2019 standout recaps Arkansas visit
Matt Luke Wednesday Teleconference
Bret Bielema Wednesday Teleconference
-Tuberville opened at the podium at approximately 12:12 p.m. and reminisced about his days growing up in the state of Arkansas. Tuberville is originally from Camden.
-He said he tries to go somewhere every Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to speak and then heads to the place where he is calling the game on Thursday.
-Tuberville spoke about his days at Miami when he would room with Ed Orgeron on the road. They were all single back then and Orgeron would speak to people at the bar in Cajun/French.
-He recalled the Catholics vs. Convicts game in 1988. He said he still has one of the shirts and hats from that game.
-He reminisced about former Razorback player Jimmy Johnson. He recently walked by him and he asked Tuberville what he is doing for Christmas Eve, and Tuberville responded by asking him what he was doing. Johnson replied that it is Christmas Eve for he and his family every day of the year.
"He always wanted to be the coach here. Lot of peole don't realize that," Tuberville said of Johnson.
-This week he'll be calling Wisconsin at Illinois. He said Wisconsin is physical, not fast and not great but just good everywhere which gives them a chance to be a great team.
"That's the thing about football, you don't have to be great, you've just got to be good [at every spot]," Tuberville said.
-Regarding football's popularity...
"It's amazing how popular football is across the country. It's not as popular as some places, especially when you compare it to the south and the SEC."
-Tuberville said he and the coaches got $1,700 for being in the Blindside, which made $1.5 billion as the film did better than they thought. Fred W. Smith, producer, later offered $25,000 to each coach's favorite charity out of feeling bad about their salary for the film. Tuberville said he still receives residuals for the film.
-He said he watches as many SEC games as he can every week, and most of the games he calls are in the SEC.
"Alabama's gotten so good, so consistent it's hard to imagine it," Tuberville said. "We went through five coaches in this 10 years [When Tuberville was there]."
-Tuberville said he had to remind Nick Saban when they're playing golf to smile and remember to have fun...
"Don't ruin everybody's day of golf. It's not that important."
-Tuberville said Saban is no better coach than anybody else, he has a ton of staff turnover, he doesn't change much of what he does on offense and defense. The difference is he recruits and evaluates. He was out there watching them recently.
"You couldn't tell the difference in a true freshman and a sophomore or a senior. It's amazing [their depth]."
-Regarding the need for a mobile quarterback in this day and age...
"If you don't have a quarterback that can make a big play out of a bad play, you're really playing with 10 guys on offense," he said. "The ones that are going to be ranked the highest and play consistent have quarterbacks that can move."
-Tuberville said Auburn is good, they're not great. If they can stay healthy they'll play Georgia and Alabama and that'll be the main part of their season.
-Tuberville said he got ridiculed a while back for saying Kirby Smart, Ed Orgeron and Will Muschamp are probably the three best hires in the SEC in a long time. But he still believes that because those guys know the area they are at and they fit their program. He said Orgeron will do great at LSU. He said Georgia is the best job in the country for a coach because they have the most athletes within 100 miles of their school out of anybody. Then Will Muschamp, he called 'just a grinder.' He said Urban Meyer left Florida in a mess and they didn't give Muschamp a chance to get things going.
-Tuberville said he tried to hire Bret Bielema years ago as his defensive coordinator at Auburn. He said he is friends with Bielema, but a coach has to know the area where they are coaching and they can't keep changing things on offense and defense. He said to be patient with him and support him. But he added that at the end of the day 'you have to win games.'
-He said Bielema is learning the situation, learning to put up with where they are. But he said Arkansas has a lot going for them in terms of facilities. He said this is the wrong place to say this but...
"You need to play a game in Little Rock," Tuberville said. "You don't need to be a regional team, you don't need to say we're a northwest Arkansas football team. If you take it out of Little Rock it will slowly diminish your football team."
-Tuberville said getting a chance to walk on the astro turf at War Memorial Stadium as a child made him a Razorback fan. He also said War Memorial has to upgrade, they have to give the UA a reason to come down there.
"Hell, it ain't about money," he said. "I get so sick and tired of athletic directors saying it's about money.
"If it's going to be about money, you need to get out of it," Tuberville said. "I'm telling you, as years go, kids from Texarkana, Pine Bluff, they're not going to grow up Razorback fans."
-Tuberville said he cried for a year after the 1969 Arkansas game.
-He doesn't have Georgia in his top-four because he looks ahead to UGA having to play at Auburn and Alabama in the championship game. He knows the schedule and how tough it'll be for them. He called UGA a top-5 team...he also said he's not 'big on that committee, either.'
-Tuberville said they need to have eight teams in the College Football Playoff...winners of every conference, then a group of five team that makes it and then two at-large.
"Then you shut everybody up," he said. "Keep the bowls the way they are."
-Tuberville talks about this kid from Chicago who came in at 340 pounds and he called 'Biscuit.' He didn't look like he even belonged there. He called him that because he was a biscuit away from 400 pounds. That kid did everything he had to do to get better and later Russell Maryland was a No. 1 pick by the Dallas Cowboys.
-Ray Lewis was similar, very lightly recruited player who did everything he could to make himself into a great player.
-Warren Sapp was a 215 pound tight end they moved to defense and the next thing they know he's 300 pounds and eating people alive.
-He spoke some about Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and said he was a good player but wasn't necessarily a real hard-nosed football player. He was watching TV with his kid one day and wrestling was on and he said 'hey, that's Dwayne!?!?'
-He called the Big XII a good conference, but you can't touch the SEC. You're better off struggling in this league and knowing one day you're going to hit it good.
-Tuberville said back at Hermitage he planned to quit coaching and get into something else because he was tired of dealing with parents. In high school the parents are right on top of you, he said. From there, he moved to Tullahoma, Tennessee and started 'Tubby's Catfish'...a restaurant.
-Tuberville said he will be back in athletics in some way at some point (not as an analyst in the booth).
-Tuberville said having locker room fights and players popping each other with towels is part of building a team and comradery.
