is one of the most successful coaches in Auburn history. He has consistently beaten archrival Alabama and has tied for or won the SEC West division title three times.
And Tiger fans could care less. They hate him. The Tigers came in with national title hopes back in August, but that didn't last long after starting 0-2. The Tiger faithful want him run out of town, and surprisingly, so do school administrators.
Disapproval of Tub's performance is so widespread that Auburn's president, William Walker, has already interviewed Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino to be Tuberville's replacement for a job that isn't even open yet.
Coach Petrino has been mentioned as a candidate for the job should it become available,'' Walker said in a written statement. I have made no decision and am considering my options. This visit was a part of that process.''
And now, poor Tommy is left hung out to dry, wondering what uncertainties the future holds.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Now don't get me wrong. I don't approve of the way Auburn is treating Tuberville. It's completely classless. He's done nothing but win since he got to Auburn, and has done it with a program that was in shambles when he got there. The way the university has openly disrespected Tuberville is disgusting.
Kind of like the way he openly disrespected his former employers and players at Ole Miss, huh? Funny how things turn out.
Despite being a jerk, I kind of like Tuberville. Part of being a jerk is being painfully honest and oftentimes funny, and for a reporter working on a story, that's a fun combination.
Jerk or not, he doesn't have to take this. He has every right to walk into Walker's office and demand this circus come to an end. Tuberville is a great coach and could get a job pretty much anywhere in football, college or pro.
The whole situation reminds me of the Ole Miss search for a head coach that ended with Tuberville. Joe Lee Dunn, former Mississippi State defensive guru, was interim coach for the Rebels in 1994 and was one of the finalists for the job. Dunn realized, though, that Ole Miss was just jerking him around. If the school was serious about hiring him, there wouldn't be any other candidates.
So Dunn told Ole Miss administrators to go choke on their own spit. He left and found himself another job. Gutsy.
But not Tuberville. In a surprising display of pansy-ism, Tuberville is sitting back and taking it. He knows he's done nothing wrong and he knows his detractors are out of their minds. Just about every level-headed observer knows it, too.
What level-headed observers can't figure out is why he's taking it. My guess is the same reason that I think he'll still be around next year money. If Auburn decided to ditch Tuberville, they'd have to pay roughly $4 million to buy out the rest of his contract. Not even a big-name program like AU has that kind of cash just lying around.
Should the Tigers decide to fire their coach that has gone 37-24 in five years, they'd probably do it in the next 10 days or so. And while I don't expect it to happen, I do expect to have a blast watching him twist in the wind over the next week and a half.
Open wide, Tommy. It's your own medicine.