Its hard not to be impressed with Tuberville's resume. The former Auburn Head Coach was 85-40 in ten seasons there. His best season came in 2004, one year removed from the first rumblings about his job security, when the Tigers went 13-0 and finished second in the polls. Tuberville won national coach of the year honors with a team that featured Jason Campbell, Ronnie Brown, and Cadillac Williams in the backfield, and a stalwart defense. Prior to his tenure at Auburn, Tuberville was in the process of rebuilding things at Ole Miss from 1995-98, the first two years of which the Rebels were on probation, when Auburn came calling with a better gig. He was 25-20 at Ole Miss.
Under Tuberville, Auburn won at least seven games in all but two seasons (his first when he went 5-6 and his last when he went 5-7). In between, Tuberville's teams were usually very good and occasionally great: the Tigers finished first in the SEC West four times, finished above .500 in the rough-and-tumble SEC in eight straight seasons, and beat arch-rival Alabama six times.
Like London, Tuberville is not an innovator, just a good football coach. He first made his name as defensive coordinator on a Texas A&M team that went 10-0-1 in 1994. His 2004 team ran the west coast offense, but was largely based on dominating opponents with a Brown-Williams one-two punch. Ironically, part of his demise in 2008 was an experiment with the spread offense (sound familiar?) that blew up in his face. It also didn't help that Nick Saban moved in next door, and Alabama's 36-0 rout of Auburn in last year's Iron Bowl pushed Tuberville to step down or face a possible firing.
Pros: Its hard to imagine Virignia will find a coach with a better resume than Tuberville, who has a career record of 110-60, all while coaching in what is considered the best conference in college football. He was in the process of rebuilding a mess at Ole Miss (14-9 in his final two seasons), and returned Auburn to prominence in just over a year. When Tuberville arrived, the Tigers were coming off a 3-8 season in 1998; Auburn was 9-4 and SEC West Champions by 2000. Tuberville would bring instant credibility to a program that has had losing seasons in three of the last four campaigns. There would be instant expectations that Virignia would be relevant again by 2011.
Cons: Tuberville is a deep south guy. He was born in Arkansas, coached as an assistant at Miami and Texas A&M, and was the head man at Ole Miss and Auburn. So while he's a well-known commodity down there, its unclear how he'd be in recruiting (something he was never given much credit for anyway) from UVA's traditional base -- the northeast and in the state of Virginia. There was also widespread discontent with Tuberville at Auburn for a reason. Other than 2004, his teams frequently did not live up to expectations. Perhaps expectations were unrealistic, but they were nonetheless not always met. That was brought into stark contrast when Nick Saban steamrolled Auburn in year two of his rebuilding job across the state.
Why He'd Come: If he did rebuild Virginia, a program that has not won ten games in over a decade, he'd be deified, and thus vindicated as to how he was treated at Auburn. He'd also find life easier in the ACC than he would trying to compete with the likes of Urban Meyer and Nick Saban in the SEC.
Why He Wouldn't Come: Don't kid yourself. Other programs will come calling -- better programs. If a bigger job came open in the SEC or Big 12, or perhaps even a place like Louisville (who also fired their head coach this weekend), he'd have to be at the top of any AD's list to fill those jobs. He also might be wary of academic restrictions that might be placed upon him at the University, something that would be foreign to him as a former SEC coach. He'll also demand big money (he made $2.8 million in 2008) that Virignia might not be willing to pony up, especially given Groh's hefty buyout.
Evaluation: Tuberville would be quite a get. But like the other Tubby Virginia flirted with, you have to ask yourself (and set aside your own orange and blue bias) why he'd come here. He'll almost certainly have options where football is treated more seriously. Sure, he'll consider a program like UVA, but it will not be his first choice.
Moreover, you have to ask yourself how his gentlemanly southern drawl is going to play in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Hampton Roads, where Virginia has to recruit to be successful. At the end of the day, my guess is that Virginia will filrt with Tuberville, but they'll both decide they're better off going in a different direction.
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