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Welcome to Tuberville! Thomas Hawley Tuberville becomes Auburn's 25th head football coach, leaving Ole Miss for the position By Steve Raymond Sports Editor
Saturday, Nov. 28, a new beginning at Auburn, as Thomas Hawley Tuberville was named head football coach. "My family and I are honored to have the opportunity to be your next football coach," Tuberville said. "I would like to let Auburn family know that I am here and we are going to be here, for a long time," he said. Tuberville came to Auburn from Ole Miss where he spent four seasons as head coach. His record at Ole Miss was 25-20. "Our No. 1 goal always will be to win a national championship, if you're playing major college football if that is not your goal you shouldn't be playing. "If we achieve that goal we will have won a conference championship which will be a goal, and we will have beaten Alabama, which is very important," Tuberville said. Tuberville was chosen as coach by Athletics Director David Housel. "It has been a painful year and painful season for Auburn people. Our nightmare is over. The sun has broken through, and we are ready to move forward to our future," Housel said. Housel detailed several qualities he was looking for in the new head coach. Those qualities were for the new coach to be a proven winner, a players coach, someone committed to academic excellence as well as athletic excellence, someone able to unify the Auburn people, a good recruiter with Auburn values and a coach that will run the program under NCAA regulations. "In two words, we were looking for Tommy Tuberville," Housel said. Tuberville replaces Bill Oliver who was Auburn's interim head coach after the mid-season resignation of Terry Bowden. Tuberville inherited an Ole Miss program that was plagued by NCAA sanctions and was able to guide the Rebels to a winning record in 1996 despite having just 61 scholarship players. He never had a full compliment of scholarship players in his four years at Ole Miss. "You could not be around the SEC while Tommy has been at Ole Miss and not be impressed with the job Tommy has done," Housel said. Tuberville was named SEC Coach of the Year by the Associated Press last season and was the runner-up for the Schutt Sports Coach of the Year honor awarded by American Football Quarterly. Tuberville was an assistant at Miami from 1986-93, including being defensive coordinator in 1993. He was also the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 1994 before coming to Ole Miss in 1995. "I am one of the most fortunate guys to be able to work with many great people," Tuberville said. Tuberville coached under Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, Seattle Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson, Dallas Cowboys player personal director Larry Lacewell and Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocumb. "I take my defensive x's and o's from Larry Lacewell. Jimmy Johnson is a delegator of authority, he hires good coaches and if you're not a good coach you won't be there long. He was the best recruiter I have ever been around and organizer," Tuberville said. "R.C. Slocumb taught me how to deal with probation, we went undefeated but we did not go to a bowl. From Dennis Erickson I learned offensive philosophy, he basically started the one back and no back offense. "But my philosophy is my own," Tuberville said. Tuberville's contract is similar to that of the previous coach, Terry Bowden. It is a five-year contract with a minimum salary of $700,000. But incentives could push the contract to more than $800,000. The contract is also a roll-over contract in which the coach and the University have the right to extend the contract each year. Another change is all funds will be funnelled through the University, including endorsements. Previously, endorsements were handled by the Auburn Network. "That is a fundamental change, but it is essentially a bookkeeping change," Housel said. Tuberville comes to the Plains with the reputation as a strong recruiter. "What we need to start tonight is recruiting. Recruiting is the most important thing we do, it starts in this state and in all four corners. We need to rebuild a relationship with the high school coaches that this university is second to none," Tuberville said. "We will do our homework and we will do it awfully hard." Tuberville also brings the reputation as a coach who is not afraid to take chances. "They call me the Mississippi riverboat gambler, now I am the Auburn riverboat gambler. We will take chances, we will have fun. I will get complaints from David that we won't sell a lot of cokes, because you better stay in your seat, because we are going to do something at any time," Tuberville said. "I love to do the unorthodox, I love the surprising. I learned this from Jimmy Johnson, we would try to do one or two things in a game, it helps the players practice, gives them a sense that coach wants to win the game." Tuberville said he will run the same offense and defense he did at Ole Miss. "You have to be able to run the football to win; you have to be consistent. Somewhere during the season if your philosophy is only to throw the football, you are going to have a bad day. We will run the football. We will spread the field," Tuberville said. Tuberville is 44 years old and is married to the former Suzanne Fette. He has two children, Thomas, 4, and Troy, 2. "He is really excited about being here," Suzanne said. "I don't think there is any better place to coach college football, live and raise a family than Auburn, Ala.," Tuberville said.
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