A little over a month ago, former University of Cincinnati head fooball Coach Butch Jones dropped the Bearcats and darted to Knoxville to take the Tennessee coaching position. Jones’ quick move left Cincinnati athletic director Whit Babcock and the Bearcat football program in a tough situation. Instead of folding, Babcock made a “program changing” decision and hired Texas Tech headman, Tommy Tuberville – one of the most well-known and respect coaches in college football. Tuberville has gained much experience throughout his 32-year career. He started his historic career at Arkansas State where he coached defensive ends. From there, Tuberville went on to be an assistant at Miami (FL) and shortly after that, the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M for a year. Following his one year stint at Texas A&M, Tuberville landed his first heading coaching job at The University of Mississippi. At Ole Miss, Tuberville was voted Coach of the Year by the A.P, and acquired the nickname “The Riverboat Gambler” for his aggressive play calling. Just a year after winning Coach of the Year, Tuberville bolted to Auburn University where he coached for the next ten season. Tuberville had a stellar career as headman at Auburn; He finished with another Coach of the Year honor (2004), a SEC Championship (2004), and an above .500 record. However, Tuberville decided to take a year away from football and resigned from Auburn after the 2008 campaign. After a year’s leave of absence, Tuberville took the head coaching position at Texas Tech following the firing of Mike Leach. As a Red Raider, Tuberville displayed one the nation’s most high powered offenses, and was praised for his top-notch recruiting classes year in and year out. The next stop for Tuberville will be Cincinnati, where he will look to continue the success that Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, and Butch Jones developed. Whit Babcock said prior to hiring Tommy Tuberville that he was looking for someone “committed to the program”. This will only be considered a successful hire in the long-run if Cincinnati can keep Tuberville committed long-term unlike Coach Dantonio, Coach Kelly, and most recently, Coach Jones. “(Tommy Tuberville) is a very competent head coach that could very easily be here for the long term. At 58-years-old, he’s still young enough to have the energy to run a good program while looking for his forever home. I don’t think this could have ended much better for Cincinnati,” explained Tim Adams , a Cincinnati football beat-writer for BearcatLair.com. Adams also discussed how big the hire is for CIncinnati saying, “Cincinnati has never hired a coach from another BSC-level school. I think it’s a tremendous job by Whit Babcock; I love the hire.” Regardless of your college sport’s allegiance, we can all agree that Cincinnati hit a homerun in their hire of Coach Tommy Tuberville. I believe Cincinnati will continue to succeed with Tuberville at the reigns.