Collin Mickle
Staff Writer

Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs hasn’t yet heard from officials at Texas A&M — or any other school — interested in talking to head football coach Tommy Tuberville.
And while Jacobs said he doesn’t want to address “hypotheticals,” the AD said he expects Tuberville to stay at Auburn. The two men will meet next week to discuss the future.
AU President Jay Gogue won’t be in the room, though he and Jacobs will also meet with Tuberville in the coming weeks. But it’s the one-on-one meeting between coach and AD that will go a long way toward determining Tuberville’s future.
“If there’s a recommendation to be made, I’ll make it to the president and give him an opportunity to approve it or not approve it,” Jacobs said during Saturday’s Iron Bowl game.
Jacobs also said Gogue hasn’t talked to him about Tuberville’s situation.
“What happens with coaches and coaches’ contracts and whatever it may be in the athletic department, he leaves it with me, which is where it should be,” Jacobs said. “As athletic director, I make recommendations to him, and here we go.”
Jacobs said he and Tuberville would discuss an extension of the coach’s contract. The AD wouldn’t give specific details, but the discussions are expected to include an extension — and a raise — for Tuberville, as well as larger contracts for some or all of his assistants.
Improvements to the football team’s facilities could also be on the agenda.
But Jacobs said he didn’t have a formal plan for what would and wouldn’t be discussed.
“It’s just one of those things: You talk about anything you want to talk about,” Jacobs said. “We’ll talk about what I want to talk about, we’ll talk about what he wants to talk about. The thing with this thing at Texas A&M has just escalated a lot of conversation.”
Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione, the former Alabama coach, resigned after the Aggies’ upset of archrival Texas ended a 7-5 season. For more than a month, Tuberville has been rumored to be a candidate for the job.
But Jacobs said he hasn’t heard from A&M or any other potential suitors. He also hasn’t talked to Tuberville’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, or to anyone else “who may be involved in a coaching search,” he said.
Jacobs said Tuberville’s buyout — set at $6 million this year — was “pretty much iron-clad,” though he declined to talk about the possibility that it could be negotiated down if Tuberville expressed a desire to leave Auburn.
“He’s our guy,” Jacobs said. “We’ll sit down and talk about things, address it and keep moving.”
At least publicly, Jacobs is taking at face value the coach’s statement earlier this week that he plans to stay at Auburn “as long as they want us here.” It was the closest Tuberville has come to guaranteeing he’ll return to AU next season, but it’s not quite ironclad.
Still, Jacobs believes Tuberville will be back. He’s even given some thought to why the coach took several weeks to issue his vaguely worded commitment.
“I think when it first started happening, he just said, ‘It seems like every year, I get caught in one of these things,’” Jacobs said. “I think when it didn’t die down, he finally said, ‘You know what, I’m just going to come out and put an end to all this.’
“That’s what he did last week, when he said, ‘I want to be here.’”

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