Sunday Sitdown with Tommy Tuberville

July 9, 2006

Ron Higgins
commercialappeal.com

Auburn's football CEO shapes program with continuity

Associated Press file photo - After cutting his head-coaching teeth at Ole Miss, Tommy Tuberville has shaped Auburn into a perennial SEC title contender.

It seems like only yesterday when a relatively unknown defensive coordinator named Tommy Tuberville took over an Ole Miss football program that was on NCAA probation. That was in 1994 and Tuberville went 25-20 in four seasons there, building a program hit with severe scholarship sanctions. Now at Auburn where he is 60-27, as he starts his eighth season in the Loveliest Village on the Plains, Tuberville, who turns 52 on Sept. 18, has built a program that contends for the Southeastern Conference and national championships almost every year. Tuberville's Tigers have been to six straight bowls and have won or shared the SEC Western Division title five of the past six years. Two years ago. Auburn went 13-0 and won its first outright SEC title since 1987. He has won six of his past seven games against top 10 teams and 12 of his past 17.

Q: Since you've been on the NCAA football rules committee, are more rules being passed every year to draw the college game closer to the pro game?

A: The one thing we talk about in rules meetings is doing what's best for college. We don't want to be like the pro game. They've got a different game than us. They play a lot more games than we do. They have the 45-second clock and we don't want that. We did go to instant replay like pro football, but we didn't do it because pro football uses it. We did it because we felt that's what's good for college football. College football is a great game. We don't want to change it in any way whatsoever. We're not trying to match anybody's game. We think we've got the best game.

Q: You've changed defensive coordinators several times in the last few years, the latest being Will Muschamp coming aboard this spring. How do you maintain continuity doing that?

A: Most of my other coaches are there, so we're still going to use my philosophy. The good thing about a new coordinator coming in is that he has some new thoughts that other coaches haven't heard. But we're still going to use the main thoughts of my philosophy on offense and defense. Will has had to adapt a bit, and before him Gene Chizick had to adapt a bit.

I wouldn't hire anybody who just wanted to do what they wanted to do. That's not a team concept. There are some guys I know I wouldn't hire, and it's not to say that they aren't any good. But I want a guy who's going to be a good team player, someone who can even work well with the offensive coordinator. Your coaching staff continuity is major in having a chance to win the SEC.

Q: You've always been portrayed as a CEO type who delegates authority. How involved are you with the defense?

A: I'm involved on both sides of the ball. I make suggestions. It's a team concept. We're not going to do anything I don't believe in. I've got to understand it. That's what a head coach should be about. But you've also got to give your assistants the opportunity to have some imagination. You can't tie them down. Ten people on a staff are better than one head coach being a dictator. I've seen it that way at some schools and it's worked.

Q: Is consistency the thing you're most proud about?

A: Yeah, that's what you try to do. Win as many as you can, graduate as many as you can, bring in good character players and make it fun. I've been on some teams where you might win a lot of games, but it still wasn't fun.

A: So how do you feel about your program now?

Q: We've got it going pretty good now. We've got a great team and we're going to find out if it can challenge our unbeaten team from two years ago. We have the possibility. Experience is going to play a factor, and we aren't nearly as experienced as we were two years ago.

Q: What's your major concern right now heading into this season?

A: Probably the offensive line. Both tackles are gone. Also, we're a bit thin at receiver and linebacker on defense where we lost two starters. We need a lot of our young players to play a bigger role than the last two years. We need to find a lot of second-team players. Our defense needs more bulk, because we want to be a more physical defense.

Q: Was the BCS adding an extra bowl merely window dressing?

A: That's all that is. They're just spreading the wealth around. They didn't do anything to help determine a true national championship, and adding a bowl prolonged the season. There's going to be some team that has 40 days off before it plays in the national championship game. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. We're the only sport that does that.

But it's all about money. We understand that. We'll do what's asked of us, but sooner or later something's got to be given back. Playing the national championship game a week after the rest of the bowls will hurt recruiting and will hurt our American Football Coaches Association, which is having its convention at that time. And it's going to hurt the players involved.