4 DEC 08: WASHED-UP "TUB?"

The Auburn University men's basketball team played hard, but lost to Xavier Wednesday night 81-74. That makes three losses in a row for the Tigers, gives them a 3-4 record - and may inspire Coach Jeff Lebo to ask who Tommy Tuberville's agent is.

It was minutes before tipoff time in Cincinnati, when Auburn University announced football coach Tommy Tuberville had resigned. A statement left the impression Tuberville was NOT fired - so apparently he doesn't need the unemployment checks a firing would bring.

The Auburn statement says Tommy Tuberville's contract had a buyout clause, which will be honored. A reader asked here the other day how much that would cost. Opelika-Auburn News reporters believe it totals six million dollars - but it's clear Tuberville is NOT a bionic man.

Rumors swirled around Auburn for a couple of hours, before the official announcement. One was that Tommy Tuberville had some kind of health problem. Of course, he felt last Saturday like he was run over with a hot iron....

The reports about Tommy Tuberville's departure led two 6:00 p.m. newscasts. But WLTZ never brought it up -- not even in the sports section, and not even during "11 at 11." Perhaps Jeremy Moss feared football coaches around Davenport, Iowa would rush to send resumes to Auburn.

Tommy Tuberville's decision was revealed to the Auburn football team Wednesday evening, before the university released its statement. Of course, the players were about as powerless to stop this decision as they were the Alabama offensive line.

(WRBL showed pictures inside the Auburn athletic complex. One player pulled up his shirt over his face when he saw the camera. Why -- was he carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, or something?)

CORRECTED: The university statement quotes Tommy Tuberville as saying he's "going to remain in Auburn and help the Auburn family however I can." If that's accurate, his next job may be in sports broadcasting -- following in the footsteps of Terry Bowden. It beats following in the footsteps of Mike Dubose, and becoming a high school coach in Dothan.

WXTX "News at Ten" showed a group of Auburn students at Toomer's Corner, holding signs supporting Tommy Tuberville. Hmmm - that big buyout should provide enough money to set up a few scholarships....

Tommy Tuberville won 85 games in ten years at Auburn University. He had an undefeated season in 2004, even had a 7-3 record in the Iron Bowl -- and perhaps most impressively, several years ago Tuberville went 1-0 in a showdown with Auburn trustee Bobby Lowder.

But let's face it - this past season was messy for Auburn football. It started well before the first game, when former Carver High School quarterback DeRon Furr had a quarrel with other players and quit the team. People in Cairo could tell you if you can't contain Furr, you're not likely to win.

Then came Tommy Tuberville's most controversial decision. He fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, with Auburn's record at 4-2. A team which struggled to learn the spread offense suddenly couldn't cover the spread....

The mid-season firing of Tony Franklin was the ultimate example of Tommy Tuberville's reputation as a "riverboat gambler." Tuberville never really has rejected that label - which will hurt any dream he has of running for political office in Alabama.

If that wasn't enough, another coach with local connections was fired Wednesday. Columbus native Sam Mitchell led pro basketball's Toronto Raptors for four years, and took them to the playoffs the last two seasons. But they're 8-9 this year -- and it appears any losing record with Raptors can make you a dinosaur.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Is Victory Drive coming alive? One reader isn't sure....

Richard, I read a recent article in the Ledger-Enquirer about a new project of Columbus South, Inc. so I decided to go to their website and read more. Was I surprised when I saw that the last minutes of their meetings was posted in May 2005 and the site says it was last updated in May 2006. The contact information lists Bob Hydrick as the Interim Executive Director and that was in 2005. I do recall Reggie Richards as the director for several years, then I remember reading something (in the L-E) about Colin Martin taking over when Reggie resigned and then reading (again in the L-E) something about Lynette Gross being hired. I believe this is an official web site of the Columbus Consolidated Government. So maybe in your spare time you could check this out. Maybe one of the paid employees of Columbus South could update their website. It's hard to take an organization seriously when their website hasn't been updated in more than three years!

The Columbus South web site indeed is dated. But give the creators credit for one thing - they left any pictures of the Baker Village Apartments off the main page.

Maybe Columbus South is waiting for the opening of the National Infantry Museum next year, before doing a "relaunch" of its web site. Or perhaps it's trying to steal away the creator of the Midtown Columbus web site. Midtown people may moan about business development, but at least their web site isn't so poor that it's attached to one for City Hall.

As for the leadership of Columbus South Inc., Lynette Gross left NeighborWorks Opelika in July to serve as its President and C.E.O. Her new project is a committee to find rundown homes, and report them to the city for action. A few people are breathing a sigh of relief about this - the managers of rundown motels.

Now our own rundown of other news that we discovered Wednesday:

+ The Muscogee County Republican Party claimed a woman applied for 22 absentee ballots in the runoff. While the party is suspicious, Vicki Stafford says she merely wanted to help residents of the Hamilton House nursing home cast votes. Blink once for the Republican, and twice for the Democrat....

+ Columbus Council was told a change in the schedule of weekly meetings would require a change in the city charter, and approval from the Georgia Legislature. Isn't this bizarre? A body which only meets 40 days a year has control over Columbus Council meeting even more often than that.

+ Perry County, Alabama commissioners voted to create a "Barack Obama Day" holiday for employees, at around the same time as Veterans Day. This could motivate Charles Barkley to run for Governor even sooner than he planned.

(Yeow - they're creating a holiday to celebrate Barack Obama, before he even takes office as President?! What if he decides federal money for Perry County is wasteful spending?)

+ Georgia Tech's football team accepted a bid to play in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on 31 December. The game will be played in Atlanta, a short trip down Northside Drive from campus. That sort of exotic travel might attract recruits for the environmental club, but not the football club.

The number of unique visitors to our blog is up 32 percent from last year. To advertise to them, offer a story tip, make a PayPal donation or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.

BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 1,009 (- 28, 2.7%)

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author -- not necessarily those of anyone else in Columbus living or dead, and perhaps not even you.

© 2003-08 Richard Burkard, all rights reserved.

UPDATE 1/9:15pm