Based on a radio interview today, we’re beginning to think that Tommy Tuberville has nary a clue he was hired by Texas Tech of the Big 12 and instead thinks he’s still coaching in the SEC. Or he’s under the impression that the Red Raiders currently reside in his old conference stomping grounds.
How else can you explain the former Auburn and Ole Miss head coach so brazenly throwing his new league under the bus in such a very public manner?
Appearing as a guest on Rivals Radio Tuesday, Tuberville told host Bill King in not so many words that you’d better enjoy the Big 12 while you can because it’s not long for the college football world.
“I don’t think this conference will last long because there is too much disparity between all the teams,” Tuberville said. “In the SEC, for instance, Vanderbilt makes as much money in the television contract as Florida. Everybody is good with it. Everybody is on the same page. Everyone gets the same votes.
“That doesn’t happen here in the Big 12. We have some teams that get a little bit more money and have a little it more stroke than some of the other teams. And when that happens, you’re gonna have teams looking for better avenues to leave and reasons to leave. We have a 10-team league right now, but I just don’t know how long that’s gonna last, to be honest with you.”
Uhhh, wow?
Listen, every single word uttered by Tuberville drips with a searing, stinging truth, but is it something that a head coach of a Big 12 football program should be saying into a microphone flipped to the “On” position? When a league comes this close to extinction not even a month ago, it would seem likely they would not want one of their coaches to jam his foot so far into his mouth that they’ll need a series of intricate winches to do an oral extraction of the offending limb.
My goodness, Coach Tuberville.
Major points for the brutal honesty and speaking the absolute truth -- and you sure have made the upcoming conference media days must-see TV, even more so than it was -- but, dayum man. How the in the name of Steve Spurrier you lug those boulder-sized cojones around on the sidelines for three hours every Saturday in the fall is certainly a feat worthy of a few words of praise.
And a statue or something.