Athletes - Tommy Tuberville

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	Athletes - Tommy Tuberville

Thomas Hawley "Wingnut" Tuberville, (born September 18, 1954) is an American college football coach and current head coach of the Auburn Tigers football team. A native of Camden, Arkansas, Tuberville was an assistant coach at Arkansas State University, the University of Miami, and Texas A&M University prior to being named to his first collegiate head coaching job at the University of Mississippi. In a somewhat controversial move, he left Ole Miss after the 1998 season to take the head job at SEC western division rival Auburn. This left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Ole Miss supporters who felt betrayed after Tuberville met with the team to assure them that he would not take the Auburn job, then 24 hours later he was announced as Auburn's head coach. Tuberville played football in high school and lettered as free safety at Southern Arkansas University where he played from 1972-1976.

During the 2003 season, Tuberville was the subject of an attempted behind-the-scenes palace coup. Auburn president William F. Walker and athletic director David Housel, with major support from Colonial Bank CEO Bobby Lowder, a prominent Auburn athletics booster and member of the school's board of trustees, decided to remove Tuberville. However, neither Walker nor Housel told Tuberville that his job was in danger. Two days before Auburn's biggest game of the year, the Iron Bowl against Alabama, Auburn officials, including Walker and Housel, secretly interviewed Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino (who had been Auburn's offensive coordinator the previous season) for the Auburn job. Reports of the meeting quickly leaked to the media. After several denials, Auburn was forced to admit to having met with Petrino, and the reaction from fans and media was so hostile that not only did Auburn decide to keep Tuberville on, but Walker was forced to resign as the school's president within two months, and Housel later resigned as well.

With an unbeaten 2004 regular season and an SEC title, Tuberville posted the first 10+ win season of his then 10 year career and was named the AP Coach of the Year. The Tigers went on to win the Sugar Bowl after the regular season to complete a perfect 13-0 season after which he was awarded both the American Football Coaches Association and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year awards.

In 2005, despite losing the entire starting backfield from the unbeaten 2004 team to the first round of the NFL draft, Tuberville led Auburn to a 9-3 record, finishing the regular season with victories over rivals Georgia and Alabama. In their final game of the season, the Tigers lost the Capital One Bowl to the University of Wisconsin led by retiring long-time head coach Barry Alvarez.

Tuberville is married to the former Suzanne Fette and has two sons, Thomas Tucker and Troy Allen.

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