Tommy Tuberville’s decision to leave Texas Tech for Cincinnati over the weekend took the college football world by surprise, but one particular group of young men were reportedly left scratching their heads more than the average person. One Texas Tech recruit, a prospective transfer named Devonte Danzey who played at Hutchinson Community College last season, says Tuberville left abruptly in the middle of a dinner with recruits on Friday and never returned.
Danzey told TexasTech.247Sports.com that he asked Tuberville and the Texas Tech coaches how long they intended to remain at Texas Tech, which he says is a question he asked other coaches during recruiting visits as well. Tuberville supposedly danced around the question and disappeared shortly thereafter.
“I asked Coach (Charlie) Weis at KU and Coach (Dana) Holgorsen at West Virginia (the same question), just so I know my relationship with them,” Danzey explained. “(Tuberville) was just telling me he coached at Miami and Auburn, he coached 10 years and recruited Ray Lewis and kind of blew the question off I didn’t even realize.
“The waitress brought our food out, and we thought (Tuberville) went to the bathroom, but he never came back to dinner. Then next thing I know, the next day, he made an announcement that he’s going to Cincinnati.”
Danzey said the recruits were supposed to take a tour of the campus with Tuberville the following morning, but offensive line coach Chris Thomsen showed up to break the news that Tuberville had accepted a head coaching position at Cincinnati.
“Everybody was going crazy,” Danzey said. “The players were shocked, too. We still had a good time at night, but it was crazy how he just got up and left out of nowhere and left people in the dark and in the shadow.”
There are always going to be people who are hurt by a coach suddenly leaving, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about things. If Danzey’s story about the recruiting dinner is true, Tuberville certainly didn’t handle the situation as well as he should have.
H/T Dr. Saturday
