Thomas Hawley Tuberville (/ˈtʌbərvɪl/;^[1] TUH-bərv-il; born September 18, 1954) is an American politician and retired college football coach who is the senior United States senator from Alabama, a seat he has held since 2021. He is a member of the Republican Party. Before entering politics, Tuberville was the head football coach at Auburn University from 1999 to 2008. He was also the head football coach at the University of Mississippi from 1995 to 1998, Texas Tech University from 2010 to 2012, and the University of Cincinnati from 2013 to 2016.

Tuberville won five national coach-of-the-year awards (AP, AFCA, Sporting News, Walter Camp, and Bear Bryant) after Auburn’s 13–0 season in 2004, in which Auburn won the Southeastern Conference title and the Sugar Bowl, but was left out of the BCS National Championship Game. He earned his 100th career win in 2007. Tuberville is the only Auburn football coach to beat in-state rival Alabama six consecutive times. In 2015, he was the president of the American Football Coaches Association. He worked for ESPN as a color analyst for its college football coverage during 2017.^[2]

In his first political campaign, Tuberville ran in the 2020 Senate election in Alabama, winning the Republican primary and defeating Democratic incumbent Doug Jones.^[3][4][5] Establishing himself as an ally of President Donald Trump, he was among a group of Republican senators who voted to object to the certification of the 2020 presidential election.^[6][7][8]

In 2023, in protest of a Defense Department policy reimbursing travel for service members seeking abortions, Tuberville blocked all promotions of senior officers in the U.S. military for 10 months, delaying over 450 promotions.^[9][10][11]

Tuberville initially ran for reelection to a second term, but on May 27, 2025, he said he would instead run for governor of Alabama in 2026.^[12]

Tuberville was born and raised in Camden, Arkansas, one of three children of Olive Nell (née Chambliss) and Charles R. Tuberville Jr.^[13] He graduated from Harmony Grove High School in Camden in 1972.^[14] He attended Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University), where he lettered in football as a safety for the Muleriders^[14] and played two years on the golf team. He received a B.S. in physical education from SSC in 1976.^[15] In 2008, he was inducted into the Southern Arkansas University Sports Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.^[16]

Tuberville first coached at Hermitage High School in Hermitage, Arkansas.^[14] He was an assistant coach at Arkansas State University.^[14] He then went through the ranks at the University of Miami, beginning as graduate assistant and ending as defensive coordinator in 1993, winning the national championship three times during his tenure there (1986–1994).^[17][18] In 1994, Tuberville replaced Bob Davie as defensive coordinator under R. C. Slocum at Texas A&M University. The Aggies went 10–0–1 that season.^[19]

Tuberville got his first collegiate head coaching job in 1994 at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”). Despite taking over a Rebels team under severe NCAA scholarship sanctions, he was named the SEC Coach of the Year in 1997 by the AP.

At Ole Miss, Tuberville became involved in the movement to ban Confederate flags from the football stadium by requesting that the students quit waving them during the home football games.^[20] He said, “We can’t recruit against the Confederate flag.”^[21] Ole Miss’s chancellor, Robert Khayat, ultimately placed a ban on sticks at football games, which effectively banned spectators from waving flags.^[22]

During his tenure, Tuberville was known as the “Riverboat Gambler” for his aggressive play-calling, especially on fourth down. His teams went 1–3 against Arkansas and 2–2 against in-state arch-rival Mississippi State in the annual Egg Bowl game. After the 1998 regular season ended, Tuberville said, “They’ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box”, in reference to not leaving to coach at another school. Less than a week later, it was announced that he was departing for Auburn.^[23]