Tommy Tuberville is Tech’s version of Barack Obama. Whether you see that as a compliment or an insult is up to you, but the similarities are undeniable.
Tuberville has come to Tech under some of the roughest circumstances any coach has ever faced.
As you all know, Mike Leach was fired only one year after having Tech on the brink of a BCS bowl game, and he was poised to make a run at it again with some teams taking big losses in the Big 12.
When Tuberville came to Tech, he was being carted around like he was a Triple Crown-winning horse who will never be seen again in Lubbock. He made multiple appearances at Tech sporting events, including throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game. Sadly, this is the first similarity to Obama — but I did hear he actually knew how to throw a baseball, unlike Obama.
He kept making appearances at luncheons and showing up on billboards, becoming an instant celebrity in this city. Obama was very similar after he won the election, making appearances at the 2009 Major League Baseball all-star game, attending the 2010 National Football League Super Bowl, and talking with Oprah for the whole nation to see.
These appearances the men made created a certain accessibility which the men’s predecessors may have lost in their last few years, at least in the media’s opinion. But it also created expectations that a president like George Washington or a coach like Vince Lombardi could not even live up to.
But they encouraged this. Each of the men told us change was on the horizon. Barack’s rally cry was for our health care, energy and economic problems. Tommy Tuberville was going to attack our speed, defense and lack of national championships.
Tuberville changed the way Tech recruited. You could see this in the couple of months he had to recruit before the signing day. He signed players who allegedly ran 4.3 forties and put an emphasis on speed rather than size.
He also changed the defensive philosophy entirely, moving from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4. Many people who watch professional football jumped for joy at this possibility, considering the fact that some of the best defenses in the league — such as the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburg Steelers — use a 3-4 defense.
But what Tommy Tuberville is going to discover is that too many changes too soon will hurt you in the short run. Tuberville will need to excel in the short run for the people who were here when Tech went 11-2.
What Barack Obama learned was that he promised too much. There was no way he could deliver everything he promised. He promised to get us out of the recession, only to see the unemployment rate actually go up.
He promised to make our health care system the best for everyone only to see many of his senators on the ropes for the upcoming election because they supported the highly controversial bill. He is clearly seeing the repercussions of these failures in his plummeting approval rating.
Tuberville could face these same situations. He has promised a brand new defense that will be the talk of the Big 12-lite. Hopefully it is good talk, because I can easily see us getting into trouble with the new 3-4 defense in the next couple of years simply because we do not have the personnel for it.
He said he is going to put Tech in the national title picture and have us competing for Big 12 championships year in and year out. I would love to see this, but the fact is that anytime you change as much as Tech football has, a learning process will be inevitable.
He opened up a can of worms when he said Tech would soon be in contention for a national title. The dangerous thing is people are listening. Casey Cowan of Double T 104.3 predicted Tech to go 10-2 this year.
I would love to see this — do not get me wrong — but the truth of the matter is that Tech was picked by the Big 12 media to finish fourth in the Big 12 South (this was before the departure of Nebraska and Colorado). It is sad to say that no team who has finished fourth in the Big 12 South has ever won more than nine games in a season while averaging just under seven since 2002.
This is also assuming that Tech will finish fourth in respect to the former Big 12 South teams with all of the changes we are making.
No one at Texas Tech would like to see us win a national championship as much as I would. I have gone to nearly every single home game Tech has played since I have come here, I have barely missed a spring practice over the last two years, I can tell you each and every recruit we have signed since 2006 and I wear a shirt in support of Taylor Potts at football games. Yes, the shirt says “Pott-Heads.”
But I really do not want our fans to get their hopes up. Being an Astros fan, I know the pain of a team going through a learning process or a rebuilding year, and it is painful.
I could honestly see us going through one next year. I just hope people stay supportive of the team even if we do not show immediate progress over these next few years.