A native of Camden, Arkansas, Tommy Tuberville played football in high school and lettered as free safety at Southern Arkansas University where he played from 1972-1976. Before making his way into coaching, Tuberville was the owner and operator of a catfish restaurant. Tuberville is married to the former Suzanne Fette and has two sons, Thomas Tucker and Troy Allen.

Tuberville was an assistant coach at Arkansas State University, the University of Miami, and Texas A&M University prior to being named to his first collegiate head coaching job at the University of Mississippi. In a somewhat controversial move, he left Ole Miss after the 1998 season to take the head job at SEC western division rival Auburn. At one point, Tuberville told an Ole Miss alumni group that the only way he would leave Oxford was "in a pine box." Two days later, Tuberville accepted the job as head coach of the Auburn Tigers. The Rebel faithful were furious, and to this day Ole Miss fans look at the annual encounter with Auburn as a much more important game that has historically been the case. Unfortunately for the Rebels, however, they only have a 2-5 record against Tuberville.

From 1999 to 2002, Tuberville and Auburn enjoyed moderate success. Although the Tigers had a losing season in 1999, they broke out with tailback Rudi Johnson in 2000 to win the SEC West. The next two years would see the Tigers have solid success on the playing field, including a win over #1 ranked Florida in 2001 and a strong finish to the 2002 season left many predicting that Auburn was national championship contenders for the upcoming 2003 season. However, the season quickly fell apart, as Auburn was dominated in its first two games of the season by USC and Georgia Tech, and the Tigers struggled to achieve a winning season.

Auburn rebounded in a huge way, following Tuberville's near firing, with an unbeaten 2004 regular season and an SEC title, Tuberville posted the first 10+ win season of his then 10 year career and was named the AP Coach of the Year. The Tigers went on to win the Sugar Bowl after the regular season to complete a perfect 13-0 season after which he was awarded both the American Football Coaches Association and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Coach of the Year awards.

In 2005, despite losing the entire starting backfield from the unbeaten 2004 team to the first round of the NFL draft, Tuberville led Auburn to a 9-3 record, finishing the regular season with victories over rivals Georgia and Alabama. The bowl game was a major disappointment, however, as the Tigers were dominated in the Capital One Bowl by the University of Wisconsin, led by retiring long-time head coach Barry Alvarez.

Under Tuberville, Auburn has a winning record against its three biggest rivals, Louisiana State (4-3), Georgia (5-2), and Alabama (5-2). After losing two of his first three against in-state rival Alabama, Tuberville has won four straight in the series. This marks the first time that either team has accomplished that since 1989, when Auburn again beat Alabama four consecutive times.

During the 2003 season, Tuberville was the subject of an attempted behind-the-scenes palace coup. Auburn president William F. Walker and athletic director David Housel, with major support from Colonial Bank CEO Bobby Lowder, a prominent Auburn athletics booster and member of the school's board of trustees, decided to remove Tuberville. However, neither Walker nor Housel told Tuberville that his job was in danger. Two days before Auburn's biggest game of the year, the Iron Bowl against Alabama, Auburn officials, including Walker and Housel, secretly interviewed Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino (who had been Auburn's offensive coordinator the previous season) for the Auburn job. Reports of the meeting quickly leaked to the media. After several denials, Auburn was forced to admit to having met with Petrino, and the reaction from fans and media was so hostile that not only did Auburn decide to keep Tuberville on, but Walker was forced to resign as the school's president within two months, and Housel later resigned as well.