Auburn Puts Cards On The Table

by Jay Coulter on Nov 30, 2007 8:11 PM CST in News

By Jay Coulter
jccoulter@gmail.com

Auburn officials presented Tommy Tuberville with a new contract Friday evening. The deal includes an extension of two years to the existing contract and a raise of $200,000 annually through 2013.

The two-year extension would put Tuberville under contract for the next six years. The new deal gives him a raise of $1.2 million over the term of the agreement.

Next season Tuberville will make $2.8 million and in the sixth year his salary would move to $3.3 million. There was no mention of whether the buyout clause was lifted.

It’s believed that Tuberville requested that the buyout be eliminated in the new contract. There’s also no word on whether athletic director Jay Jacobs offered to increase the assistant coaches' salaries.

Tuberville now has a month to make a decision. This means he’ll get an opportunity to weigh an offer from Arkansas and possibly LSU should Les Miles take the Michigan job next week.

The situation is fluid to say the least. Whether or not Tuberville stays is very much up in the air tonight. The way the contract is structured certainly plays into the hands of Tuberville. He’ll have ample time to test the market without having to give Auburn an answer.

The coming days will be interesting. We’ll keep you updated.

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Players looked like they had seen a ghost!

Guys,
I have a relative at Auburn who is involved with alot of the community activities that the Auburn football players attend. During a meeting yesterday there were six players who were taking part in this meeting. My cousin who heads these meetings noticed that when the players first arrived they were not as enthusiastic as usual and they had all had a weird look on there faces. My cousin overheard the guys talking about CTT leaving for Arkansas and that only a select few players had been told about it. This meeting took place at 2:30 Thursday afternoon way before the news broke on the media outlets in Arkansas. This same cousin informed me of Terry Bowdens resignation 4 days before it happened and I am sorry to say that I really believe this is the end of the road with CTT.

by autigers74brian on Nov 30, 2007 9:08 PM CST 0 recs

Tommy is Leaving!

I was talking to my mailman today and he knows a guy who's cousin's waiter from Thursday night's supper said she heard that Tommy Tubberville's aunt's friend was out shopping the other day. She was at a Wal-Mart and was purchasing an Arkansas hat. I think this spells DOOM for us.

by meathead530 on Nov 30, 2007 9:51 PM CST 0 recs

I am disappointed.

.....Security and pay of assistants, and some upgrades were the issue this time, I thought. If all Jacobs and Co. offered is "you get what you were getting, anyway," we're doomed. Unless there are details not yet released, this is simply a veiled snot-hocker of pustulent spit directed at Tuberville, make no mistake!

.....It looks irrevocably botched, at this point. Those guys in charge BETTER have had someone lined up. Yeah, we can refuse all of Tuberville's terms and keep him, and hold the $6 million dollar buyout over his head till 2011, but... How well is a coach who doesn't want to be here going to do?

.....I guess Jacobs, Gogue and Lowder have Bill Calahan or Guy Morriss lined up, and it'll all be cool. Damn.

by Acid Reign on Nov 30, 2007 9:58 PM CST 0 recs

acid, all indications are...

from several sources within the athletics program, there appears to be a push to keep CTT, however, if this fails, i have heard talk from 2 separate people (both of who are in the know at the university level) that if things should fall through, lowder is ready to pursue an immediate, higher paying agreement with petrino. apparently in lowders eyes, petrino is still our man which hince the lackluster push to keep CTT.

personally, im sick of boosters. but thats just my $.02

by Bodagetta on Nov 30, 2007 11:30 PM CST up 0 recs

In my opinion...

.....Petrino can do the job. Witness the free-fall Louisville suffered this year, without him... He did a decent job bringing in talent, and I like his offense. You just have to question whether he'd stay the course when the adversity starts. Or, you know, Belicheck or Dungy retires, and he gets an offer to coach a loaded NFL team, instead of a budget team whose star is headed to prison.

.....I do remember that once Tuberville was convinced that Daniel Cobb's arm wasn't going to heal back into any sort of accurate, Petrino had us rolling pretty well. A 16-point 4th-quarter comeback against the Gators, we hung 31 on LSU with only two backs healthy, we out-shot Ole Miss, scoring 31, we put up 21 on number 3-ranked SEC champ UGA, and we put up 17 on a 10-win Bama team, and we only had a 4th-team 170 pound true freshman RB for the Bama game. No doubt, we'd probably make an upgrade on the Xs and Os! But how would the program be represented, and recruited? Of that, I'm not sure at all.

by Acid Reign on Nov 30, 2007 11:50 PM CST 0 recs

Sorry

I'm sick of all this "my cousin's dog's aunt's owner's granddad" bullcrap. I still don't buy any of this until I see it for myself. This reminds me so much of the Rich Rodriguez to Alabama talk from last year. I'm giving Tommy the benefit of the doubt. He's our guy, and he's gonna be for a long time.

