Brice Paterik:
I despise Tommy Tuberville because I've been ditched by a date in the middle of dinner, so I know how bad it felt to be those poor recruits. Tubs probably ordered the lobster, crawled out the bathroom window, and left those young men with the bill. A pox on you Thomas and your vagabondish nature.
Jonathan Althaus:
I don't hate Tuberville. I'm sure he's a nice guy, probably has some good stories about how awesome the SEC is, how running the ball is better than passing, and how defense is more important than actually scoring points. All those are fine opinions to have, even if they're all completely wrong.
What I hate is how he tried to change the very core of Texas Tech football. He worked his tail off, riding around in his little electric golf cart, to destroy the ideals of what made Tech great. We're about coaches who have the utmost loyalty to the program, the university, and the students.
Scoring more than 10 points every game in Lubbock. Making it to a bowl game every year. Holding onto recruits, and coaching players up. It disappeared with that guy. Running away from the program while at a dinner with recruits is as low as it gets for a coach of a college program. The night is darkest just before the dawn. Maybe Tech needed someone to screw up the program so it could be rebuilt the right way. Tubs was a forest fire, destroying everything so the chose one could come in.
In the end, I hate what the man did, not the man himself.
Hunter Cooke:
Tuberville had 3 good moments at Texas Tech. Two were the upsets of WVU and OU. The third was this video:
I mean, who can't laugh at that? People who are dead inside, I suppose. Hilarity aside, it's pretty much what happened.
I don't necessarily hate Tommy Tuberville. I hate his actions so much more than the actual person. And his actions were pretty dang cruel.
In essence, Tommy Tuberville is a Wild West snake oil salesman. He comes in, hair all done up, "yes"ing the boosters, promising a jillion things, then bolts when his carefully plotted scheme goes up in flames, leaving nothing but brokenness and untreated wounds in his wake. All those conference wins he promised? We went 9-17 in Big XII play in his tenure, 20-17 overall. All the defensive recruiting he was supposedly a guru at? In 2014 we were forced to rely on 1st year JUCO transfers on the defensive line because there was literally no one else to take the spot. Sans the recruitment of Pete Robertson and Kerry Hyder, two of my all time favorite Red Raiders, who else was there that was a real standout on the defensive side? Will Smith could be argued, but the Fresh Prince of Defense came in as a JUCO transfer, not necessarily a Tuberville recruit.
I don't hate how he left. I don't hate him. I hate him for showing the spine of a jellyfish when the going got tough. I was actually on board with the guy as a coach until the midnight bolt. He could've at least told someone man. It was low-down, it was dirty, it was scummy, but in hindsight, I don't know why I was surprised.
Drew Borsellino:
Alright, I personally feel with Tuberville Texas Tech would hit a ceiling and always just be that middle tier team with a few 9-10 win seasons here and there. Now with Kliff I feel like this program has no ceiling or even bottom for that matter. I would much rather have a team who can be explosive and provide excitement to a fanbase versus a program that is mediocre and has nothing to be excited about.
I was a student during the Tuberville years. Compared to the Leach years, there was no campus excitement. My senior year I only went to one game. The Tuberville years were something that I had to endure. The Kliff years are something I get to experience.