Meet the new boss ... same as the old boss?

All indications are that the drama that has been Tommy Tuberville's contract negotiation with Auburn --- and the side drama of erroneous reports linking him to other jobs --- are near an end.
It looks like Tuberville is about to sign his contract extension offer with Auburn, and we can now begin to color in the events of the last nine days.
I've said it on this blog and on radio, and I've always thought that Tuberville was exploiting the linking of his name to other head-coaching vacancies in order to accomplish something at Auburn.
There never was much chance that he was going to Texas A&M, Arkansas or LSU. If not his own desires, then his buyout almost assured that he would stay put.
I'm not even sure that I buy that Tuberville's agent, Jimmy Sexton, got involved in linking his client to other schools. He didn't have to. Any time head-coaching jobs open at Miami, A&M, Arkansas or LSU, Tuberville's connection to those schools or their past coaching searches lands him in the rumor mill.
Sexton need not even touch his cell phone for those rumors to start.
Once strongly worded media reports linked Tuberville to those jobs --- regardless of who sourced those reports --- he had a negotiating tool.
Tuberville got an audience with Auburn's first-year president, Jay Gogue. Tuberville made his point with the guy who replaced Ed Richardson, with whom Tuberville had a good rapport.
The plain-spoken Richardson, after all, was president when Tuberville negotiated his current contract. At signing time, the deal made Tuberville one of the highest-paid coaches in the nation and gave him unprecedented security with the aforementioned buyout.
Assuming that Tuberville does sign his new deal, the question becomes how to move forward.
The media drama that surrounded Tuberville's negotiation left some Auburn fans bruised. One only needs to read message boards to sense it.
Those who seem to feel so also seem to believe that Tuberville tapped his evil-genius agent to do what agents do. They believe Tuberville didn't express his loyalty enough, or express it forcefully enough, while all of this was going on.
In short, some fans believe they got played, or put in the middle.
Auburn fans can be a jaded lot. Their cynicism is hard-earned, with the history of trustee shenanigans and Sexton's previous brushstrokes.
When things happen, Auburn fans tend to assume things. It's hard to blame them, but perception is not always fact.
I believe, however, that Tuberville must treat perception as fact here. If he signs his new deal, then the news should be announced in a news conference. A simple news release might have passed last week, but not now.
Tuberville doesn't need to choke up like he did after "Jetgate" in December of 2003, but he needs to give that forceful statement of loyalty.
He needs to make the case that issues he raised were about Auburn, not about him. If, in fact, he wanted to eliminate his buyout, then he must convince fans that he wanted greater bargaining power as steward of Auburn's football program ... not the initiative to leave first chance he gets.
Even now, Auburn fans will believe Tuberville if he so much as infers that he needs such bargaining power against the school's PTBs (message board acronym for Powers That Be, which Auburn fans will forever assume to mean trustees).
Also, if media reports linking Tuberville to other schools came from sources other than Tubeville's camp, then he needs to make that case.
Tuberville's greatest bargaining chip has always been the fan base. They invested in him emotionally after Jetgate, and they need more from him now than a crafted statement in a news release. They need video and audio, and they need something sincere to resonate from what they see and hear.
And just for good measure, Auburn fans could stand to go awhile without hearing the name Jimmy Sexton. Fair or not, that's how they seem to feel.