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[DKW 86 7,439]

Finebaum

Tigers may wish they had Petrino (Paul, WTH are you talking about?)

Saturday, March 05, 2005

In the past 15 months, the Auburn University administration has made two epochal decisions concerning head football coach Tommy Tuberville.

The first, made (but not carried out) in November 2003, was to fire Tuberville after a bitterly disappointing season and replace him with Bobby Petrino of Louisville. The second, which was made official recently, was to reward Tuberville with a contract that will pay up to $3 million toward the end but will cost nearly $7 million to buy him off, even if he were to go 0-22 over the next two years. (Sounds like Paul has a case of Contract Envy to me!)

Which decision was the best one?

It's easy and expedient to say paying Tuberville the small fortune after a perfect 13-0 season was the correct choice. Hindsight is always 20-20.

However, was the other decision so flawed, considering the man Auburn wanted to replace Tuberville with is 20-5 after two seasons, including an 11-1 mark in 2004 and No. 6 finish in the final AP poll? (...and coaches in C-USA, lets see him knock off a few Top Teams before we send him to the Hall of Fame huh?))

In the contretemps that followed the revelation of "Jetgate," one important feature was overlooked. Hiring Petrino was a pretty good idea. (So let me see, keeping CTT must have been a bad one?   I guess we should hand back the SEC Trophy?) He had knowledge of the Auburn program -- having spent one year as offensive coordinator -- and he was considered a wunderkind in the coaching profession. (So was Paul's pal Jim Donnan, nobody is hiring him now. Another wunderkind? CTB. Gee, lets go hire us another one now! PF, get a life!)

One must remember that Tuberville was a dead man walking at the time of the infamous trip. (Oh really? I guess you must have polled a very small crowd there PF. Kids going to class, graduating, staying to play, oh yes just a horrible job. Alumni were upset at the season, not what he was doing with the kids. ) Auburn, which started the season ranked high in the polls (The Sporting News had the Tigers No. 1), (It is so clear now why we need to listen to idiot Sports Journalists. Some even picked a 3-8 Bama team 3rd in 2000.) was 6-5 (three of those wins came at the mercy of Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Monroe) and had just lost at Georgia 26-7. (Gee paul, he made a mistake with Nall. Of course you do claim to be "where most college football coaches are fired" on your show. Sorry it didn't happen for you. We werent happy, but hey, it was a one bad hire and we were mature enough to know that. Shame you arent.)

So getting rid of him wasn't that far-fetched, considering Tuberville had an experienced team that was playing spectacularly below its potential. Where Auburn went wrong was the gauche manner in which it went about the furtive job interview. (Paul, if you use big words like these the Bammers wont be able to read your columns.)

To Tuberville's enormous credit, he bit his upper lip in the aftermath, played the scorned woman's role to Oscar-winning perfection, then did something nobody could have predicted: He coached the season of his career in 2004. The team, led by a senior-laden and NFL-bound backfield, used the near firing of its beloved head coach and the pain of the misbegotten 2003 season as the impetus toward the best season in school history. (You are definitely above their IQ now.)

In the aftermath, the administration, under a new president, had an equally dramatic but opposite reaction. Instead of trying to fire him like his predecessor, Ed Richardson, in essence, named Tuberville "Coach for Life." (So is Bobby Bowden at FSU, What is his record again?)

Which one was the right move? Which move made more sense? (Either makes more sense than another Sportsjournalist doing a lame version of Jim Rome. Oh, there is one difference between you and Rome, he can at least grow hair on top of that Metro-Sexual head of his.)

The public reacted with vengeance toward William Walker and David Housel for daring to replace Tuberville with Petrino. Both heads were lopped off at what amounted to public executions. ( folks have brains, is that so hard for you to figure out? Forgot, you're a grad.)

The public has reacted with a big yawn to Richardson's decision to give Tuberville the dizzying contract and nearly everything he wanted short of renaming the stadium after him. (We are also reacting with a big yawn to your show of late. Paul, why cant you get CTT, CMS, or at least someone we care to hear in for an interview?)

So back to the question: Which decision was best? (The decision to turn you off the dial.)

Will Auburn be better off down the road with Tuberville as the football coach, ironclad contract and all? Or would the school have been better off to bite the bullet in the short run and bet on Petrino for the long haul?  (Oh yeah, lets just keep changing coaches, that worked so well at   )

Finebaum cares nothing about the SCHOLAR side of Scholar-Athlete. He went to What can you say, he learned it their way. He is upset that CTT can now dodge him throwing stones at him from now on. Who cares what the baldest radio jock doing a bad Jerry Springer impersonation thinks? I dont anymore.

Paul has adopted the mentality of late, Just Win Baby! Anything else does not matter in his little world of sports schock-schlock journalism.

[WarDlowe 39]

What he fails to mention is that we have a contract with the best coach in America, given by 3 different organizations wasn't it? I'll take a man who runs the kind of program that he does over a shady character like Petrino any day.

[RVTiger 0]

You know what Mr. Finescum, CTT is also 21-5 over the past 2 seasons, 14-3 in the mighty SEC. I doubt Mr. Petrino would have won 15 games if he had played our schedule! In 2003, we played both co-MNC's and lost to 2 other teams that had 10 wins. Louisville plays a wimpy schedule in a very weak conference. So, I can't see the comparison between the two. CTT is the best coach in America, bar none.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Finebum completely fails to make his case. Quite simply, this is a shocker of a headline but nothing to back it up. He's doing this just to get attention, it's nothing but Jerry Springer journalism. This guy is such a hack, I'm glad he's confined to Birmingham.

[Auburn85 432]

Plus, who 's going to hear him rant about Shula

Tubberville's name is out there more, so we should expect this

[vatz22au 142]

Did he forget with Borges we went undefeated this year??? wierd....

