On a whirlwind Saturday, now-former Texas Tech Football head coach Tommy Tuberville resigned from his position and was hired as the new head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats all within the same day.

Tuberville's new athletic director, Whit Babcock, contacted Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt around 9 o'clock this morning. Babcock in his voicemail to Hocutt stated that Cincinnati would interview Tuberville for their open head coaching position. About an hour later, Tuberville called Hocutt and said he was leaving Texas Tech.

Just over seven hours later, Tommy Tuberville, and members of his family, were being introduced to Bearcat faithful at their basketball arena.

Babcock talked about his new football coach, " I’m proud to welcome Tommy, Suzanne and one of their two sons, Troy, to the Bearcat family this evening. Suzanne is truly back home as she is from Guilford, Indiana, which is near our Higher Ground preseason training facility.

“Every search is different. I had no idea yesterday that I would be standing before you today. I truly didn’t. I’m honored and humbled to be doing so and very thankful. I’d like to also express my appreciation for our team here at UC that helped to put all this together today on such short notice.

“Coach Tuberville and I worked together at Auburn from 1999 to 2002. I was impressed with his leadership style, how he molded young men on and off the field, his recruiting, his family centered values and how he helped me as a first time parent and was a role model for me in that regard."

Tuberville briefly mentioned his Texas Tech team before talking about the future with the Bearcats, "I left a good group about 1,500 miles away, and I was proud of every one of them. We went through some tough times and a great time. And that’s what athletics is about. And I’m looking forward to the challenges that our football team, that our university and our athletic department have, and we have a lot of challenges. I just happen to be a small part of it.

"I want to be a leader that helps this university go to the next level. Not that there haven’t been a lot of accomplishments, and there have. There have been a lot of great wins, champions. A lot of great things have happened, but there’s always a next step. I’m going to get questions on why did you come to Cincinnati. I want to help Bearcat Nation take that next step forward. That next step so that we can get better every day as a group and as a university."

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Tuberville described the process in becoming the Bearcats new head coach, "“It was such a quick turnaround. When you’re in this business, you don’t have time to really react and think, for a while, when situations like this happen. You know this is not my first rodeo. You can tell I’m not from the state of Ohio with my accent, but I’m learning. It can be very quick.

"I got my first phone call, I guess less than 10-12 hours; that’s how quick it can change. And I was perfectly satisfied; I had a great home. Lubbock, Texas and the people of west Texas are great people; they love football. Our football team played hard. Our staff did a great job of coaching. But there was something when Whit called that I thought, ‘You know, let me think about this.’ Mostly my name, for some reason over the years, it just goes on like a light if there’s a job opening."

As far as the immediate future goes, Tuberville won't coach the Bearcats in the Belk Bowl against Duke. He also said an unspecified number of assistant coaches from his Texas Tech staff will follow him to Cincinnati.

Tommy Tuberville spent three seasons at Texas Tech.

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