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Thursday, October 9, 2008
Franklin firing raises a lot of questions about Tuberville, Auburn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tommy Tuberville said last night after practice that he fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin on Wednesday simply for “a lack of production.” No argument here. Auburn was ranked 104th nationally in total offense and had scored 3, 14, and 13 points in its last three games. So there is no question that the new attack under spread offense guru Franklin was not producing.
Last Saturday Auburn took a 13-0 lead by simply lining up in two tight ends and running the ball. Then Vanderbilt made a couple of adjustments and Auburn went back to its spread attack. The Tigers did not score again and had only four yards rushing in the second half, losing 14-13. After the game, media reports showed a confused and frustrated Auburn team.
But the timing of the announcement raises many more questions than it answers and some of those questions go to the core of the Auburn football program. Here’s five of those burning questions as we head into one of the biggest weekends of the season:
1. Why fire Franklin less than 24 hours after giving him a vote of confidence?: On Sunday when I talked to Tuberville privately, he said there would not be any radical changes in the offense other than to further simplify things. On Tuesday at his press briefing he again stated that there would be no staffing changes and that, and I’m paraphrasing here, Tony Franklin was his guy and he was committed to the offense. Tuberville insisted last night that there was no incident and no additional source of conflict between the two men. But by Wednesday morning Tuberville had determined that Franklin had to go—right now.
2. Auburn had an open date coming up. Why not wait until then? As bad as the offense was, the Tigers probably could have muddled through and beaten Arkansas, whose defense is ranked 112th in scoring, giving up 38 points per game. Then Auburn had an open date before the trip to West Virginia on Thursday, Oct. 23. Why not wait until the off week and do it then? Something obviously changed between Tuberville’s press briefing on Tuesday and Wednesday when he met with the team about 4:30 p.m. to announce that Franklin had been released. If it wasn’t a personal conflict between Tuberville and Franklin, then what was the source of change?
3. Does this abrupt firing mean there is a larger problem within the Auburn program?: Teams can start dividing over several issues but usually it comes from one of two sources: One side of the ball doesn’t believe the other side is holding up their end of the deal. You’ll understand if the Auburn defense, ranked No. 7 nationally at 248.83 yards per game, was less than enamored with the performance of its offense, which was 104th in yards (309.27 ypg) and 103rd in scoring (18.67 points per game). It was also clear that the head coach wanted to see more of Kodi Burns at quarterback over Chris Todd, who Franklin clearly thought was the best to run his offense. If the coaching staff was split over the quarterback position, it’s a pretty good bet the team was as well. You have to wonder if some people from within the team or within the staff came to Tuberville and let him know there was something going on.
4. Does Tuberville have a trust issue here?: The Auburn fans are frustrated because the Tigers began the season as a Top 10 team and were excited by the new offense based on what they had seen in the win over Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. But for Tuberville to say that he was staying the course on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday only to fire Franklin on Wednesday left a lot of Auburn fans angry. They want some answers. They want to know if Tuberville simply made a bad decision to bring in the spread offense or was the bad decision to hire Franklin as the guy to implement it. The spread was a pretty radical departure from Auburn’s football philosophy under Tuberville and it’s clear that every phase of the offense—not just quarterback—was having adjustment problems. The offensive line, which was young last season but showed a lot of promise for 2008, kept making mistakes. Hugh Nall is one of the best offensive line coaches in the country but this offense asked the big guys to do a lot of new things. It clearly wasn’t working for anybody.
5. How does this impact recruiting and the future of this program?: When it’s Auburn, big decisions like this always have to be viewed in the context of what is going on in Tuscaloosa. And right now Nick Saban has quickly rebuilt the program and Alabama is now ranked No. 2. The way Saban and his staff are recruiting, it’s only going to get better for Alabama. In my conversations with Tuberville he was always candid about why he hired Franklin last December in order to install the spread offense. Tuberville was convinced that the offense would help him in recruiting. It is an offense, when run correctly, that players enjoy because it gives them a chance to put their athletic skills on display. It’s fun. Running between the tackles is not especially fun. He believed this offense would open some additional recruiting doors and, given what is happening at Alabama, Tuberville needed as many recruiting options as possible.
Tuberville said yesterday that he is still committed to the spread offense. He has to be. His 2009 recruiting class is basically done and the offensive guys were recruited to run the spread. But don’t you think this move would make some of those verbal commitments start having second thoughts?
Tommy Tuberville is a very good coach. In nine seasons at Auburn the Tigers have won or shared the Western Division title five times. He survived a coup attempt in 2003 and in 2004 went undefeated, won the SEC championship, and should have gotten a shot at the national championship. He has beaten Alabama, Auburn’s bitter rival, an unprecedented six straight times.
But it will take all of Tuberville’s skill, both coaching and politically, to get this thing out of the ditch. Part of the Auburn fan base sees this as an act of desperation by Tuberville to save himself. They believe that if Tuberville hitched his wagon to Franklin for the rest of the season, the two would ultimately have gone down together. That’s why Tuberville had to throw Franklin under the bus.
Others see Franklin’s firing as a bold, decisive act that could not wait because, as difficult as it was and as bad as it looks from a PR standpoint, it was the best thing for the program.
Tuberville’s task for the rest of this season is to make the case that the second point of view is the accurate one. He must also do this while winning enough games to keep his fan base from revolting. It’s a very tall order, but that’s why SEC coaches get paid the big bucks.
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