Tuberville talks

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From the Montgomery Advertiser.

Tuberville talks

Jay G. Tate, the Montgomery Advertiser's Auburn beat reporter, sat down with AU head football coach Tommy Tuberville over the weekend at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., where his team is preparing for Wednesday's Music City Bowl against Wisconsin.

In an hour-long interview, Tuberville candidly discussed the emotional roller-coaster ride he's endured during the last two months, why he decided to come back to Auburn and what changes might lie ahead in the future.

Q: Describe the emotions of those last few weeks before the regular season ended.

A: I'd say probably most of it didn't affect me or the coaches, to a certain point, until the last two weeks of the season. A lot of people were dwelling on losses. I kinda started getting the feeling that something was up. Maybe a little bit after the Ole Miss loss. I didn't get a lot of feedback. People weren't talking to me a lot. I was getting several phone calls from people asking me what was going on -- friends in the coaching profession. Rumors get out there. In our business, it's a big network. I was concerned because I'm in charge of 150 people when you count the families and the kids. People looked to me and I didn't have answers.

How did you find out about the trip to Louisville?

I had some messages about it on Tuesday night (Nov. 19), but I didn't think that much of it. On Wednesday morning, me and (oldest son) Tucker went hunting. At noon, I went up on top of a hill and turned my phone on. I just barely got a signal. There were 50 messages on there. I called Suzanne and asked what was going on. She said I needed to talk with (Auburn football publicist Meredith Jenkins). That's who told me about what had happened. The thing that shocked me was that it was two days before the Iron Bowl. That's the biggest game of the year.

You have to be encouraged about how things went down. That prompted quite a reversal of fortune, would you agree?

I didn't feel good about it. This is turning into a network of things that has happened. Obviously, it's been happening for a while. You kinda wonder: What's going on? You wonder why two days before the Iron Bowl. If you want to make changes, do it after the Iron Bowl. There's a lot of it I still don't understand. There's no reason to feel good. We were doing real well in recruiting and things turned on that. We knew that was going to be a problem. People were obviously sympathetic but they also wondered why all this is happening. It's not like the sky was falling in on us.

You met with (Auburn President William) Walker and (athletic director David) Housel just before announcing that you were staying at Auburn. What did Walker say to you? What words was he using?

There wasn't a lot to say. He said it was a fact-finding mission.

What was it like at your house during that week after the Iron Bowl?

It wasn't real good. We all sat down and talked about it. I talked about all the possibilities. We talk about that every year -- that we could end up going somewhere else at the end of each year. So we just take it one year at a time. They're getting a little older now and you've got to explain a little more about what's going on. I told them that I could see the writing on the wall -- between the no communication and the drift I was getting from people who knew a heck of a lot more about it than I did. We'd locked ourselves away from it.

You and Housel had a little argument after the Iron Bowl outside the locker room. He says the fence has been mended since then. Has it?

Let's not get into that.

How do you deal with David now? He's still your supervisor and he was, at the very least, not doing much to hinder the effort to find your successor.

I don't know anyone's role (in the Louisville trip). What they told me was that they were having the program critiqued.

The night this stuff broke, you said that all you wanted was your job back. What did that mean? Did you feel like you'd lost your job?

I felt that it was seriously in doubt. Nobody had told me anything. In a situation like this, no communication is the worst thing. When you're a head coach and people don't talk to you, it's not good. I was getting the cold shoulder. I got that feeling. It was an emotional week and that just mounts on top of how tough that game is anyway. I talked to the coaches on that Sunday and I told them that we need to do the best we can at blocking it out. I'll try to get answers as we go along.

How did the assistants react to the instability?

They were all concerned. That's why I addressed them all at the same time. They all have coaching buddies and they're all hearing rumors. I told them that I didn't want any more talking about it the rest of the week. We've got to concentrate on Alabama. We just went from there.

Was there a moment when Walker and Housel gave you a choice about staying?

Oh yeah. They wanted me to stay and I wanted to get everything out on the table. If they didn't want me there, I wasn't going to stay. So yeah, I had a choice.

Are there people -- coaching friends -- who think you're crazy for staying?

Most people don't understand the situation. It's kinda unique. Hopefully, I'll never go through this again. I don't think many people have been through a situation like this. I've had a lot of people call and ask: What in the world is going on? They've never seen anything like this. This is from California to the East Coast. There's been people saying: How can you go back?

How can you?

I thought about it for a long time. The No. 1 thing that I'm doing is that I'm working for Auburn. During the last five years, we've made a major impact. Over something like this, do you want to swallow your pride and say you can't do it anymore? I have a lot of opportunities out there. But we've put so much hard work and time into this and we want to see this thing through. We can win a lot of games.

What about the people plotting against you?

When I look at this situation, I think we're stronger as far as looking in one direction and believing in one thing than since I've been at Auburn. Had it not been that way -- if we still had a lot of people saying we had to go no matter what -- I'd have gone in and gotten it over with.

You felt like you still had the support of most people?

After five days of reading newspapers, getting 15,000 phone calls, e-mails, letters and all the support not just for me but for the football team and the coaches -- I didn't think there was any doubt. This is what you look for. It hasn't always been that way. We've had problems. Every university has problems. You always look for a common cause and I think everybody found a common cause. The love for Auburn in all this has won out. It hasn't been from me or the football team. It's been the people. They spoke and said: Listen, this has been a terrible thing that happened but we're going to fight through this. I've never seen so much outcry. Not ever. I've never seen people angry like this. Auburn University, in their eyes, has been embarrassed nationally. They said enough is enough.

It's amazing. You're like a martyr now just a few weeks after nearly losing your job. Isn't that strange?

You never want to look at yourself as a martyr. The fans? They might. I just think that because of what's happened, people have stepped back and said: This thing can be a lot better. In the long run when this is said and done -- a month from now, six months from now or a year from now -- this might have been the best thing to ever happen. It's united people.

Has what happened in the last two months changed how you approach making changes to your staff? Do you feel more loyal to your guys now?

Loyalty is a big factor. I'm as close to my assistants as I am with my family. We're fighting for the same cause and you're trying to do things the right way. You have a lot of arguments but when you walk out of those rooms, everybody's got to be on the same page. That's my philosophy. As far as the changes, I'm the guy running the football program. I'm not in charge of whether I'm here or not, but I am in charge of how the program is run. When you're the head coach, you've got to look at yourself first. Is it as much my fault things aren't going well? I'm the guy who makes the final decision. If there's a problem on your staff, it usually has nothing to do with coaching -- the Xs and Os. It's a team concept.

How are you going to evaluate this staff?

You don't want a lot of ups and downs during the month of January. We've had enough of that. There possibly could be some changes, possibly not. I've told them that. It's that way every year.

How has this whole thing affected recruiting?

The initial blow came and I had to put out fires. I went out more in December than I normally do. I tried to talk with the players and their parents about how things were and what had happened -- as much as I could tell them. Recruiting is going well. It was going great until all that happened. We still have the month of January to go through and time will tell all. Other schools are going to hammer us with this stuff. But it's not like we've been recruiting these people for a week. It's been since ninth grade. Camps. Letters. You build relationships and they aren't broken in a week.

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