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Tuberville tried explaining the incident after Texas Tech's 41-34 overtime win.
"He was on the field, I reached to grab him and pull him off, and when I pulled I missed his shirt and I grabbed his facemask — or his microphone — and it just ripped off his head," Tuberville said at his postgame press conference, via Star-Telegram.com. "I was trying to get him off the field."
UPDATE: More from the Associated Press on Tuberville downplaying the altercation.
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A video of Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville appearing to slap a graduate assistant went viral on the Internet even as the No. 25 Red Raiders were still playing Kansas on Saturday.
The third-year coach downplayed what appeared to be an outburst on the sideline in the third quarter of Texas Tech's 41-34 victory in double overtime.
Tuberville said he didn't mean to hit graduate assistant Kevin Oliver.
"It wasn't anything to it," he said. "It was just one of those deals where I missed his shoulder and ended up grabbing the microphone on his head set and pulled it off."
Footage shows Tuberville facing Oliver, who oversees special teams. The coach appears to use his left hand to strike Oliver on the right side of his face. Oliver's headset and ball cap fall off. It happened when the Red Raiders seemed to have difficulty getting the right personnel on the field.
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If football doesn't work out for Tommy, he can always go back home to Arkansas and run for office.
so will the school President make Tuberville do a ‘Patton’ and apologize in front of the whole school?
evil bastard should control his teeny tiny little baby tantrum
fire him now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7kMm7jc03E&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnVHhM-ursY
After watching the 2nd one in slow-motion, it appears that he reached up and snatched the headset off of him. Just about as bad as hitting him.
More graduate assistants should get slapped.
Have you ever met one?
They’re annoying.
That’s nothing!
Some A(lready) B(een) C(hewed) buh-hole (Gibbs?) is stroking Burnt Cheeseburger (Brent Musberger), telling him that since Alabama lost to a good Texas A&M team (the SEC is getting a taste of the Big XII) well, that Oregon: “The Team With No Defense” should now be #1!
And that’s not all, get this: `Gibbs’ goes on to say that Notre Dame—awarded their Stanford game and squeaking Pitt in triple overtime by 11” on a missed field goal, and Coach Kelly, who has pulled enough games out of his rear end that it’s about blown as Elton John’s ... should be #2!
Of course `Burnt’ agrees completely. The L(ame) S(tream) M(edia), minitru Sports Division. Obama approves, I’m sure, of their `style points’.
Forward!
They railroaded Mike Leech out of his Texas Tech coaching job because he was accused of being “mean” to a no-talent troublemaking player, Adam James, former ESPN announcer Craig James’s spoiled son.
But Leech never slapped a graduate student on nationwide TV. Chancellor Kent Hance ought to be so proud that the school is again making news.