LITTLE ROCK — Monday was the kickoff for the Little Rock Touchdown Club, and Tommy Tuberville returned it for a touchdown.
More than 400 people showed up to hear the Camden native and former head coach at Auburn and Ole Miss speak, and they were treated to insight into what it is like to coach in the SEC and a couple of funny one-liners.
Tuberville was asked how he had been able to recruit Fort Smith's Kodi Burns and Rogers' Lee Ziemba to Auburn, and he quickly said: "Money."
Then added: "I thought that would wake some of you up." It was a joke.
Tuberville wasted no time in talking about how much he loves Arkansas, how he spent the first 30 years of his life here and grew up a die-hard Razorbacks fan.
"My dad used to drive me to Little Rock for the games at War Memorial Stadium, and those are some of the fondest memories I have of growing up," he said.
Which has something to do with why he didn't pursue jobs after being dumped at Auburn despite an 80-45 record, including 7-3 against archrival Alabama.
He wants to watch his son play high school football in Auburn, Ala. His son is a quarterback.
"I hope to get a job this December, so this may be my only chance to see him play," he said. He's also going to use this season to visit colleges with his son.
Of course, he was asked about his name coming up twice for the Arkansas job, and he said, "It was more in 1998. That's when I sat down with Coach [Frank] Broyles in New York. It got close.
"This is home, and someone said if you go home and get fired, then where you going to go ?"
Which got a huge laugh.
He talked about how he recruited the players who are at Auburn and hopes they do well.
He also talked a little about
Bobby Petrino, who was Tuberville's offensive coordinator at Auburn for the 2002 season. In cidentally, when Houston Nutt quit Arkansas to go to Ole Miss,Tuberville's name came up as a possible candidate to replace him, but he had a $2 million buyout at Auburn if he left for another coaching job.
"Bobby ran that offense for us. It is very technical and puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and let me tell you, if Ryan Mallett doesn't run it right, he won't be in there."
Tuberville talked about this season in the SEC - he will be doing a Monday night show on college football's Top 25 this fall on ESPNU or ESPN2 - but he mostly talked about the importance of being two-deep in the SEC.
"On the average, your starters are going to play 60 percent of the time and your backups 40 percent, so the backups need to be able to get the job done," he said. "In 2004 when we went undefeated, we didn't have one player miss a game, so you better spend time praying no one gets hurt, too."
Two years before the 13-0 record, an Auburn booster and member of the school's board of trustees tried to have Tuberville fired and Petrino hired.
The two coaches have talked several times since, and there is no animosity. Coincidentally, Colonial Bank, founded by the big-dollar booster, had its assets frozen by bank regulators and was sold just 11 days ago.
It might have been much worse for Tuberville if the failed coup had never happened. Because it did, he had some strong financial clauses added to his contract after the undefeated season. When he was terminated by Auburn last season, they had to pay him more than $5 million.
Before addressing the Little Rock Touchdown Club, Tuberville was asked if he missed coaching yet.
"Let me think about that, no," he said with a laugh. "I'm sure I will, especially once two-a-days are over. Coaching has changed, it has become a 365-day-a-year job and 24 hours a day.
"By December, I'll be more than ready to get back to work."
Until then, he's a part-time announcer and full-time dad.
Sports, Pages 15 on 08/25/2009