No one is even talking about 2003 anymore...so why is he?

[DKW 86 7,439]

Petrino is also doing it ith someone else's troops. ie Terry Bowden.

Petrino maybe another bowden in recruiting too.

To just sit back and name Petrino "God of the football world" after two seasons is a huge stretch, but Paul is selling salacious journalism, not reasonableness.

[AUHansel 0]

I sort of understand where he's coming from. I'm happy with the position we're in and I'm glad CTT is here for a while, but what he's trying to say is what happens down the road if we do want to buy him out. They already tried to fire him once, it could happen again. What if he doesn't live up to expectations again or ever? We can't really afford to buy him out. I don't like finebaum but this contract didn't make a whole lot of since to me either(on the schools side). I guess Tuberville wanted to make sure they wouldn't go behind his back again and that also gave him some leverage. I know tommy is a great coach and I know he'll have some more seasons like the one we just had, but if they aren't soon, then we could be back in the same position.

[Jenny AU-92 0]

Finescum just wrote this to try and get the Auburn Nation pissed so we call in to his show again - we hve been ingnoring him as of late, so he had to try SOMETHING...

He needs to get some Rogaine and get a life.

Not to mention a clue...

[DKW 86 7,439]

Finescum just wrote this to try and get the Auburn Nation pissed so we call in to his show again - we hve been ingnoring him as of late, so he had to try SOMETHING...

He needs to get some Rogaine and get a life.

Not to mention a clue...

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What Jenny said!

I think this is really just more on his part to the Family.

[autigeremt 6,661]

Finebaum is just another Elephant in Alabama. Yes, he is a grad, but his PAYCHECK comes from the nation.....

I say to HELL with him. We is just like a guy here in S.C. my the name of Kornblout. He is a HUGE USuCk backer, and has been caught trying to persuade recruits to go to S.C. over CU........... a parent caught his idiot ass one time and gave him the treatment.......... and that was the end of that!

[AUesquire 1]

Actually, I have no problem whatsoever with CTT's contract for several reasons. I won't start by proclaiming CTT to be the greatest coach in the history of the sport. However, he has long since proven himself to be a winner, running a class program. I don't think we're going to go 13-0 and play for the national championship every year by any stretch. But we have been and will continue to play and compete for SEC titles and go to top bowl games.

I'm 44 years old and hate to admit that my age makes me "Old school" to a certain degree. I learned to love college football back when Shug Jordan, Bear Bryant, Bo Shembechler, Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, Vince Dooley etc., were the coaches of their teams...until they decided otherwise. There was no coaching carousel to try and land the hot commodity. I'm sick of coaches winning and bolting for greener pastures the minute a better offer comes in. The aforementioned Bobby Petrino has tried that several times already. I'm not blaming the coach, but rather the system.

As for the buyout of CTT's contract, have you ever stopped and tried to calculate the amount of money a successful football program generates each year? From ticket sales, to TV revenues, to Bowl payouts, to alumni donations etc, the number would blow your mind. Tommy Tuberville heads up a program that generates $40-50 million a year in revenue, easily. If AU wanted to buyout CTT's contract, no problem at all. In fact, there's always a Lowder or two out there that would gladly pitch in. As long as CTT continues to run a clean, winning program, sign him up and pay him his just due.

[freebody 0]

I agree with the earlier post - Finebaum is just trying to stir it up in a bit of a slow period here - that's how he "earns" his living. As far as Tuberville - in today's market (however skewed and irrational it may seem) I would say that he is earning his keep pretty well. I don't know which made me more proud - the way the guys produced on the field or the way they conducted themselves off of it. (OK - maybe the winning part always feels better).

So, War Damn Eagle - #1 in SEC Football on the field and in the classroom.

[AUHansel 0]

Actually, I have no problem whatsoever with CTT's contract for several reasons.  I won't start by proclaiming CTT to be the greatest coach in the history of the sport.  However, he has long since proven himself to be a winner, running a class program.  I don't think we're going to go 13-0 and play for the national championship every year by any stretch.  But we have been and will continue to play and compete for SEC titles and go to top bowl games.

I'm 44 years old and hate to admit that my age makes me "Old school" to a certain degree.  I learned to love college football back when Shug Jordan, Bear Bryant, Bo Shembechler, Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, Vince Dooley etc., were the coaches of their teams...until they decided otherwise.  There was no coaching carousel to try and land the hot commodity.  I'm sick of coaches winning and bolting for greener pastures the minute a better offer comes in.  The aforementioned Bobby Petrino has tried that several times already.  I'm not blaming the coach, but rather the system. 

As for the buyout of CTT's contract, have you ever stopped and tried to calculate the amount of money a successful football program generates each year?  From ticket sales, to TV revenues, to Bowl payouts, to alumni donations etc, the number would blow your mind.  Tommy Tuberville heads up a program that generates $40-50 million a year in revenue, easily.  If AU wanted to buyout CTT's contract, no problem at all.  In fact, there's always a Lowder or two out there that would gladly pitch in.  As long as CTT continues to run a clean, winning program, sign him up and pay him his just due.

149801[/snapback]

I don't really have a problem with the contract. I think it is the right thing for the school and for Tuberville, but I didn't think they would be willing to put that big of a buyout clause in there. Finebaum is just saying that its strange to go from almost firing someone to giving them one of the biggest contracts in the country. He is discrediting the years that tuberville has been here. I believe that Tuberville is a great coach, but how we did in 2003 was not good enough for the team we had. We were obviously good enough to win a NC and some put all the blame on Tuberville. What if the team falls short of expectations again? Do the trustees put the heat on Jaycobs? I'm very happy that CTT is here to stay for a long time, I think he's a great coach. He has done a ton for our program and I was very angry at the way he was treated last season.