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By James Bickerton
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 running mate, described himself during a fundraising event on Wednesday evening as the "anti-Tommy Tuberville," saying he wanted to show "that football coaches are not the dumbest people."
The incident sparked immediate comparison between the coaching records of Walz and Tuberville, the Republican senator from Alabama. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Cody Sargent, formerly Tuberville's press secretary, said: "Senator Tuberville is a 5x national Coach of the Year and 7x conference champion. So, no, Tim Walz, you're no Coach Tuberville."
Walz has leaned into his identity as a former football coach during his political career and in 2012 worked with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to raise awareness about traumatic brain injuries in the sport. When Harris announced the Minnesota governor as her running mate earlier this month, she notably introduced him as "Coach Walz."
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After graduating from college, Walz was employed as a world geography teacher at Mankato West High School, where he also worked as a coach for the Mankato West Scarlets.
According to The Washington Post, when Walz arrived, the Mankato West football team was struggling badly, and in his first season, they failed to score a touchdown until their last game. Walz began his career as a linebackers coach but was later promoted to defensive coordinator.
Mankato West improved sharply and then in 1999 won the first of four state championships. Former player Mitch Salsberg told the Post that when they arrived for practice before the 1999 season, the players found Walz had attached small nails to their lockers.
He said: "The idea was you're building something. Be a nail. You're a piece of the puzzle. You're a part of everything. You're no bigger, no better than anything else."
Referring to Walz's motivational impact, Salsberg added: "I just remember the mostly bald head and red face yelling. But you'd want to run through a wall when he was finished."
Tuberville joined the University of Miami as a graduate assistant in 1986 and in 1993 became the Hurricanes' defensive coordinator. They went on to win three AP national championships during his time with the team, and according to his profile on the official U.S. Senate website, Tuberville coached future Hall of Famers Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis along with future wrestling and Hollywood star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
In 1994, Tuberville moved to College Station, Texas, where he assisted Texas A&M University football coach R.C. Slocum as defensive coordinator. The following, year he became head coach at the University of Mississippi and was named AP's SEC coach of the year for 1997.
After the 1998 season, Tuberville joined the Auburn Tigers as head coach, winning five SEC Western Division titles and one SEC championship. In 2004, he was again named the AP's SEC coach of the year, as well as the AFCA coach of the year, after presiding over a 13-0 season. Tuberville had a record of 159-99 over 21 years.
Tuberville coached at Texas Tech University from 2010-12 and at the University of Cincinnati, where he won an American Athletic Conference championship, from 2013-16. According to his Senate page, Tuberville was "one of the top 50 most winning football coaches of all time" when he retired after the 2016 season.
When approached for comment, Tuberville's office directed Newsweek to an X post from the Senator in which he said: "Speaking of an embarrassment to the Coaching profession...Tim Walz DESERTED his military unit when he found out they were deploying to Iraq. Walz had the Police ABANDON precincts while his cities burned in 2020. And Walz had tampon dispensers installed in BOYS' bathrooms. He doesn't need to worry about speaking on behalf of Coaches. #TamponTim."
Newsweek contacted Walz for comment on Friday via email.
Tuberville shot to national prominence in 2023 when he used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to block hundreds of military promotions for months in protest at the Pentagon's policy on abortion access for service personnel.
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