Trump’s Comments on Hogs’ Past Leaves Arkansas Fans Confused
A comment made by recently elected U.S. president Donald Trump a couple of days ago gained a lot of traction Thursday, leaving Arkansas fans questioning whether they remember both the history of a native Arkansan and the Razorback football team incorrectly.
“Tommy Tuberville, a great coach,” Trump said. “You know, his quarterback was named Mahomes. He was a great college coach. And I said ‘How good was he?’ and he said ‘You don’t want to know how good. He made me into a great coach.'”
As many know, and Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes was quick to clarify, that wasn’t Tuberville coaching him at Texa Tech to an unstoppable performance against Arkansas coach Bret Bielema’s ground and pound attack. It was Kliff Kingsbury, affectionately known around Texas as “Coach Bro” for being an early adopter of the modern player friendly coaching approach, who exacted revenge on behalf of Texas high school coaches and quarterbacks for Bielema’s insult at the state coach’s meeting.
“[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] just got his a** kicked twice in a row and probably next week by [Texas] A&M as well. That did feel good.”
Mahomes was 26-of-30 in that game with one passing touchdown and a pair of rushing touchdowns. It’s the kind of near-perfect performance fans tend not to forget.
And while Hogs fans will never forget his performance, one thing Mahomes definitely won’t forget is which coach gave him the chance to lead Texas Tech. He made it clear, in no way, shape or form was that Tuberville.
In an effort to bail Trump out for his comment, Tuberville claimed the confusion stems from recruiting Mahomes in his final year as coach of the Red Raiders.
However, Mahomes, who arrived in Lubbock two years after Tuberville was gone and didn’t receive an offer from Tech until Kingsbury took over, made it clear the current Alabama senator was being dishonest when saying he recruited the Super Bowl winning quarterback in high school.
“He did not recruit me at the time,” Mahomes said. “I don’t remember if I ever got to meet him or not.”
As for Tuberville, people typically don’t forget native sons who rise from the lowest possible ranks to go on to national prominence, especially in small states like Arkansas. That’s why so many across the Natural state are well-versed in his life and times.
Arkansas fans, especially in south Arkansas, are well aware of Tuberville’s career. The Camden native began as head coach of the Hermitage Hermits a town of a few hundred between Warren and El Dorado just a short drive away from a similar tiny town, Kingsland, where Paul “Bear” Bryant lived as a child.
From there he made his way up to the pinnacle of his career, a successful stint at Auburn where, in 2004, in a rare moment in sports history, the Tigers became the only undefeated SEC team to be passed over for the BCS national championship game. Instead, Oklahoma and USC played for the title.
However, that moment was close to never happening at all. See, in 1997, Arkansas athletics direcotr Frank Broyles was looking for the Razorbacks’ next head football coach.. He had locked in on Tuberville at Ole Miss who was coming off an 8-4 season in Oxford and was the reigning SEC Coach of the Year.
As the story goes, Broyles went so far as to get a hotel room in New York City near Tuberville’s during the Heisman festivities and went to his room where the two agreed in principle to bring the Rebels’ coach to Fayetteville. However, Broyles had been told he had to get final approval from a hiring committee made up of members of the Razorbacks community.
Tuberville, knowing he was in a position of power, didn’t want to be drug through a group interview process that would look bad should something go south. He reportedly told Broyles to hire him himself or move on because he wasn’t going to sit in front of a committee and try to convince them of his merits.
As a result, Arkansas hired its other finalist, another native in Boise State coach Houston Nutt. Meanwhile, Tuberville left Oxford shortly thereafter to take the Auburn job. To bring the story full circle, Nutt eventually left Arkansas to coach at Ole Miss.
However, Razorbacks fans remember correctly. In all his travels from Hermitage to Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and even Cincinnati as head coach, Tuberville never coached, nor recruited Patrick Mahomes.
It was Kingsbury who made it possible for Mahommes to bury Arkansas that day, setting the table for him to be a Top 10 pick of the Chiefs in 2017. So, it turns out the Razorbacks have at least something to do with State Farm’s best pitch man becoming one of the most clutch Super Bowl quarterbacks of all time.
And that’s way more than Trump’s confusing claim that it was Tuberville all along.
