Ex-Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville not all wrong

Tommy Tuberville had the right idea. He just had the wrong coach. The spread offense, under offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, has fit Auburn better than green on grass. Tuberville knew that’s what Auburn needed but the pass-first, run-second philosophy of Tony Franklin wasn’t what Auburn needed. The hiring of Franklin, at least in part, cost Tuberville his job. But he had the right idea. – Huntsville Times

Gene Chizik, Auburn Earning Respect

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik - Funny, but where have are all the cries gone that Chizik is unqualified for a head job in the SEC? Shredded from every angle after he was plucked from an unsuccessful tenure at Iowa State, he has the Tigers sitting at 5-0 and about to enter the Top 25. Beating Tennessee in Knoxville accomplished what the first four victories couldn’t—earning Auburn respect as the next best thing to Florida, Alabama, and LSU in the SEC. – CFN

Miami, Texas A&M Eyeing Tommy Tuberville?

Randy Shannon, Miami - School record: 12-13, third season - Why he’s in trouble: The Hurricanes open with a brutal schedule — at Florida State, Georgia Tech at home, at Virginia Tech and Oklahoma at home. A poor start at a school that expects to win championships might tempt Miami to cut ties early to court former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, an ex-’Canes assistant. – Orlando Sentinel

Mike Sherman, Texas A&M - School record: 4-8, second season - Why he’s in trouble: Sherman took over an ailing program, but Aggies fans won’t be patient or tolerate of many more losses like last year’s stunner to Arkansas State. A&M was outscored 351-242 in Big 12 games. Tuberville’s availability could be a factor here, too; he was the defensive coordinator in 1994 when the Aggies went 10-0-1. – Orlando Sentinel

What is the state of Auburn Football?

With Gene Chizik days away from his first game as Auburn’s head football coach, what is the real state of the program he inherits?… Auburn has always been in an interesting position. Geographically, it is in an advantageous location. Prospects in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are within easy driving distance of the Auburn campus. But the problem is that Auburn isn’t the No. 1 recruiting power in any of those states… For the first time in a long time, there is no conflict between the football coaching staff and the administration. No one is squeezing the football program. Chizik is going to get most of the things he asks for. From all indications, everyone is on the same page. That’s a good thing… No fans anywhere are more passionate than Auburn fans. They love their school and they love their football program. Auburn fans, some of them anyway, tend to be pessimistic. Even in good times, they worry bad times are coming. And when they are unhappy, they don’t hide it… Auburn’s facilities are not bad. But when compared to Alabama, Florida and others, they lack the wow factor. And the wow factor matters these days… Auburn’s athletic department budget of some $80 million is in the upper echelon of the SEC… Add it all up and where does Auburn’s football program stand today? In my opinion, it stands at a crossroads. For most of the past decade, Auburn has been able to look the best in the SEC and the nation in the eye. But Florida, Georgia, Alabama and LSU have flung down the gauntlet. Can everything it takes for Auburn to keep up come together? History says it can happen, but that doesn’t mean it will. Even with commitment, courage and unity, the road ahead will be treacherous. We’ll see where it leads. – AuburnUndercover.com

Pulling Auburn together long-term is Gene Chizik’s challenge

Can Gene Chizik pull it all together at Auburn? Can he and one of the more impressive groups of assistants in Auburn history restock the program with championship-level talent and depth? Those are questions that will take time to answer. The focus now, as it should be, is on the season that is a little more than two weeks away. Does Auburn have enough talent to have a good season? Yes. Does it have enough talent to contend for a championship? Maybe, but only with terrific injury luck. Does it have enough holes to have a losing season? Yes. It’s going to be very interesting to watch. – AuburnUndercover.com

Todd completes unlikely comeback for Auburn

When Chris Todd woke up Thursday morning, he expected a day like any other day in preseason camp. But by the time Auburn had gone to practice Thursday night, he had been named the Tigers’ starting quarterback. Todd, a fifth-year senior whose journey has been anything but uneventful, beat out juniors Kodi Burns and Neil Caudle and freshmen Tyrik Rollison and Clint Moseley. First-year head coach Gene Chizik and offensive coordiantor Gus Malzahn delivered the good news to Todd and the disappointing news to the others. “I had no idea,” Todd said. “I didn’t know what I was going into. I didn’t really know what to expect when I walked in there.” It completed an unlikely comeback for Todd, whose career seemed all but over at the end of last season. – AuburnUndercover.com

