Bad times on the Plains

I have been wanting to write about the sorry state of affairs at Auburn all year long, but have not gotten around to it. I'm glad I haven't because yesterday the whole thing took a major turn of events. I do not have any idea if this will be a positive move or further the slide downhill.

Tony Franklin of the much vaunted Tony Franklin System was hired last December to take Auburn's offense to new heights. After six games, they have fallen to unprecedented depths. During the middle of the week after an embarrassing loss to Vanderbilt and facing yet another conference opponent in Arkansas in three days, Coach Tommy Tuberville relieved Franklin of his duties. I really do not know what all to say about this except that I am almost one hundred percent sure there is much more than meets the eye.

Franklin coached High School Ball with apparently some level of success for several years. In the late 1990s, he became an assistant at the University of Kentucky (his home state). He was QB coach and coached such greats as Tim Couch, who set all sorts of records, as well as Jared Lorenzen, who was also quite successful. I believe both of these guys averaged well over 300 yards passing per game. Kentucky had a phenominal offense and a very average at best defense. But, Kentucky did win more than they usually have - even going to bowl games. If they only had a defense.....

However, the whole thing fell apart at KY, as Head Coach Hal Mumme was run out of town under allegations of wrongdoing. Franklin retreated out of coaching, wrote a book about his time at UK where he named names in the whole scandal. He then began developing and marketing his system mostly to high school teams all over the country.

His system drew teams from all over the place. Close to my home is Hoover High School, who had used his system to win like five out of six state championships - being so good that they got their very own MTV show called "Two a Days."

Some colleges also ran his system. Most notably of these have been Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have always been a middle of the road team. But in recent years their offense has been so good that they have begun winning. If they only had a defense......

Well, apparently, they have finally developed some defense and are now a top ten team. Last weak they scored 58 points.

I believe other teams either run the TF system or some offense similar. I believe that Oregon was running it and was undefeated and one of the best teams in the country last year until their QB got hurt. West Virginia has run some variation on the spread offense to much success. The current number one team in the country, Oklahoma, runs some variation of the spread (I do not know how related it is to the Franklin system) and they have the best offense around.

I went onto Youtube, and looked at some old Kentucky highlights with Couch and Lorenzen. VERY exciting stuff - even realizing that these were highlights and undoubtedly there were plenty of unseccuessful plays mixed in, too, that weren't shown.

So, we get this genius, this guy who makes Kentucky, Texas Tech, and Oregon to be contenders, this guy whose systems wins High School Championships, we get him to come to Auburn - a team whose offense has struggled in the past couple of years, but who has a very strong defense. We get that offense playing to the level of the defense, and we will be tough to beat. Many in AU land were excited.

I expected that they would not be lighting up the scoreboard right off the bat. I was glad we opened with a very weak team, followed by a very mediocre team, so as to help get in stride. I figured by the third game of the year, we should be showing massive improvement.

Well, the first game against La Monroe was somewhat concerning. Sure, they won 34-0, which is actually a quite modest score for a 'powerhouse' against a weak sister. However, one touchdown came on a defensive play where a fumble was recovered and returned, and another came on a beautiful punt return. Therefore, Auburn's vaunted, high octane spread offense scored a whopping 20 points against this gosh-awful team from the bayou state. On top of that, in four quarters against a warm up opponent, AU had less than 100 yards of passing, moving the ball most effectively on the ground. This is the Spread?

The next week found AU playing a fair, but not really good, Southern Miss team. The first two possessions, Auburn marched down the field beautifully, but fumbled the ball away deep in USM territory both times. They still went on to build something like a 17-0 (or something like that) halftime lead then held on to win 27-13. Not great, but at least there was promise. Without the two fumbles, it could have been 31-0 at the half, and who knows where it would have ended up. Now, this is what I am talking about!! Not great, but progress - potential greatness in the making.

However, since the first half of that game, the wheels have completely come off. Auburn beat Mississippi State, a bona finde cellar team in the SEC in probably the most embarring win in Auburn history. Their high charged offense scored five points! And two of them were for Mississippi State, winning 3-2. Oh, well, I thought. Still working some kinks out. Maybe MSU has a great defense. That was shot down for me the next week when MSU lost to Georgia Tech something like 38-7!

The next game was against LSU - the defending National Champs. Very good team. AU managed to go up 14-3 and knock their starting QB out of the game. (One of the TDs was an interception for a TD so only one offensive TD) The other QB for LSU came in and played flawlessly in the second half. Still AU managed to drive for a TD in the fourth and regain the lead at 21-20. A short punt set LSU up near midfield late, and they drove for the winning TD. Oh well. They are great. We may be making at least some progress.

