Throwaway Super Bowl anecdote does not connect with Razorback history.
Fayetteville, Arkansas — A comment made by newly elected US President Donald Trump a few days ago received a lot of attention Thursday, leaving Arkansas supporters wondering if they recall the history of a native Arkansan and the Razorback football team wrong.
“Tommy Tuberville, a great coach,” Trump said. “You know, his quarterback’s name was Mahomes.” He was an excellent college coach. And I asked, ‘How good was he?’ He replied, ‘You don’t want to know how excellent. “He turned me into an excellent coach.”
As many are aware, and Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes was keen to explain, Tuberville did not coach him at Texas Tech to an unbeatable performance against Arkansas coach Bret Bielema’s ground and pound style. Kliff Kingsbury, fondly known as “Coach Bro” throughout Texas for being an early adoption of the contemporary player-friendly coaching method, exacted vengeance on behalf of Texas high school coaches and quarterbacks for Bielema’s insult at the state coach’s conference.
“[Bielema] stood up [at the convention] and said if you don’t throw to the fullback, we’ll kick your a**, and if you throw it 70 times a game, we’ll kick your a**,” Kingsbury said following Texas Tech’s 35-24 win.”[Bielema] has just had his a** kicked twice in a row, and [Texas] A&M will most likely do the same next week. “That felt good.”
Mahomes finished 26-of-30 in the game, with one throwing score and two rushing touchdowns. Fans are unlikely to forget such near-perfect performances.
While Hogs supporters will never forget his performance, Mahomes will never forget the coach who gave him the opportunity to lead Texas Tech. He made it apparent that Tuberville was not that person.
In an attempt to defend Trump’s comment, Tuberville stated that the confusion stemmed from recruiting Mahomes in his final year as Red Raiders coach.
However, Mahomes, who arrived in Lubbock two years after Tuberville left and did not receive an offer from Tech until Kingsbury took over, made it plain that the current Alabama senator was lying when he claimed he recruited the Super Bowl-winning quarterback in high school.
“He did not recruit me at the time,” Mahomes explained. “I don’t remember if I ever got to meet him or not.”
In terms of Tuberville, native boys who ascend from the lowest ranks to national prominence are rarely forgotten, particularly in tiny states like Arkansas. That is why many people in the Natural State are familiar with his life and times.
Arkansas supporters, particularly in south Arkansas, are well aware of Tuberville’s career. The Camden native began as head coach of the Hermitage Hermits, a community of a few hundred people located between Warren and El Dorado, just a short drive from Kingsland, a similar tiny town where Paul “Bear” Bryant grew up.
From there, he rose to the zenith of his career, a successful spell at Auburn, when, in 2004, the Tigers became the only unbeaten SEC team to be passed over for the BCS national championship game, a rarity in sports history. Instead, Oklahoma and USC competed for the championship.
However, that moment was almost never going to materialize. In 1997, Arkansas sports director Frank Broyles was searching for the Razorbacks’ next head football coach. He had set his sights on Tuberville at Ole Miss, who had just completed an 8-4 season at Oxford and was the reigning SEC Coach of the Year.
According to the tale, Broyles went so far as to book a hotel room in New York City near Tuberville’s for the Heisman festivities, and the two agreed in principle to bring the Rebels’ coach to Fayetteville. However, Broyles was advised that he needed to receive final permission from a hiring committee comprised of Razorbacks alumni.
Tuberville, knowing he was in a position of power, did not want to be forced to go through a group interview procedure that would make him appear bad if anything went wrong. He reportedly advised Broyles to hire him himself or go since he wasn’t going to sit in front of a committee and try to persuade them of his qualifications.
As a result, Arkansas hired another finalist, Boise State coach Houston Nutt. Meanwhile, Tuberville left Oxford shortly afterward to assume the position at Auburn. To bring the narrative full circle, Nutt ultimately left Arkansas to coach at Ole Miss.
However, Razorback fans recall properly. Tuberville never coached or recruited Patrick Mahomes in his head coaching career, which included stops at Hermitage, Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech, and Cincinnati.
It was Kingsbury who enabled Mahommes to bury Arkansas that day, paving the way for him to be a Top 10 choice by the Chiefs in 2017. So, it turns out that the Razorbacks played a role in State Farm’s finest pitchman becoming one of the most clutch Super Bowl quarterbacks of all time.
And it is far more than Trump’s perplexing claim that it was Tuberville all along.