Tuberville seeks UC contract extension
Tommy Tuberville believes his work is not nearly done, and the University of Cincinnati football coach hopes a contract extension is in his near future.
Tuberville has a 25-13 record at UC as he finishes the third year of a five-year contract, making an average of $2.2 million per year.
“We’re sitting down now, talking,” Tuberville said after a Bearcats practice this week, referring to himself and UC athletic director Mike Bohn. “Hopefully we can get everything done before the first of the year.”
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Bohn has been busy with many projects, including Tuesday’s announcement that Fifth Third Arena will be renovated beginning in spring 2017. Bohn prefers not to discuss specifics regarding Tuberville’s contract.
“We haven’t really had an opportunity to talk a lot about it,” Bohn said. “I’m sure we’ll have time to talk about that.”
Bohn recently told The Enquirer of his “resounding” support for Tuberville. When asked if that meant a potential contract extension, Bohn said:
“We have resounding support with his existing agreement. I don’t know how else to categorize it.”
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Tuberville’s annual $2.2 million compensation ranked No. 1 among coaches outside the so-called Power Five and No. 50 overall among Football Bowl Subdivision coaches for the 2015 season, according to the USA Today coaches’ salary database.
UC went 9-4 in each of Tuberville’s first two seasons but slipped to 7-5 this year, with a Hawaii Bowl appearance scheduled Dec. 24 against San Diego State.
The Bearcats were the prohibitive media pick to win both the American Athletic Conference East and inaugural AAC title game this year, but UC finished tied for third in the East with a 4-4 conference record.
UC did gain its fifth-straight bowl appearance this year, a program record for consecutive bowl games. The Bearcats are 0-2 in bowl games under Tuberville.
The 61-year-old Tuberville is a former head coach at Ole Miss, Auburn and Texas Tech. Tuberville left Texas Tech to become UC coach on Dec. 8, 2012, after Butch Jones left UC for Tennessee.
“I told (former UC Athletic Director) Whit Babcock when I came here that I came to stay, and that’s what we plan to do,” Tuberville said. “It’s just something that we need to kind of redo (the contract). I’m not looking for money or anything. Just looking for some continuity."
Another year or two?
"Yeah.”
Tuberville's name occasionally has surfaced for other coaching jobs, but he said he prefers staying in Cincinnati. Tuberville's wife, Suzanne, is from nearby Guilford, Indiana.
“I’d be going by myself if I left,” Tuberville said, smiling.
Tuberville said no one at UC was satisfied with this year’s 7-5 record, starting with him.
“I came here to get this done,” Tuberville said. “We didn’t play quite as well as we wanted to this year, but our recruiting is going well. We’re starting to fill in holes and getting things done.”
The 2016 UC class is not complete, but for now is ranked No. 5 in the 12-team American Athletic Conference on the 247Sports.com composite list. The 2015 UC class was ranked No. 1 in the AAC by 247Sports, with the 2014 and 2013 classes each ranked No. 3.