Next came Tennessee - who is very sub par for a UT team. Again, we build a 14-3 lead early, in part due to a Tennessee fumble recovered in the end zone. We hang on to win 14-12 - putting constant pressure on our defense to hold UT time and again with good field position as our offense could not move the ball.

Finally, the last nail came last week against Vandy. Granted, this is the best Vandy team in a long time. They are undefeated - the deepest they have been so since WWII!! However, they have done so through just finding some way to win. Actually, coming into the game, they were rated last in the SEC in total offense and total defense. (How they could have been behind AU in offense is beyond me)

AU came out scrapping the spread and playing power ball. First three plays were sweeps to the right side by Ben Tate. All three went for over ten yards. They continued to drive down the field getting a first and goal inside the five. They then ran four straight plays up the middle and did not score. Not to worry, they stopped Vandy, got the ball back and drove down the field, mixing run and pass and scored easily.

When Vandy go the ball back again, AU intercepted a pass, then scored quickly again on a beautiful pass play. The route was on. Oh, but one minor flaw, they missed the PAT.

After one quarter, Auburn had well over one hundred yards offense, 13 points which very easily could have been 21. They were in complete control of the game.

From that point on, they scrapped what they were doing and went to the TFS spread for the rest of the game. They managed a TOTAL of 82 yards offense for the remaining three quarters. Once again, the starting QB for the opponent left the game, but the backup played beautifully. AU let Vandy hang around, until finally, Vandy won the dadgum thing 14-13.

Let's think about this. As far as offensive points produced, AU has scored 20 (out of 34), 27, 3, 14 (out of 21), 14, 13. That, my friends is an average 15 points per game, and other than LSU, this was against very subpar defenses. The worst thing is that there has been absolutely zero progression from week to week. Actually, it appears to me that there has been regression.

Tuberville insists he is sticking by Franklin and the spread. That is, until yesterday, when suddenly he fired him. I am at a loss for exactly what is going on here. I do believe there is more than meets the eye, but I have no idea precisely what it is. But, here are a few observations:

* Auburn's great offensive line has struggled constantly with procedure penatlies, holding, and just getting outmanned.
* The negative plays from the first line above have frequently happened at the most inopportune time - just as we get one or two positive plays and good field position and momentum, we have a procedure, hold, or sack.
* Watching Tim Couch highlights, I recognized right off the whole offense was not the same as AU is currently running.
----He frequently had one and sometimes two tight ends and one and sometimes two backs in the backfield. This was mixed in with an occasional no back, no tight end set. Auburn a great deal of the time runs with no backs or tight ends, placing tremendous pressure on the five linemen.
---- He would frequently line up under center - AU has stuck predominately with the shotgun play after play.
---- The UK linemen would often line up in a three point stance - AUs is almost exclusively in a two point stance.
---- UK ran a ton of quick plays - either by design, or as a safety valve drop off. Even when these only get 1-5 yards, that is better than zero or negative yardage. AU seems to run plays that take ten minutes to develop, and usually end up blowing up in their face.
---- Because of the above, UK seemed to keep pressure on the Defense. The only defense AUs offense has pressured has been their own.

I have no idea what precipitated the firing. I do not believe it came out of thin air. I believe there is something going on - whether it be chemistry among the coaches (and this could be TTs fault, or TFs - I really do not know) . there could be insurmountable frustration on the players parts. There apparently was some sort of a blow up in the last day or two - though Tuberville the Politician insists nothing of the sort led to the dismissal.

I tend to think as the season progressed, TT began pressuring TF to produce. By the time of the Vandy game, TT could well have said "Give the rest of us the first quarter to see what we can do, then I'll give it back to you." You see how that worked out. I imagine at this point, TT was calling for TF to back up and rethink what he was doing. TF probably took this as an insult. Sparks flew. TF is gone. Coaches have egos (see Nick Saban).

Tubs is actually insistent on his love for the spread and claims to keep plugging away at it. Doing so without the spread guru himself tells me there must have been major personality/philosophical issues going on behind the scenes.

One thing I do know. Auburns offense, which ranks worse than 100th in the country in virtually every stat, has been for all intents and purpose, totally non-productive. I mean totally. Yet, we have two losses each against a team that is still undefeated and highly ranked. These losses have been by a total of six points. If we can simply have an offense that can produce some time of possession, field position, and some amount of scoring, AU can end the year quite successfully. That is my hope. My fear is that this, yet another embarassing moment in AU football history, may have long term negative impacts in terms of national perception, and recruiting - as well as in terms of who in the world would now come to AU as Offensive cooridinator? TT ahs had 5 in ten years!

Oh, well, we'll just have to watch and see!