System Failure: Franklin out after six games

ANDREW GRIBBLE
Staff Writer
Published: October 8, 2008

Tony Franklin walked out of the Auburn athletic complex with his head held high, his shorts hung low and his mouth still shut.

Still wearing his navy blue Auburn polo shirt hours after Tommy Tuberville fired him as offensive coordinator early in the afternoon Wednesday, Franklin parked his white Hyundai Veracruz in front of the main entrance to the facility as an audience of reporters watched. With the assistance of three Auburn students, Franklin went back and forth from his old office to the SUV, filling it up with boxes as the reporters shot video and snapped pictures with their cell phones.

“I don’t have any reason to hang around,” Franklin joked.

When he put the last box in, Franklin thanked the media and hugged one of his helpers. Asked what his favorite part about being at Auburn was, the 51-year-old stuck to his pact of silence.

“No comment.”

And then he was gone.

Franklin deferred any more comment until he “talked to some of his people,” presumably his lawyers.

Tuberville, just one day after endorsing Franklin yet again as his offensive coordinator, said he came to the decision Wednesday morning and relieved Franklin of his duties early in the afternoon. He dismissed the notion that an incident precipitated the firing — such as a conflict over the use of quarterbacks Chris Todd and Kodi Burns.

Rather, Tuberville pointed toward the stat sheet, where the Tigers are near the bottom in most offensive categories.

“Basically, it comes down to production,” Tuberville said. “We played four conference games and we just haven’t done that well. It had nothing to do with X’s and O’s. He’s a heck of a football coach. It was about getting it done on the practice field and to the game field.

“Over the last few weeks, we haven’t improved like we should have.”

Just weeks before the Chick-fil-A Bowl last December, Franklin was hired by Tuberville to replace Al Borges. This past August, Franklin signed a two-year deal worth $280,000 a year. He is guaranteed all of that money.

Borges is still on AU’s payroll as well.

Franklin was Tuberville’s fifth offensive coordinator in 10 years. He’s gone through two in the last 10 months. Tuberville has also had five defensive coordinators in his tenure with the Tigers.

Tuberville said he did not know how he would structure the offensive hierarchy in lieu of Franklin’s dismissal as of Wednesday evening, but said he would have a better idea when he meets with the media this morning.

Tight ends coach Steve Ensminger, who was a quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator for Texas A&M and Clemson in the mid-90s, coached the quarterbacks at Wednesday’s practice, Tuberville said.

However, Auburn’s highly-scrutinized spread isn’t going anywhere, Tuberville said.

“It’s a good offense, our guys like it and understand it. They’re getting better at it,” Tuberville said. “When I went to this, we were looking forward to going to it and we’ve learned a lot about it. But again, it’s about getting the job done.”

Franklin was brought in to install his “Tony Franklin System” pass-happy, spread offense with the hopes of not only making Auburn’s offense more potent, but also making the school more attractive to high school recruits.

The latter seemed to work, as Auburn already has 26 verbal commitments for the 2009 season.

But the product it was selling never came to fruition.

With a scrapped down version of “The System” in place, the Tigers racked up 423 yards of offense in a 23-20 Chick-fil-A Bowl victory over Clemson. But, after nine months of preparation and the installation of many more plays, Auburn sputtered from the start of the 2008 season.

The Tigers beat Louisiana Monroe, 34-0, to kick off the year, and racked up 406 yards of offense in doing so. However, 321 of that total came on the ground. After the Tigers’ 3-2 victory over Mississippi State three weeks into the season, Franklin opted to conduct business from the coaches’ box instead of his usual place on the sidelines.

It didn’t help.

The Tigers’ offense looked better in a 26-21 loss to LSU, but regressed in a 14-12 victory over Tennessee and had its woes culminate in last Saturday’s 14-13 loss at Vanderbilt.

Afterward, players said they were confused about the identity of the team’s offense and puzzled as to why — after rushing for 89 yards with an old-fashioned, two tight-end set in the first quarter — the Tigers went back to Franklin’s trademark spread set the rest of the game.

Auburn was held scoreless and racked up just 82 yards in the final three quarters, prompting Tuberville to prevent Franklin from speaking to the media Sunday or Tuesday, so he could be in a in a “better situation where he can coach and not have to worry about (the media).”

All told, the Tigers currently rank 104th in total offense (309.2 yards per game), 105th in pass efficiency (104.98), tied for 111th in red zone offense (65 percent) and 112th in third-down conversions (29.7 percent).

“I know a lot of people ask ‘Why would you do it to the team in the middle of the season or even the middle of the week?’” Tuberville said. “There’s never a good time. I thought this was just a time that we needed to do it.”

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