A Question Haunting the Alabama Senate Race: How Could Auburn Lose to Vanderbilt?
Alabama’s U.S. Senate race this fall features pressing 2020 questions: Whither the pandemic, the Supreme Court and the economy? And how, pray tell, did Republican nominee Tommy Tuberville’s star-studded Auburn team lose 14-13 to Vanderbilt in 2008?
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Mr. Tuberville has never held political office but is well known to Alabamians for another reason. He was Auburn’s head coach from 1999 to 2008, posting a 85-40 record highlighted by a run of six wins over the University of Alabama in the Iron Bowl. That means he is familiar with the deep division in the state, the one separating college-football fans who scream “Roll Tide” (Alabama) and “War Damn Eagle” (Auburn) on Saturdays.
Mr. Tuberville is refusing to debate Mr. Jones or say much publicly. So the Jones camp, trailing in the polls, is appealing to Alabamians’ gridiron sensibilities. “Tuberville couldn’t score a TD for 2 weeks with 4 first rounders on his offense,” read a tweet from the account of Alabama Democrats, the official body for the state’s Democratic Party. “He also lost to Vanderbilt.” That’s a reference to the 2008 Auburn Tigers team that beat Mississippi State 3-2 and lost by one point to Vanderbilt University, despite that team’s playing with its backup quarterback.
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A Jones ad released last weekend runs through the foibles that followed Mr. Tuberville from job to job. He left Ole Miss two days after telling players “they’re going to have to carry me out of here in a pine box.” He received a $5 million buyout from Auburn despite the fact that he resigned. At Texas Tech, he excused himself from dinner with a Red Raiders recruit to accept the head coaching job at Cincinnati. There is footage of Mr. Tuberville yelling at a Bearcats fan to “Go to hell! Get a job!” as he gets booed off the field after a loss. “He wants you to trust him as United States Senator. It’s a six-year term. Fear the thumb, remember the quitter,” says the ad, invoking Mr. Tuberville’s method of trolling Alabama fans with fingers to represent consecutive Auburn victories.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/alabama-senate-tommy-tuberville-coach-auburn-vanderbilt-11601926564 (subscription)