War Damn Eagle!

by PowerOfDixieland on Dec 1, 2007 12:08 AM CST 0 recs

As I've said...

.....I hope we keep Tuberville, too. He keeps bringing in great people, and that's what keeps a program going. We'd get some hella strategy with Petrino, but who knows how he'd recruit this area?

by Acid Reign on Dec 1, 2007 12:16 AM CST 0 recs

The one thing...

...that sticks out is this 30 day review period for the contract. It seems like an awful long time, especially during the height of the recruiting season, where speculation about the future of a HC can be fatal. Unfortunately, I don't know about these situations to know if that period is normal or long. Sounds like something our ph friend would know. Acid Reign?

Just be cool, Auburn. It's not the time to get all jittery on us...

by War Eagle Atlanta on Dec 1, 2007 2:42 PM CST 0 recs

Latest Conspiracy Theory

I think we have to look at who's feeding us all this information and innuendo. We're getting Jay'ed, Auburn fans. Jay'ed, not jaded.

From whom are we getting our information?

JAY Gogue

JAY Jacobs

JAY Coulter

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?? Yep, yep. Time for us to do a JAY-walk right on outta here...

:-)

by War Eagle Atlanta on Dec 1, 2007 2:49 PM CST 0 recs

Hold on.

.....I'm a manager, NOT a lawyer! I couldn't tell you what "normal" is for a coaching contract review period. I've read, on the Tuberville situation, that he has to report back his intentions on the financial aspect within 7 days. Maybe if that can be settled quickly, this rumor-mill will be dying down.

.....Really, all Jay and the other bloggers are doing is feeding us a conglomerate of what's already out there. It was those Arkansas TV reports that REALLY got everyone all up in arms. Credit Jay and some of the more reasonable reporter/bloggers for not buying it.

.....Jay-walking is illegal in Auburn. Campus Security tried to give me a ticket for it, once.

by Acid Reign on Dec 1, 2007 3:02 PM CST 0 recs

Acid...

That's one of those details that we expect you to know over the average layman. You needn't be an attorney to have that knowledge. Besides, you can't always be managing during your 16 hour days. You can look stuff up that you don't already know.

Thirty days is entirely too long. I can see why Sexton might want to string it out that long, but Tubs and Auburn? I say it'll get done sooner.

No, Jay does a good job with rumour control here at Track 'Em central. Never known him to put on the tin-foil hat. You want some desperate bloggers? Go look over at some of the LSU sites with their effort to simultaneously keep The Hat and lure back St. Nick...

by War Eagle Atlanta on Dec 1, 2007 3:25 PM CST up 0 recs

about jay walking..

that's true.. they handed us all little booklets about it at the beginning of the year... something like a $125 fine if the AU PD gives you a ticket.. but then again, i walk to class everyday and jay walk and 2 days ago jay walked right in front of an AUPD cop car and he didnt even so much as look in my direction.. i dont think the actual police care too much :-)

by Bodagetta on Dec 1, 2007 6:40 PM CST up 0 recs

Weary?

I have been talking to several Auburn fans and it is interesting to hear the responses I get when I ask them if they think Tuberville is going to leave. What is somewhat disheartening to hear is that many of them whom I thought would not feel this way, say "he can just go on". I look at them kind of dumbfounded and remind them of all the good he has done for Auburn's football program. To be honest,...it appears as if many of them are simply "Tuberville-weary" or something like that. Almost like having had that special car or something, one year too long,...and they just want a change, a new look, a new face, a new approach. Although, many of them are also very upset over the blowout against Georgia and the USF and MSU losses this year. And the current contract negotiations episode aren't helping any.

Personally, I would like to see Tuberville stay and overall I am satisfied with his performance,...though I am still waiting for him to bring a legitimate national championship. He also endeared himself to me even more this year when I saw him go high order in the Florida game and throw his headset off over a bad call.

War Eagle!!!

by AUTiger8199 on Dec 1, 2007 3:05 PM CST 0 recs

AuTiger8199...

