Former longtime Miami Hurricanes assistant and DC elected to US Senate

Former Miami Hurricanes assistant coach and defensive coordinator Tommy Tuberville has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama.

Tommy Tuberville a defensive assistant coach with the Miami Hurricanes from 1986-1992 and the defensive coordinator in 1993 has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama. Tuberville defeated incumbent Doug Jones who was elected narrowly in a special election in 2017 over controversial Republican Roy Moore.

In the eight seasons that Tuberville spent on the Miami coaching staff, the Hurricanes went 87-9. Miami was 9-3 with Tuberville as the defensive coordinator in 1993. Tuberville oversaw a Hurricanes defense that continued the dominant tradition that had been the case over the previous 10 years.

The 1993 Miami defense allowed 13.9 points per game which finished seventh out of 106 FBS teams. In two of the three Miami losses in 1993 the defense let the Hurricanes down. Miami suffered a 28-10 loss to Florida State and a 29-0 loss to Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Hurricanes’ loss to Florida State ended a stretch of seven wins in eight years over the Seminoles. Miami losing to Arizona continued their nightmare in the Fiesta Bowl which remains the only one of the New Year’s Six bowl games that have yet to win. Tuberville left to become the DC at Texas A&M following the 1993 season.

Tuberville left the Aggies after one season to accept the head coaching job at Mississippi. Tuberville was a head coach with the Rebels from 1995-1998. Tuberville went on to coach at Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati from 1999-2016 while sitting out 2009 before taking over the Bearcats.

In 2018 after current Miami head coach Manny Diaz accepted the head coaching job at Temple, Tuberville expressed an interest in returning to Miami as the defensive coordinator. Diaz was the defensive coordinator at Miami before leaving for the Owls.

Then Miami head coach Mark Richt promoted safeties coach Ephraim Banda and outside linebackers coach Jonathan Patke to replace Diaz. When Diaz returned to replace Richt, he moved Patke to special teams coach replacing Todd Hartley and hired Blake Baker from Louisiana Tech as Co-defensive coordinator with Banda.

Tuberville previously explored the possibility of running for Governor of Alabama before deciding not to run in 2018. The 66-year old Tuberville has been projected as the winner of the Alabama senate seat with about 64.6 percent of the vote. Tuberville will officially become the junior senator from Alabama in January.