The Firing Line: Auburn Has $6 Million “In Place” for Tub

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville…

Hot seats are becoming empty seats quicker than usual this season. Auburn, however, will apparently not join that group - which has now risen to four - until at least season’s end. Whispers about Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville’s future have become open speculation, but Auburn president Jay Gogue said last week he wouldn’t evaluate the program until after the season… Tuberville’s buyout is set at $6 million. A source with knowledge of the situation said the money is already in place if Gogue and Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs decide to make a coaching change. – Times Daily

A coaching change would be costly for Auburn, which has lost four in a row and sits at an uncomfortable 4-5 for coach Tommy Tuberville. His contract reportedly has a $6 million buyout clause, and most of his assistants are on multiyear contracts. The Tigers will even their record this week (they play Tennessee-Martin), then look for bowl eligibility against their two biggest rivals - Georgia and Alabama. – Rocky Mountain News

The Firing Line: Pressure Builds at Auburn

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville…

The Auburn Board of Trustees’ regularly scheduled meeting this week doesn’t have a very exciting official docket, but the unofficial one could be a hoot. Wonder if there’ll be any talk in the hallways? Think somebody might button-hole somebody about Tommy Tuberville as the rumors swirl? Of course not. But we did see citizen Pat Dye palling around with one of the trustees at lunch Wednesday. Unofficially, of course. Officially, the university’s president has been charged to think about Tuberville and his future, though has anybody really said that? The Auburn football team, the bell cow of an athletic department, is limping into Saturday’s homecoming game against Tennessee-Martin with a 4-5 record and you have to wonder how many people will show up for it. – Birmingham News

If Auburn officials decide to fire Tommy Tuberville after this year, it will cost $6 million — $3 million due almost immediately and another $3 million due within one year. There are no loopholes, no catches and no reasons for Tuberville to accept a penny less… In retrospect, both the negotiations and the ensuing contract seem comically one-sided, especially given that Tuberville was little threat to go elsewhere by the time it was actually signed. Ultimately, Tuberville agreed to a seven-year, $18.2-million deal that raised his already hefty buyout from $3 million to a whopping $7 million. That was the contract that Jacobs inherited when he started his new job around New Year’s Day in 2005. – Mobile Press-Register

The announcement this week that Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer will lose his job at the end of the season leaves Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville as the SEC coach with the longest tenure at one school. Of course, that could change if Tuberville gets fired in the next few weeks. And that both men could lose their jobs underscores the lack of security in a conference as competitive as the SEC. One bad season can put just about anyone’s job in jeopardy. – Rivals.com

Let’s forget about Phillip Fulmer for now and look for the next victim in line in what has become a season full of big-name coaches getting the boot. Tommy Tuberville, step right up. At first blush, it seems unlikely that Auburn would get rid of a guy who went undefeated four seasons ago and has records of 84-38 (overall) and 51-27 (SEC) on the Plains. But in a season when Tommy Bowden, Tyrone Willingham and now Fulmer have been pushed along, hardly any coach not named Saban, Spurrier or Carroll seems untouchable. After being picked in the preseason to win the SEC West, Auburn (4-5) will have to beat Georgia or Alabama to become bowl-eligible. That’s assuming the Tigers muster up enough offense Saturday to beat Tennessee-Martin. The Mobile Press-Register called 13 Auburn trustees on Monday to gauge Tuberville’s popularity. Most declined to comment or didn’t return calls, and only one expressed support for Tuberville beyond this season. – The State

The Firing Line: Uncertainty Reigns on the Plains

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville…

Either Tuberville’s past successes are enough for him to have the opportunity to fix the problems or they aren’t. There will be no better week than the coming one to clear things up. With UT-Martin next on the schedule, Tuberville could easily make time to sit down with Gogue and/or Jacobs. He could tell them what his plans are and they could sign off or not. Nothing that happens over the next three games is going to make Tuberville a better coach or a worse coach. Until something concrete happens, the speculation is going to grow. It is that speculation that concerns recruits far more than a bad season. Until it’s resolved, Auburn’s football program is essentially dead in the water. So why wait? Because you always have? That’s not much of a reason. As long as no one will be specific, as long as no one says “Tommy Tuberville is going to be our coach next season,” the feeling that he’s not going to be the coach next season will grow stronger. Maybe he’s not going to be.  If he’s not, it’s time to say that and begin a search for the next coach. – Auburn Undercover.com

