re: Who was the best Auburn football coach of the last 30 years?

Tuberville was a good coach. He took over a really bad situation, had some good years, and then was ill-equipped to compete with Saban and to compete in the new era of college football more generally from a strategy standpoint. He was one of the last of a now dead breed of running game, ball control, field position coaches. You can see it in his games against weak teams. Auburn won a lot of those games 24-0, 28-3, 27-7, etc.

The spread offense and high-scoring game became ubiquitous and the game passed him by. And, of course, Saban coming into the state made it way more difficult for him.