Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Tommy Tuberville has been up, down, and all points in between during his coaching career. Tuberville was the head coach of The Auburn Tigers from 1999-2008. In his decade long stint at Auburn, Tuberville compiled 85 victories which was third most in school history as he only trails Ralph Jordan and Pat Dye. In 2004, Auburn went undefeated, but they were unable to garner a share of the national title as that honor went to The USC Trojans. In addition to his undefeated season in 2004, Tuberville won a share of five Southeastern Conference Western Division Titles, but after suffering a 5-7 season in 2008, Tigers athletic director Jay Jacobs fired Tuberville in favor of Gene Chizik.
In 2010, Chizik won The BCS Championship with Auburn as The Tigers went 14-0. Some looked at it as if Chizik had won with Tuberville’s players and the dynamic Cam Newton who in his one season as Tigers quarterback won The Heisman Trophy. Two years later, Tuberville is building his own legacy in Lubbock, Texas while The Tigers season is in shambles.
The Red Raiders have an overall record of 6-2 while they are 3-2 in The Big 12 Conference. The Tigers on the other hand are 1-7 and they are 0-6 in The SEC. Tuberville took 2009 off and he analyzed the spread offense in college football and he learned how to incorporate it into his game plan. The Red Raiders currently have the 17th ranked offense in college football led by quarterback Seth Doege who has thrown 28 touchdowns on the season. Out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, The Tigers are currently last in total offense.
Tuberville is already racking up big wins with The Red Raiders. Last season Texas Tech upset The Oklahoma Sooners 41-38 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Sooners were in the hunt for The BCS Championship until The Red Raiders derailed those chances. This season Texas Tech welcomed The West Virginia Mountaineers to Lubbock on October 13. The Mountaineers were one of the highest scoring teams in the country led by Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Geno Smith. This was a Mountaineer team that had just scored 48 points in the previous week against The Texas Longhorns. Texas Tech proceeded to dominate West Virginia in every phase of football en route to an earth shattering 49-14 victory. Last week saw The Red Raiders go to Forth Worth, Texas and defeat The TCU Horned Frogs 56-53 in triple overtime.
Down in SEC country, Chizik is now facing weekly questions about his job status at Auburn as a sub. 500 season what The Tigers will have to deal with. What make matters worse for Chizik and Auburn is that The Alabama Crimson Tide appear on the path of consecutive BCS Championship.
Like I said before, Jacobs fired Tuberville due to pressure from some of Auburn’s boosters out of fear that The Tide under head coach Nick Saban were ready to leave The Tigers in the dust. Tuberville had one undefeated season at Auburn and he was 7-3 against The Tide in The Iron Bowl. Tuberville consistently had ranked teams at Auburn and he consistently sent talent to The National Football League such as Ronnie Brown of The San Diego Chargers and Jay Ratliff of The Dallas Cowboys.
Tuberville still has an outside shot of winning The Big 12 Title this season while The Tigers could be shopping for a new head coach. Chizik’s hire at Auburn was a head scratcher after compiling a losing record as head coach of The Iowa State Cyclones while Tuberville’s dismissal was extremely surprising. Both Auburn and Tuberville have gone in different directions in more ways than one. Tuberville took the high road when he left Auburn and he landed on his feet with The Red Raiders. Auburn sold their future for one brief moment of championship stardom as they are finding out about the hard knock life of The SEC. Jacobs’ fourth-down gamble to punt on Tuberville resulted in an early touchdown by Chizik, but Tuberville appears to be the runaway winner in the long-term.
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