Auburn tries to keep focus in turbulent season

Auburn, Ala. — The season was going great for Auburn, right up until the opening kickoff.

Then, Philip Pierre-Louis, a freshman deemed an ideal fit for the Tigers’ new spread offense, tore a knee ligament returning the kick and was lost for the year.

It hasn’t gotten much better since then.

Fueled by injuries and set ablaze by the tumultuous firing of their offensive coordinator halfway through the season, the Tigers are two losses away from one of the most disappointing seasons in their history.

All this, and rival Alabama may end the season with a national championship.

“You definitely wish that things can go the right way,” said wide receiver Rod Smith, a senior from Snellville. “But sometimes, it doesn’t work out like that.”

For the second time in six years, questions loom about coach Tommy Tuberville’s job security.

As the Tigers bow up for their annual season-ending gauntlet, at home against Georgia Saturday and at Alabama on Nov. 29, they’ll need to win at least one to avoid their first losing season since 1998, the 3-8 disaster that led to Tuberville’s hiring.

“I’ve never had to go through this before,” Tuberville said. “Never want to go through it again.”

In recent weeks, athletics director Jay Jacobs has given support to Tuberville, as has Paul Spina, the president pro tempore of the school’s board of trustees. Tuberville is expected to meet with Auburn president Jay Gogue at the end of the season, as is standard practice for all Auburn coaches. University spokesman Brian Keeter said that Gogue will take Jacobs’ recommendation.

However, none of those three has said publicly that Tuberville will return in 2009. They did not return messages from the Journal-Constitution this week seeking comment.

The coach is trying to ignore the static.

“These two games are huge,” Tuberville said Tuesday. “But I don’t put them in terms of, ‘Hey, is it going to save my job?’ I don’t look at that. … There’s no reason you want to put undue pressure. I want to win for the players. I don’t want to win for me.”

They haven’t won much at all for anyone. Vanderbilt broke a 13-game losing streak against them in October. The Tigers lost four games in a row for the first time since 1999, Tuberville’s first season. Only a win over Division I-AA Tennessee-Martin last week stopped the slide to even their record at 5-5. And this team was picked in the preseason to win the SEC West.

“Just to have four straight losses, that’s just crazy,” said wide receiver Rod Smith, a senior from Snellville. “I never thought that would happen while I was at Auburn.”

Said running back Brad Lester, from Lilburn, “Whenever you lose games, it takes you out of the driver’s seat of going to the SEC championship in Atlanta. That’s when we started getting discouraged.”

Injuries have hammered the Tigers. Sixteen players who have been on the team’s two-deep depth chart have missed a combined 57 games, including three players who have been lost for the season. Two of the team’s best defenders, lineman Sen’Derrick Marks and defensive back Jerraud Powers, have played hurt.

“There’s sometimes in your car on the way home at night, or you’re driving up here early in the morning for work, going, ‘Well, I wonder what’s going to happen today,’” Tuberville said. “It’s just been one of those.”

The more public factor has been the offense’s failure to adapt to the new spread scheme that led to the firing of offensive coordinator Tony Franklin just seven games into his tenure, and one day after Tuberville gave him a vote of confidence.

Tuberville, though, has beaten Alabama six years running, something no Auburn coach has ever done. He is also 5-4 against Georgia and finished in the top 15 of both polls for the last four years. Also in Tuberville’s favor is that he would be owed a $3 million buyout upon his firing and another $3 million within a year of that date. He has support inside and outside the program.

Said center Jason Bosley, “I’d run through a wall for him right now. I love him to death.”

Critics point out that Tuberville’s next offensive coordinator would be his 11th, offensive or defensive, in 11 years. They might also raise issue with the fact that this will be his seventh season out of 10 in which Auburn has lost four or more games.

Burke Hayes, Southeast recruiting manager for the recruiting website scout.com, said that the turnover of coordinators has hurt recruiting efforts. Alabama coach Nick Saban isn’t helping, either.

“Alabama’s locking down the state,” Hayes said. “Auburn has, what, a six-game winning streak, but people know it’s coming to an end with Saban there.”

While it seems a bit nearsighted to judge a coach on two games, how the Tigers fare against Georgia and Alabama may go a long way toward determining Auburn’s future.

Tuberville knows judgment is approaching. He just wants a fair shake.

“I’ve been in this business 30 years,” he said. “I understand how it works.”