Watch Texas Tech Coach Tommy Tuberville slap an assistant [video]

Texas Tech Coach Tommy Tuberville was none too happy to be locked in a battle with lowly Kansas on Saturday, and his frustration came to the surface when he appeared to strike assistant Kevin Oliver after the team drew a penalty when it couldn’t get the right special-teams personnel on the field.

Tuberville said after the game that he was merely trying to pull his assistant off the field by grabbing his shirt, presumably by the collar since he managed to whack Oliver’s headset to the ground with a big swipe of his hand.

Of course, there was the usual mea culpa after the game, but it didn’t match what you can see on video.

“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 news conference. “I was trying to get him off the field.”

When Tuberville followed up with more clarification, it again seemed insincere and inaccurate.

“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 headset and pulled it off.”

Then again, this is a school that has hired such hot-headed coaches as Bob Knight and Billy Gillispie.

Texas Tech (7-3) ended up pulling out the game, 41-34, in overtime, leaving Kansas 1-9 on the season. The Jawhawks’ only win came against 1-AA South Dakota State.

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