Was that the years you were at Auburn, 1981-99? Boy, Todd'92 thought it took him forever to graduate! :-)

Hey man, spiking the headset originated at Florida Field! It's kinda tradition. Visors, too...

by War Eagle Atlanta on Dec 1, 2007 3:16 PM CST up 0 recs

Good catch.

Although actually, I went twice. Had so much fun the first time I had to go back for a second time,...though I'll be honest,...the second time was not nearly as much fun.

Yeah, the headset slamming did kind of remind me of the Florida visor slinging created at Florida Field, but I felt like for Tuberville, it was a big advancement in terms of showing more emotion in games. He shows it periodically (some) but that seemed to be a high point for him,...:-)

by AUTiger8199 on Dec 1, 2007 3:24 PM CST up 0 recs

Are you serious?

Haha! Had to go back for more? Let me guess--about the chicks, er, uh, co-eds: you kept getting older and they just stayed the same age?

The second time you probably buckled down, so it couldn't be as much fun. I'm sure you're glad you stuck with it though!

by War Eagle Atlanta on Dec 1, 2007 3:32 PM CST up 0 recs

You're right.

Honestly, after the first time, I said that is it. No more. After several years, I decided to go back. The second time was a graduate school stint. And you're right,...for some reason this time around it seemed more serious. I guess my paying the entire bill this go around was a contributing factor. Not to mention, the second time there was no fraternity involved as a major distraction,...:-)

by AUTiger8199 on Dec 1, 2007 3:40 PM CST up 0 recs

Why?

Why do you guys want him to stay? If you haven't noticed Tubs is holding Auburn hostage. I think he should just go. This isn't good for recruiting or anything else for that matter. He was in the middle of a contract and therefore didn't need to renegotiate it. Tell him to hit the road!

Thanks

by ArieGold on Dec 1, 2007 5:09 PM CST 0 recs

I have it figured out......

Ariegold isn't a Lowder supporter.......HE IS DARTH LOWDER! Curse you shorty! Leave our Alma Matre alone! Pick up a dictionary and look up the word Philanthropy. Recognize that you have a Top 10 coach who has run the cleanest program in the SEC outside of Vandy. The AU faithful have not been so galvanized behind a coach since Shug and even his tenure came to an end in an ugly power struggle that put us on probation. I won't even use a Colonial Bank ATM because I am convinced you are an evil person. I am searching ebay for a lock of your hair to finish my voodooo doll (I plan on using it to give you the gout, A most painful affliction). Stop your quest to rule my world, its not too late, I know there is still some good in that tiny little body. Keep our program stable, ahead of the Bammers, and competing for championships.....Keep Tuberville.

by Todd92 on Dec 2, 2007 10:40 AM CST up 0 recs

Funny

What could be more philanthropic than keeping me from having an MI? Thats Myocardial Infarction.....He is quickly burning bridges in Auburn. Why can't you guys see that? Despite the cool name, I am not the lord of the Sith. Sadly, I am just an Auburn fan that thinks he deserves much better than his coach is giving him....

P.S. What good is a clean program if you lose to Miss St and South Florida? Embarassing...

by ArieGold on Dec 3, 2007 12:15 PM CST up 0 recs

I have to agree with Acid....

If Tubby doesnt stay its because lowder and company are not ponying up the deal. In the event Tuberville does leave and the jackasses offer Petrino Saban-dollars then you can bet that was there plan. I pesonally like Petrinos offensive scheme, but, am I the only one who shudders to think of a Louisville like defense on the plains? He didn't exactly make opposing offenses dread the trip into PapaJohns Stadium. You can (if you can believe the hat) take the LSU job out of the picture as he says hes staying in Baton Rouge. To be honest with you probably the smartest thing I've ever heard come out of his mouth. He is in a program (like Tubbs) that is in the running year in year out for championships. Michigan will not be happy unless the successor for Carr is better than Carr.....a pretty tall order despite the loss this year to App. State. The person who succeeds the person who succeeds Carr will most likely be the man if history is a guide.

And what are you saying War Eagle doesnt it take every one 7 plus years to get a BS degree? lol. Besides I had more fun than most. Hell I would still be there if it hadn't been for one crucial mistake, I accepted a damn job offer and dropped out of grad school. STUPID STUPID STUPID. lol.

by Todd92 on Dec 2, 2007 10:27 AM CST 0 recs