Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley endeared himself to Texas Tech football fans this week with his comments about Kliff Kingsbury and Tommy Tuberville.
It has been almost six years Tommy Tuberville skipped town on the Texas Tech football program allegedly cutting short a recruiting dinner at a Lubbock steakhouse to field an offer from Cincinnati. But Texas Tech fans and alumni still have not forgotten about Tuberville’s disastrous three-year stint in Lubbock.
Earlier this week, one of the more prominent Texas Tech alums in college football, OU head coach Lincoln Riley shared his candid thoughts about the Tuberville era. When asked if he and other former Mike Leach era players still root for the Red Raiders to have success under Kingsbury, Riley did not mince words.
"“I think it’s fair to say that [Texas Tech] absolutely lost track of who they were there for a few years,” Riley said in reference to the hiring of Tommy Tuberville. “They tried to hire the anti of who they had before and a lot of times, that’s not the right answer. It clearly wasn’t that. That decision with who they hired set that program back a long way, and that was personal to all of us. All of us who had a small part here and there in helping build it, and want to see them do well.”"
It must be noted that Riley may have some personal feelings remaining from former Texas Tech AD Gerald Myers’ decision to hire Tuberville following the firing of Mike Leach in 2009. The other candidate for the job was Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil who had a close relationship with Riley as the two were on staff together at Texas Tech for seven seasons.
It is likely that had McNeil been hired instead of Tuberville, Riley would have remained at Texas Tech. Instead, he went with McNeil to East Carolina where he was the offensive coordinator from 2010-2014 before joining Bob Stoops’ staff at Oklahoma.
But regardless of whether Riley is somewhat biased, he is accurate in his remarks. The Tuberville era did set the program back considerably and left a mess for Kingsbury to clean up.
In the three seasons prior to Tuberville’s arrival in Lubbock (2007-2009) Texas Tech amassed a record of 29-10 finishing no lower than third place in the Big 12 South. But Tuberville managed to take that success and parlay it into utter mediocrity with a 21-17 overall record.
What’s more, his 5-7 2011 season was the first losing season at Texas Tech since 1992 and marked the first time since 1999 that the Red Raiders did not appear in a bowl game. But even more importantly, Tuberville alienated the Texas Tech fan base by complaining about the wind, bemoaning the program’s lack of facilities, slapping a headset off of an assistant coach on the sidelines or being sued for investment fraud.
Though Tuberville did the program a favor by taking the Cincinnati job, he did Kingsbury no favors by creating a cesspool of an environment around the program. By turning off big-time donors, depleting fan interest and destroying the continuity in the program through a series of disastrous defensive coordinator hires, Tuberville turned what was already a tough job into a nearly impossible situation for whomever would succeed him.
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Riley seems to understand that fact and as such, he is complimentary of the job Kingsbury has done.
"“I’ve always, since I left wanted to see ’em do well and want to see ’em do well now other than when we play them” he said. “But Kliff’s done a great job. He had a tough job when he walked in there. I mean that thing was not like it was and he’s had a tough job and he’s done a tremendous job building it back. They had a run of, I can’t remember how many defensive coordinators they had in a five or six-year period, it’s remarkable. It looks like they’re back on solid ground now really starting to play well and Kliff deserves a ton of credit.”"
Though Riley did not mention Tuberville by name, it was clear who he was referencing. It was also refreshing to hear a real opinion from someone in a job that lends itself to the generic politically correct sound-bite.
Certainly, Kingsbury has not met expectations in his tenure. He is deserving of the criticism that he has received because by now, all traces of Tuberville’s slimy reside have been washed from the program. (The wind still blows in Lubbock but hey, Tommy, we built Kliff an indoor facility!)
But it is also important for Texas Tech fans to remember just how tough of a situation Kingsbury was in when he took over a program left fractured and directionless by a coach that never had Texas Tech’s best intentions at heart. Certainly, Lincoln Riley, who’s transition at Oklahoma was a dream come true for a first-time college football coach appreciates what Kingsbury has been through.