War Damn Tubby

After 10 years as Auburn’s head football coach, ole Tubbs is out.

Did anybody watch the official AU press conference on Coach Tommy Tuberville’s “resignation”? We are supposed to believe that on Monday morning, CTT met with the powers that be, and told them he wanted to coach at Auburn for another 5 years (to let his sons finish out high school in Auburn). Then, on Wednesday afternoon, he tells Jay Jacobs (Athletic Director) and Jay Gogue (AU President) that he wants to resign??? And Auburn is just going to honor his $5.1M buy-out out of the goodness of their heart??? I know the AU administration is in a tough place (that they put themselves in), but I can’t believe they would say that with a straight face to the Auburn family (and media).

Tubbs is the 4th winningest Auburn football coach behind Shug Jordan (who they named the Stadium named after), Pat Dye (who they named the Field named after) & Mike Donahue (who they named a Street on campus after). Tubby won 9 of the last 14 games against teams ranked in the AP Top 10. Until this year’s shellacking by UAT, Tubbs had a higher Iron Bowl winning percentage (9 W, 2 L - 78%) than “the Bear” (19 W, 6 L - 76%).

The world of college football coaching salary/buy-outs has gotten out of control and with that the expectations. It will be interesting to see who Auburn brings in, and the amount of time they get, before getting ousted for a losing season (Auburn’s last losing season before this year was 1999, Tommy’s first year as head coach).

In honor of the Riverboat Gambler, let’s pour out a bag of delicious Golden Flake potato chips and remember some of his Greatest Hits.

10/13/2001 – An (unranked?) Auburn defeats #1 ranked Florida 23-20, with a last second FG in the rain. Bandaniel sends me his first congratulatory webcam video from the UK.

9/18/2004 – #14 Auburn defeats #5 LSU 10-9, after Courtney Taylor comes up with a touchdown reception late in 4th quarter. The crowd goes wild!

10/14/2004 – #3 Auburn defeats #5 Georgia 24-6, to continue their 2004 undefeated season. One of the largest crowds on Auburn’s campus for College Game Day (I heard it took the cleaning crew a week to pick up all the trash)

12/03/2004 – #3 Auburn defeats #15 Tennessee 38-28 in the SEC Championship (2nd time to defeat UT that year). Good times to be had in ATL by all!

11/12/2005 – #15 Auburn defeats #9 Georgia 31-30, after Aromashodu’s 63-yard reception in the 4th quarter, set up a field goal with seconds remaining.

11/19/2005 – Stanley leads #11 Auburn over the UAT Crimson Tide 28-18, with Brodie Croyle suffering 11 sacks. Fear the Thumb!

10/14/2006 – #11 Auburn defeats #2 Florida 27-17. Just like UAT, Auburn owned Florida in the 2000’s.

9/23/2007 – Urban Meyer can’t freeze Wes Byrum, as (unranked) Auburn defeats #4 Florida 20-17, with another last second FG.

Thanks for the memories, Tubby! We'll miss ya . . .