We all know that the single thing which makes college football so great is the passion that surrounds it. It comes in all forms- blinding love for your own team, terrible agony after losses, silly anxiety before big games and the unique joy of a big win. One of the funniest and least explainable qualities of passionate college fans is their totally irrational hatred for certain teams and individuals.
As I’ve said before I wasn’t raised a Dawg. My family could have had those “house divided” license plates on the fronts of our cars (but we thankfully didn’t.) One side of my family was full of Alabama fans (and even some Bama grads) while the other was full of Ole Miss alumni who rarely missed a weekend in The Grove. Given my age and those loyalties I began to follow both the Rebels and the Tide circa 1995. At that time Ole Miss was led by one Tommy Tuberville. He coached Ole Miss to relative success and the Rebel faithful, as always, thought they were on the way back to relevance under his leadership.
But naturally bigger, better programs came calling when he had success in

Can you believe those idiots fell for the "pine box" line?
Oxford. At first he denied any interest in leaving, infamously stating “They ‘ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box,” for him to leave Ole Miss. Two days later he took the Auburn job. I was at my grandparents house when this all transpired and from the way my grandfather talked about him in the aftermath you would have thought he was Sherman’s accomplice in burning Atlanta. As a lifelong Ole Miss fan he wasn’t just mad. He was personally offended. And if he was, then by darn, so was I. Daddy Guy, as I called him, said he would never cheer for Tuberville again and I decided I wouldn’t either.
For me, the half-Rebel and half-Tide fan, this resolution to cheer against him was made even easier by the fact that he went to Auburn. Only a few years as a Bama fan had me convinced there was no more depraved group of people on the planet than Auburn fans. In my mind his decision was the equivalent to spitting in the face of America to join the Communists (only I didn’t know what Communists were yet). As the years wore on it only got easier to hate him. As you might recall he had great success against the Tide. He became my greatest nemesis in college football.
Auburn’s 13-0 season in 2004 was really the peak of my hatred. We all know that Uncle Verne and CBS have an annual love affair with some player, coach or team in the SEC. In 2004 it was Auburn, and more specifically Tubs. If I heard Verne talk one more time about Bobby Lowder’s secret trip to interview Bobby Petrino behind Tuberville’s back, always making Tubs the embattled yet victorious victim, I might have fallen out of love with SEC football.
Just a year later, in November of 2005 I was a freshman at UGA, with my allegiances in transition to the Dawgs. We welcomed Auburn between the hedges that Fall for the first night game of my college career. After a loss to Florida we had a chance to clinch the East that night in the biggest home game of the season. I attended the Dawg Walk with friends, cheered for DJ Shockley’s healed knee and then headed straight into the stadium for a good seat in the student section.
As we walked along the hedges toward the band I looked out onto the field to see Tuberville sitting on the visitor’s bench, not more than 10 yards from me, doing a radio interview. As the rest of my group walked on I leaned over the hedges and began to yell his name as loud as I could:
“TOMMY!! TUBS!! TOOOMMMYY!! TUBS!! TUBERVILLE!!” on and on for at least a few minutes. He finished his radio interview and I yelled even louder. And then wonder of all wonders, he turned around to see who was yelling at him. To this day all I can reason is that I was right in front of the Auburn section, in the northwest corner, in a relatively empty and quiet stadium almost an hour and a half before kickoff and he thought an Auburn fan was trying to get his attention.
However it happened it was a magical moment. He looked right at me and next thing I knew our eyes locked, his facial expression saying,”What the heck are you yelling at me for?” And time stood still. All the hatred. All the terrible things I had said about him from the couch watching Auburn play. All the times I had bashed him in talking to other fans. I had one golden opportunity to tell him how I felt. And I froze. After a pause of what felt like hours all I could muster was:
“I CAN’T STAND YOU!!”
He gave me a confused look, shook his head and walked away. And I stood pressed up against the hedges, shocked at the events that had just transpired.
We lost that game but after that moment my hatred kind of began to taper off. I had gotten things off my chest. The next year I watched the Dawgs knock off his 5th-ranked Tigers behind 3 Tre Battle interceptions. In 2007 we went Blackout on him in an unforgettable game. In 2008 I sat in Jordan-Hare to watch the Dawgs win again and see his proud march to unemployment firsthand.
And four year later Auburn returns to Athens without him at the helm. And I must admit… I kind of miss ole Tubs. He’ll always hold a special place in my heart. Everyone remembers their first love. Tubs was my “first hate” in SEC football. The hatred was stupid and irrational ( as was yelling at him.) But it was part of my formative years as an SEC fan. I have to admit I’m now too objective about the game to carry that kind of unbridled distaste for almost anyone (you might become an exception Kiffin), but it sure is fun to laugh about in retrospect.
Thanks for the fun, Tubs. I sure did love watching the Dawgs whoop your teams the last few years.