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Time for waiting
Tuberville set to meet with AD today to discuss contract extension
BY CHRISTA TURNER - turnerc@ledger-enquirer.com --

AUBURN, Ala. --
His sixth consecutive Iron Bowl wasn't even 24 hours old when Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville had to turn his attention elsewhere.

Tuberville said he'll meet today with athletic director Jay Jacobs and university president Jay Gogue to evaluate the Auburn season and the coaches' performances.

"I'll make some recommendations, and we'll go from there," Tuberville said.

Talk moved quickly away from Auburn's 17-10 Iron Bowl win over Alabama even though it was an unprecedented sixth consecutive win for Auburn in the storied rivalry. The reason? Tuberville has been linked to the now vacant job at Texas A&M for almost half the season.

Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione resigned Friday night after five embattled years with the Aggies. Tuberville served as the defensive coordinator at A&M before landing his first head coaching job at Ole Miss.

Tuberville said Sunday that nobody had contacted him. Jacobs said on Saturday night that nobody had contacted him either. Tuberville's contract specifically requires official contact be made through the athletic director.

"I don't expect to be contacted," Tuberville said.

Last week, Tuberville told the media, "I love Auburn. I love the Auburn people. They've done a lot for me, and I hope we've done a lot for them. We're going to be at Auburn as long as they want us here. We're fired up about that."

Auburn administration seems determined to keep Tuberville and will likely put together a new contract extension for him, bumping his pay and addressing some facilities needs, as well as the contracts of assistants. Tuberville is in the third year of a seven-year contract that will pay him more than $18 million. He's making $2.6 million this season and the contract contains a two-way $6 million buyout clause.

If Auburn does make an extension offer, it could take as long as two months to finalize the details. That was the case in 2005 when he signed his current contract.

Increasing the pay of his assistants, particularly the coordinators could be a big key in the offseason. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp has been mentioned in conjunction with the open Ole Miss job, although the Rebels might be looking for an established head coach.

Tuberville said he hadn't been contacted by anyone regarding any of his assistants yet. Over the years, Tuberville has said he wants his assistants to want to move on to head coaching jobs, but only good ones.

"They're good guys," Tuberville said. "I was a coordinator, and my aspirations were to be a head coach. You do a good job, and people recognize the job you do. Usually, that's going to take care of itself."

Offensive coordinator Al Borges' name has popped up as a job candidate in recent years, while several other Auburn assistants have interviewed for head coaching jobs as well.

The Tigers will be off through finals, which begin Dec. 8 and run through Dec. 14, then will begin bowl practice.

Notes : Auburn had several players injured in Saturday's game, including walk-on special teams player Josh Hebert, who had a season-ending knee injury and will have surgery this week. Safety Aairon Savage broke a rib, although he still played. He'll be back for the bowl game.

Cornerback Jerraud Powers was actually bitten by a police dog during Saturday night's game. "I saw blood coming out of my glove," Powers said. "I started panicking. I was looking toward the sidelines and screaming 'The dog bit me,' the next three plays. It's all good. It's just a few scratches."