t’s not going away until he goes away. Or until some of his lieutenants go away. Or until somebody with some clout stands up and says something, one way or the other. Or, maybe, until you can track the jet contrails from central Alabama all the way to Austin, Texas, to the doorstep of wunderkind Will Muschamp, the Texas defensive coordinator and ex-Auburn assistant, before air traffic control lets somebody else - say, Tennessee? - land there first. Until something happens - good, bad, ugly or outrageous - the coaching future of Tommy Tuberville at Auburn University will be the dark, foreboding theme every game, the coffee lounge conversation every day. – Huntsville Times

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said Saturday he doesn’t want to put any extra pressure on his struggling football team after another loss in a disappointing year. He said he didn’t want the team to feel it had to play “for me. I want them to play for them and Auburn.” Tuberville said it after the Tigers’ fourth straight loss, a 17-7 setback to Mississippi in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. The Tigers, the preseason pick to win the SEC West, fell to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the conference. Tuberville said his players should not worry about any discussion about his job security. “What happens at the end of the year happens, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it,” he said. “We’re just going to go out and play.” – Birmingham News

Asked if he could’ve imagined, in his worst nightmare, being 4-5, he engaged in what Dye might call a little 50-50 hindsight. “I knew we were going to struggle, and I told everybody before we started the season,” Tuberville said. He did? “I put us in a bind early in the season.” He did. Tuberville added that there’s one thing he doesn’t want his players to do. “I don’t want them to play for me,” he said. “I want them to play for them and Auburn. That’s what it’s all about. Coaches go and come.” He said it. – Birmingham News

Unquestionably, there are problems, but they can be corrected without the drastic — and quite expensive — action of firing Tuberville. It becomes more obvious every week that the offense is confused and ineffective. The tired defense is battling injuries. Again, those are problems that can be corrected, and Tuberville deserves the opportunity to make those changes. It won’t be an easy task for him, because the first thing he will need to do is replace some longtime offensive assistants, which could be made less difficult with the hiring of a new offensive coordinator who will likely want to bring in some of his own assistants… If those who will decide Tuberville’s fate can set aside the emotions and frustration they feel at the moment and base their decision on what Tuberville has done since arriving in Auburn, the right call is to not fire him or seek his resignation. – Mobile Press-Register

The Firing Line: Will Tuberville “Dye” Hard?

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville…

Some believe no matter what happens this week, or for the rest of the season for that matter, it won’t save Tuberville or Fulmer. It’s hard to imagine one bad year could put either coach on the unemployment line, but that’s the way it is in the high stakes world of college football these days. All it can take is one bad year or even one bad game against a special rival, and even with the records Tuberville and Fulmer have compiled that can be the old ball game… Tuberville is not unemployed yet. He’s still the Auburn coach, but this season has been a catastrophe for Auburn, even more so than just the 4-4 record. It was a win, oddly enough, that started this snowball rolling down the hill - Auburn’s 3-2 win over Mississippi State. That score over a supposed inferior opponent embarrassed Auburn supporters, and by supporters I mean the power brokers who can hire and fire at Auburn. – The Randolph Leader

Auburn’s players haven’t quit in the midst of a three-game losing streak, and coach Tommy Tuberville said he doesn’t expect his team to ever give in. Tuberville was asked to respond to comments made by former Auburn coach Pat Dye on Paul Finebaum’s radio program Monday afternoon. Dye said the Tigers’ last two games have been “sad” because he sees “kids that early in the year were playing as hard as they could play and right now they’re not playing that way.” Tuberville rejected that suggestion. “I don’t know how you determine that,” he said. “Our guys have a lot of pride. They practice like everybody else. One thing we’re going to do is we’re going to play hard and we’re going to play for four quarters. Now, we might not play very well, and fatigue is a factor in that. But when people start talking about quitting, they start looking for excuses. We have no excuses.” – Huntsville Times

Last week, Tuberville shot down rumors about his health and his future at a weekly press conference that was anything but routine. Three days later, Auburn lost a third straight game - at West Virginia - for the first time since 2001. The continuing drama has raised the question. Will this spiral end with Tuberville’s dismissal? – Birmingham News

Next Page »