EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) fired back at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Thursday after Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate took a swipe at him at a fundraiser in Boston.

According to the Boston Globe, after Walz said he would not “call people names,” he made a joke about Tuberville.

“One of my roles now is to be the anti-Tommy Tuberville and show that football coaches are not the dumbest people,” Walz was quoted as saying.

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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, speaks during a campaign rally with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, at the Liacouras Center at Temple University August 6, 2024 in Philadelphia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Tuberville, who was head coach at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati and was named Coach of the Year in 2004, criticized Walz in a post on X, but told Fox News Digital that he didn’t really understand where the jab at him was coming from.

In the late 1990s, Walz became defensive coordinator at Mankato West High School in Minnesota and the team won the Class 4A state title in 1999.

“I think he’s trying to make himself look good. He’s kind of comparing himself to a coach, even though he was just an assistant coach in high school. And if he had been good, to be honest, he would have been a head coach,” Tuberville said.

“I don’t know what he’s trying to do. I guess he’s somehow cheated his way up the corporate ladder. He’s second in line to be president of the United States if they win, which I don’t think they will, but… if you just look at everything he’s done, it doesn’t match up with his coaching.”

Tuberville said Walz fired at him because he had “nothing else to talk about” and warned that Walz and Harris needed to start talking about their future as American citizens.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., speaks to members of the media outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on May 13, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“All of us – 330 million people – are just waiting for him and Kamala Harris to go on television and do an interview and talk about things that affect all of us, namely food prices, gasoline, foreign wars, the border, crime. They’re talking about things that the American people don’t care about at all.”

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“Sure, if you want to talk about the past, that’s fine. But the past isn’t going to do us any good. The future. What are you going to do for the future? You’re running for the future of the United States of America. Go out there and sell what you have. And if you have nothing to sell, what do you do? You try to do something else. You try to ignore it. You try to put other things in front of it. You try to pretend you’re bouncing a rubber ball around the room.

“Hey, we need something that will last. And that’s why the American people need to know what they stand for. And neither of them stepped in front of the camera in a month and said, ‘This is what we believe in. This is the direction we’re going now.’ They’ll succeed with that or not, but we need some structure because we’re 85, 86, 87 days away from the biggest election ever. And we’ve got two people out there running around behind the scenes making jokes when they should be talking about serious matters for the American people.”

Tuberville led Auburn to a 13-0 record in 2004 and finished with a victory in the Sugar Bowl.

He was also the AFCA Coach of the Year, winner of the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award and Walter Camp Coach of the Year for the 2004 season. He was also named SEC Coach of the Year twice.

Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide, center, talks with Senator Tommy Tuberville, former head coach of the Auburn Tigers, before a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium on November 25, 2023 in Auburn, Alabama (Michael Chang/Getty Images)

Tuberville added that being a college football coach was one of the toughest jobs and that it helped him improve his communication skills as a senator.

“There were a lot of very smart people. But there were also people who struggled,” he added. “It’s important to be able to communicate with different personalities. You have to remember that as a college football coach, you’re dealing with people from all backgrounds – rich, poor, all races, urban, rural. And then your job is to bring them all together. And if you can do that, you have a good chance of success.”

“That was something I was proud of – that I could talk to a young white kid from a rural area who is very shy and doesn’t have much contact with other people, and a city kid, whether they were black or white, and make them feel like they belonged, even though it was a very hard job at times.”

“College sports is very hard. Being a coach is very hard. You have to deal with a hundred different staff members, 120 different personalities and people, all these different backgrounds. It’s challenging.”

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“And that goes back to Walz. He should understand that. He should understand that. It’s one of the hardest jobs you can do. To get to a point where you put them in a situation where they can win and then have a chance to win championships is even harder.”

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