Tommy Tuberville was talking recruiting on Thursday and was touting the Texas Tech recruiting class for 2012. Tuberville should be talking about the twentieth ranked recruiting class that he is bringing to Lubbock. The Red Raider coaching staff has done an outstanding job of recruiting, especially following a difficult 5-7 season in 2011. Coach Tuberville seems to realize that he has some work to do with a fan base that is still largely supportive of former Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach.
This is what Coach Tuberville had to say about the ongoing battle between the former coach and Texas Tech:
"I have no dog in that fight.... I'm here now, and I have a job to do. We have to go out and recruit and coach and do the best we can."
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram pointed out in an article about Coach Tuberville that he followed the highly successful Terry Bowden, at Auburn. That is true, this is not the first time Coach Tuberville has followed a successful coach. However, this situation is a little different.
Most of the media does not get, or chooses to ignore, that the situation in Lubbock is about more than just a coaching change, involving a successful coach. Most of the media want to make the dynamic within the Texas Tech fan base about football. The truth is that it is much more about moral outrage than football. The feeling among Mike Leach supporters is that the university, Craig James, and others engaged in an effort to smear the former coach. These supporters also believe that the university acted unethically, immorally, and with a total lack of honor.
So, Coach Tuberville is doing the smartest thing he can. He is trying to remove himself from the discussion about Mike Leach vs. Texas Tech. In the past he has certainly appeared to have wanted to place any blame for the program’s failings at the feet of the former coach. If Tuberville really wants to move on, he will stop doing that.
From this point forward, he should not have any comment about Mike Leach or imply that somehow whatever is wrong is Leach’s fault. If he speaks at all, he should try to say something positive about the former coach. The truth is that every time he says something that can be viewed as negative about Mike Leach, he pushes the very fans he wants to win over farther away.
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