11/05/24
December 03, 2008
Tuberville Out At Auburn: One bad year at Auburn was apparently one too many.
posted by TheQatarian to football at 08:16 PM - 6 comments
He'll take some time off and be back with another school soon. He's too good of a coach to be gone long.
posted by dbt302 at 12:10 PM on December 04, 2008
He wasn't exactly fired like the coaches of the NHL & NBA were. He stepped down.
posted by jmd82 at 05:27 PM on December 04, 2008
He stepped down because he didn't want to get fired. I agree with The Qatarian, this one is crazy. Imagine Penn State pulling that on JoePa. He'd have been gone in 1988! (5-6-0)
Looks like Auburn pulled a Frank Solich.
posted by canstusdis at 06:54 PM on December 04, 2008
Either he was trying to avoid getting fired, or he got fed up with the attitude of the boosters who think that Auburn is supposed to contend for a national title every year. Either way, someone is crazy. Someone needs to tell the boosters at Auburn (and Notre Dame...and LSU...and several other schools...) that these things cannot be guaranteed every single year. A down year once in a while is going to happen, and they have to learn to live with it, especially with a coach with a track record like Tuberville.
It reminds me a lot of how my alma mater ended up with Tubby Smith...he got sick of unrealistic expectations where he was working and wanted someplace less stressful. Perhaps Tuberville will go someplace like Mississippi State, where he can do his job without all the pressure.
posted by TheQatarian at 08:06 PM on December 04, 2008
Auburn does seem to have the most curious football coach departures on earth. Dye, Bowden, and now Tuberville.
Also in the mix is the aborted coup from a couple of years ago which would have brought in Bobby Petrino.
Bowden is forbidden by settlement contract terms from discussing his tenure and departure from Auburn.
Boosters can be as beneficial to a college football program as lobbyists are to the common welfare of the nation.
posted by beaverboard at 09:37 PM on December 04, 2008
I don't think it is often that the NBA, NHL and college football all have a firing in the same day.
That being said, I think this one is insane. It is completely unrealistic to expect awesomeness every year, especially in the SEC. Sure, Tuberville took a risk in changing up the offense that backfired, but the guy's track record is way too good to can after one bad season. I'm putting the over/under on Tuberville finding a new job at about a week.