Firing Tommy Tuberville Would Be a Huge Mistake

Article courtesy of SEC Sports Hub.

With all the talk about Tommy Tuberville potentially coaching his last home game at Jordan-Hare this weekend, it’s time for Auburn fans to wake up and take a large dose of reality.

Sure, Tuberville has had an extremely disappointing year, falling from a preseason predicted finish atop the SEC West to a season in which the Tigers might be bowl ineligible for the first time since 1999.

Sure, Tuberville fired his offensive coordinator just six games into the season.

But Auburn fans are forgetting a few key facts.

First off, this program wasn’t exactly dominating the SEC West before Tuberville arrived. Critics like to point out how Tuberville has only won one SEC Championship in his tenure at Auburn.

But while he hasn’t won as much hardware as he should have, Tuberville has made Auburn football a constant in the SEC West picture. His teams have been as consistent as any in the SEC since he arrived.

The Tigers have put together multiple nine and 10-win seasons and accomplished perhaps the most impressive feat of any SEC team during this millennium.

Yeah, the Tigers got hosed and left out of the National Championship after their perfect season in 2004, but is that Tuberville’s fault? Absolutely not. Would we be having this conversation now had Tuberville won a BCS National Championship in 2004? Absolutely not.

So take a step back from the ledge, Auburn fans.

The timing just isn’t right to fire Tuberville, even if he deserved it.

The fact is, there are just too many teams out there hiring head coaches right now. A decent number of those teams are presumably ahead of Auburn in the pecking order for head coaches as well, including Clemson and Tennessee.

To push Tuberville out the door now would be a huge mistake.

Recruiting is already very tough for Auburn, who must compete with traditional powerhouse Alabama, who now also boasts one of the best recruiting coaches in the country.

Auburn traditionally has gone into Georgia and Florida to get some of their best recruits. Tuberville has pipelines here, where another coach may not.

Firing Tuberville now would only send Auburn spinning into mediocrity at a time when their biggest rivals are starting to reemerge on a national stage.

Recruiting will become an absolute nightmare.

What then should Auburn fans do? What steps should the program take?

As has been suggested in recent weeks, the right move is forcing change, not a change in head coach.

Tuberville is one of the top coaches in the country, as both his track record and his peers indicate.

However, Tuberville has slowly let those around him become complacent. The staff that he brought with him from Ole Miss is losing their edge.

Auburn needs to put serious pressure on Tuberville to make some serious changes, not just at the coordinator positions, but also at the position coach level.

Offensive coordinator Tony Franklin failed, in large part, because the position coaches he had to work with were holdovers from Tuberville’s past, rather than coaches who could help teach the finer points of his spread offense.

Yes, change should be made at Auburn.

Firing Tuberville, however, is exactly the type of change the Tigers can ill afford.

To read more articles like this, please visit SEC Sports Hub, the No. 1 site on the web for SEC sporting news & discussion.