david from wyoming

January 9th, 2010 at 2:58 PM ^

Who else would go to Lubbock for a coaching job? I don't see Tech getting a bigger name hire.

Bill in Birmingham

January 9th, 2010 at 3:00 PM ^

Going to be interesting. Tuberville is a really good football coach, but he has almost nothing in common with Leach other than winning. He is a grind it out, win with defense and special teams type. Which is obviously not Leach.

tdumich

January 9th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^

it'll be interesting to see what he goes with on the offensive side of the ball. he could keep that wide receiver coach that led the offense in the bowl game and continue with the pass happy spread. if he switches to the offense he ran at auburn there will def be some bumps in the road of this transition.

physics guy

January 9th, 2010 at 3:04 PM ^

The article says that Tuberville became a strong candidate when he agreed not to have a say in hiring his own staff. I wonder how this will work out if Tubs is in charge but has assistants that he doesn't choose.

psychomatt

January 9th, 2010 at 3:32 PM ^

Can't imagine Tuberville being less expensive than Leach and they will have to allow him to pick at least some of his own assistant coaches or he will be working with one arm tied behind his back. Between whatever they will have to pay Leach and buyouts of assistants, this had to cost TT much more than keeping Leach. The TT administration really just must have hated Leach. Great hire, though.

FWIW, I wonder if this was in the works for longer than we think. Tuberville was an ESPN football analyst along with Craig James this year. Hmmmm ....

jmblue

January 9th, 2010 at 5:32 PM ^

It was a wise move by TT not to get too swayed by a single performance by an emotionally-charged team. Interim coaches tend to be career assistants who are well-liked by the players in part because, as assistants, they've always played the role of good cop (to the HC's bad cop). When given the job full-time, they frequently fall on their face.

Fans tend to rally around the interim guy, and yet, almost no one likes to see a school hire a guy without HC experience. If TT wasn't going to hire some other school's assistant to replace Leach, why should they have hired one of their own?

Tubberville is a guy with a proven track record as a head coach. This was an excellent hire from a school that badly needed one.

The Original Seth

January 9th, 2010 at 3:28 PM ^

Homeboy is an incredible coach who made one dumbo personnel decision under pressure. 13-0 in the SEC is not a fluke; it's a resume.

The Big 12 South just found a way to remain as competitive as it's become.

Raback Omaba

January 9th, 2010 at 3:35 PM ^

I would hate to see Calvin Magee move up in the world and become the head coach at USF. That would suck for us.

THis increases that probability...hopefully USF sees our malaise and shy's away from Calvin this year.

I'd rather see him in talks for a bigger job after he takes our explosive offense to the National Championship in the next two years.