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Tuberville will stay at Auburn

Posted 5:34AM on Tuesday 2nd December 2003 ( 21 years ago )
AUBURN, ALABAMA - For 50 seconds, Tommy Tuberville paused, rubbing his brow and fighting back tears. Finally, he delivered the message that at least temporarily restored some stability to Auburn's football program.

``I'm looking forward to being around here a long time,'' Tuberville said Monday, confirming he will continue coaching at Auburn and prompting cheers of ``War Eagle'' from fans gathered at his news conference.

His term at Auburn seemed far from certain six days earlier when revelations surfaced that President William Walker and athletic director David Housel had quietly tried to line up a replacement before the Iron Bowl on Nov. 22.

Walker, Housel and two trustees flew to Kentucky to speak to Louisville coach Bobby Petrino in an expedition that proved a public relations nightmare, prompting Walker to apologize and say he hoped Tuberville would stay. Gov. Bob Riley, chairman of the Auburn board of trustees, said Monday he will meet with Walker and the board ``to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated.''

Tuberville, Walker and Housel finally met Monday morning to clear the air, and the coach said he holds ``no ill feelings toward anybody.'' All three emerged with a ``forgive-and-forget'' stance that could be difficult to maintain.

Tuberville is 37-24 in five seasons, leading the team to at least a share of three straight SEC Western Division titles that ended this season.

His tenure is characterized by major upsets including six wins over Top 10 teams in the past three seasons and blowout losses. He's lost 11 games by at least 18 points.

Tuberville was nearly a casualty of high expectations this season, but still pledged to win the ultimate prize before he's done.

``This is a place I want to be and we're going to get it done,'' he said. ``And we are going to win the national championship. You can write that.''

In fact, people did write it before the season, with two national publications picking Auburn to win the title. Instead, Auburn went 7-5 and Walker began to have questions about the program only two weeks in.

``I started having some concerns about how well we're doing, frankly, in the middle of the third quarter of the Georgia Tech game,'' Walker said in an interview, referring to a 17-3 loss. ``You know, 'What in the world's going on here?'''

Tuberville might have wondered the same thing over the Thanksgiving holidays. He said he learned of the clandestine visit to Petrino ``when everyone else did.''

Petrino was the only person Walker visited in person, according to Housel. The president bristled at the suggestion that Petrino was a candidate for a job that wasn't yet open.

``There's no candidates involved,'' Walker said. ``I talked to a number of people and Petrino was one of them.

``We got to talking and I essentially said, 'If this opens up, I hope you're a candidate.'''

A day after news of the trip broke, Walker said in a statement he wanted Tuberville to remain.

``I just decided that after weighing all the information that Tommy Tuberville was the person that we wanted to continue in our program,'' Walker said.

Asked if Petrino might be Auburn's new coach if the meeting hadn't become public, Walker said, ``I don't think so. At the outset, and I told the athletic director this, I was gathering information and trying to assess the program.

``That's what we were doing.''

If anything, the administration's mishandling of the situation made Tuberville more popular than ever with Auburn fans, many of whom were clamoring for his job before a 28-23 victory over Alabama, his second straight over the Tigers' archrival.

He thanked the fans for ``all their thousands of e-mails and faxes and phone calls, all the love that they've shown.''

Tuberville has four years remaining on a 10-month-old contract worth at least $1.5 million annually. All three parties said no changes to the contract were discussed Monday. Tuberville said they didn't address any potential shakeup on his staff.

Tuberville left town to visit recruits after his news conference, knowing he would still be confronted with questions about his job security while trying to convince prospects to make a commitment to Auburn.

``I know people are going to use this against us in recruiting, but they'd better recruit awfully hard because they're going to have to beat me,'' he said. ``And I'm going to be selling Auburn University.''

Tuberville, who called a meeting to address his players for Monday night, said Walker didn't explain why he remained silent about his status as coach.

Tuberville approached Housel the Monday of Iron Bowl week, seeking some public reassurance of his standing. He didn't get it.

Housel maintained Monday that with any such statement ``whatever was said would have been picked apart and torn to pieces.''

``Even if all this other hadn't been going on, I would have still felt the same way,'' the athletic director said.

He said he's hoping the situation will have no more than ``a short-term effect'' on his relationship with Tuberville.

``I believe in Tommy and I think he believes in me,'' Housel said. ``I think he understands that I work for the president, and we're going forward.''

http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/12/167803

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