Tuberville happy with show of support

AUBURN — It took Auburn officials and head coach Tommy Tuberville more than a week to hammer out an agreement on a two-year extension to the coach’s contract.

It took Tuberville less than a day to put it all behind him. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the two sides agreed to terms, the coach appeared relaxed and cheerful.

The contract extension leaves Tuberville under contract with AU through the 2013 season. It will pay him an average of $3.3 million annually, preserving his status as one of the nation’s highest-paid coaches.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said of the extension. “You can get a new energy inside of you when you feel like people are behind you.”

He made no apologies for the length of the negotiations or the ambiguous nature of his comments during the talks.

Though persistent rumors linked Tuberville to various openings over the last month, the coach never clearly denied them. He defended that decision Wednesday.

“Rumors are rumors,” he said. “There wasn’t anything to talk about. I wasn’t contacted by anybody else. … There’s no need to go out and address something that’s really not happening.”

Tuberville said the talks between himself and athletic director Jay Jacobs also touched on Jacobs’ plans for future improvements to the football team’s facilities. According to Tuberville, several large facilities projects are upcoming.

“If you’re going to make a commitment, you want to know what kind of commitment your leaders have,” he said. “The commitment’s there.”

The first of those projects is scheduled to begin this month, shortly after AU’s last on-site practice.

The bottom floor of Auburn’s athletic complex — which houses the team’s locker room, training room and equipment rooms — will be completely remodeled. The assistant coaches’ offices at the athletic complex are already undergoing renovations.

Both projects were scheduled long before Tuberville’s contract became an issue.
Longer term, Jacobs’ “master plan” includes an expansion of the stadium, new athletics dorms to replace the aged Sewell Hall and the possibility of a 100-yard indoor practice facility, according to Tuberville.

The two sides also discussed Tuberville’s assistant coaches’ salaries. Tuberville said he didn’t demand large raises for the assistants, but instead sought performance-based incentives like the ones built into his contract.

The coach denied published reports that his $6 million buyout clause was a major sticking point in the negotiations. The clause, originally scheduled to decline by $1 million annually starting in 2009, will fall to $4 million in 2010 and remain there throughout the length of the extension.

“The buyout was a lot of talk,” said Tuberville. “Jay and I probably spent five minutes in the entire discussion about the buyout, about what they expected. … I’m not going anywhere. I’m not looking to go anywhere.

“They’ve made a big commitment to me, re-stated that commitment during the past couple of weeks. I feel great about it and I hope they do.”

Tuberville said the 2007 season — which saw the Tigers start 1-2 and finish 8-4, knocking off archrival Alabama for a sixth consecutive season — didn’t meet his or administrators’ expectations. That he received the extension — and an extra $7.6 million — is a sign of the university’s commitment, Tuberville said.

“I’m real appreciative of Jay and Dr. Gogue because we did go 8-4,” Tuberville said. “We didn’t get to Atlanta (for the Southeastern Conference title game) and we didn’t do anything spectacular.

“I thought we played pretty good at times but we could have done better. We’re going to do better.”

Lawyers for both sides will review the proposed extension in the coming weeks. A completed version isn’t likely to be ready Tuberville’s signature until January at the earliest.

With his future settled, Tuberville was back on the recruiting trail Wednesday. The coach flew to South Florida to visit three prospects, including current commitments George Baker and Harry Adams.